Speaking in person vs. Speaking online
I have found that several adjustments need to be made depending on whether I'm speaking in person or online. I've found the online format to be a bit more restrictive but am still experimenting with it. Anyone else have this experience and any suggested strategies?
I enjoy speaking in person not so much online, I think you lose so much by not being in front of the audience.
Jeannie I understand what you are saying. I have been an instructor for some time now both on ground and online. It took some adjusting for me initially online. I felt like I was limited in the way of ensuring my students understood the lecture. In other words, in the classroom as I would explain a topic or refer to text in a book, I would be able to walk by the students desk to ensure they understood, make sure they were on the right page and so on. Online, I felt like I missed out on that. What I have done over the years was do live chat sessions or Skype sessions so I was able to see that my students were, on the right page in a book or were using the correct materials for a project etc. Hope this helps for you as well.
I agree with this view having taken a few online courses myself, and having taught online courses for over 8 years.
JJ
A wonderful study in Int'l J of Instructional Media Vol. 29(1), 2002 by DR. GLENN GORDON SMITH AND DAVID FERGUSON State University of New York at Stony Brook summarizes my feelings about this topic very well. The study concludes that "Contrary to intuition, current web-based online college courses are not an alienating, mass-produced product. They are a labor-intensive, highly text-based,intellectually challenging forum which elicits deeper thinking on the part of the students, and which presents, for better or worse, more equality between instructor and student."
Speaking in person is rewarding and speaking online is rewarding as well if the presentation is engaging and sensible in content
