As you’ve probably noticed, you’re submitting all of your work this week through the blog, including the summaries, rather than through Blackboard. That’s by design. You’ve had a chance to receive some private feedback, and now it’s time to open up your audience a bit–this way you’ll have the opportunity to give and to receive feedback from one another. You can learn a lot by seeing how others summarize the same text as you–what they prioritize, how they define the source, what works well in their approach that might be different from your own.
Moving forward in the course, much of your writing work will be public in this way–on the blog, with your classmates reading and responding. That will provide valuable experience with writing for an authentic audience, which in turn will help you to improve your rhetorical agility. That’s a key aim of this course–to think about the ways in which writing and research are situational, flexing and adapting our work to our distinct purpose, audience, and context.
Now, obviously, this requires a degree of trust, and in a fully online setting where we don’t see one another’s faces and don’t have those same kinds of human interactions that we’re accustomed to in a classroom setting, we will need to work intentionally to build that trust. Trust will make it easier to put our writing out there, to accept constructive feedback, and to offer up our own valuable insights.
Here, I think that our growing knowledge of organizational culture can be a real asset. We know that cultures are built–they don’t just happen–and that they are manifestations of our shared values. I propose that we take a little time this week to reflect on what values we want to be sure we enact in our class community, in this organization that we’re making.
I’ll go first–one of the features of this section that I really value and that I’d like to build on is your openness about the diversity of your backgrounds and experiences. As a group, we represent different generations, different professional fields, different geographical areas, different ethnic and racial groups, and I really appreciate how you’ve been willing to sharing those differences and the unique perspectives you’ve developed as a result. I hope you’ll continue to do so. I think that communicating from where we are–honoring and acknowledging how we are situated–is really important.
Would you please chime in and comment on this post with your thoughts about the culture you’d like to see us build in this online community? What value do you propose we share? What practices do you propose we try to enact? What would you like to see us do/not do/prioritize/avoid?
I couldn’t agree more about the building of trust, and that being a bit different in an online setting. As far as my wants/goals for the culture of this subject and course, (I can only speak for myself) I really don’t mind being vulnerable at all, and welcome criticism when it’s warranted. I know I can be pretty hard on myself and there is a slippery slope between constructive criticism and attacking, but personally, I want that kind of feedback in my writing, because I know there are a lot of mistakes that I make and would like to change that.
Commenting on blog posts can be a little weird at first, but once you get into the rhythm of it, I feel like it can be interchangeable with sitting in a classroom and discussing in person. Especially with a subject matter like diversity and inclusion. With all that is going on in the world right now it’s pretty much impossible to not have a strong opinion and value system about things, so once you channel that into writing, it is like a faucet that doesn’t want to turn off (at least in my opinion). So far I honestly have not seen any writing in the blog that I felt the need to challenge their arguments at all, which is kind of odd to be honest, but I just hope that any challenges or criticism brought up in the future isn’t taken as a personal attack. Have a good week everyone!
I write and rewrite a lot–it’s literally my job–so I’m with you. I appreciate the opportunity that writing affords us to work through our ideas and to take our time clarifying them as much as we possible can. That can be a real value of online courses like this one, as is the record we’re creating of all of those conversations (as opposed to the ephemeral, transient nature of in-person discussions). There are trade-offs, to be sure, but I’m glad to see that you find value in the interaction this blog setting provides us–let’s keep capitalizing on that!
I completely agree when you say that it is important to build trust even on an online setting! Personally, I have always loved hearing what other people think of my work. Feedback really helps me to improve. However, I am a pretty shy person, so it is sometimes hard for me to share what I think, but working on an online setting may help with that. Overall, I think it is really important to create an environment where everyone feels that they can voice their opinions. Everyone should also be able to respond with their opinion. I think that a polite debate, if needed, is completely fine. I also think that we should create an environment that is respectful so that each person feels valued with their opinions. It seems to me that we have done a great job of doing this so far! 🙂
There’s a sort of tightrope here, to be sure–on the one hand, having a little distance from our reviewers (such as the online setting provides us) can make it a bit easier to take feedback; on the other hand, folks sometimes feel a bit freer and unfettered in their commentary when they can’t see the person they’re talking to (unfortunately, we see this in social media interactions all the time). We can commit as a group to making sure that the feedback we provide is constructive and considerate, with the goal always to be *helping* and not *hurting.*
I believe the foundation for any and all successful relationships is a mutual trust and respect. That is true with work colleagues, friends, family and romantic partners. I recall a conversation I had with a friend shortly after he got married. He mentioned that he didn’t think he would have been able to marry his wife if she didn’t also like sports. I told him that in my experience, it’s less important that both people like exactly the same things. It’s an impossibility. The key is that they each respect how the other person likes to spend some their time on this planet.
I’d say the same for us here. We’ll likely never get the chance to meet one another in person. However, we all have an opportunity to hear and be heard. The important part is for us to each truly listen. Only then might we come away with a greater appreciation for one another.
Having a voice means having a kind of power–not power *over* someone else, but the power of self-determination and legitimacy. We all want that. Having a voice means expecting (reasonably) that others will listen to us with the intention of trying to understand AND that we, too, will have an opportunity to listen and respond to them. That’s a basic kind of respect I hope we’ll all foster here.
So far I think that our environment that we have in this online community has been very positive.
I would like to see this continue through the remainder of the semester and I am sure it will.
One great thing I’ve noticed is others willingness to share their different perspective respectfully. I think this is an invaluable trait that will help carry us far in our careers and future relationships. Too often people (including myself) may tend to be overly agreeable and keep their opinions to themselves. Others on the other side of the spectrum can be closed minded and lack the politeness that is conducive to effective dialogue.
I am glad to see a great balance here between willingness to share and doing so with compassion.
I agree–I’ve been very pleased by everyone’s willingness to share their perspectives and experiences and to engage across those differences. We’ll continue to work on that throughout the summer.