This post is inspired by fellow FLC member Glenn DeVoogd’s recent one, “The Negative Consequences of Learning “With”” where he asks about the place of lecture, discussing how tired the students in his late-night classes sometimes are. It struck home with me in response to a challenging series of classes I had last week.
Last week was a tough one in my freshman UNV 101 class. The students came and, at times, participated, especially when one of the groups put on a fun Kahoot! trivia quiz for the rest of us. But mostly discussion fell flat. Instead of conversations and discussions, there was a lot of silence. Maybe it isn’t so quiet in their house breakout rooms — in fact, I’m confident it’s not — but in the main Zoom room it was mostly quiet Monday and completely silent on Wednesday and I couldn’t handle it.
In the physical classroom, I’m used to times of silence. There are ebbs and flows of energy in any class, especially ones that last, as do my upper-division ones, for three or four hours. Sometimes it’s time for a break. Sometimes it’s the thoughtful silence of reflection. Sometimes it’s time for the subject to change. Sometimes I only have to wait for someone to find their voice. I’ve never had problems listening to my classes’ silences and having us discuss why it’s so quiet. It’s not something I’ve even thought much about until now.
It’s humbling to realize I don’t have that ability to listen to silences in digital space. Though I’ve been teaching some classes online for years, those classes were all asynchronous — my long-ago Usenet roots mean I love asynchronous digital communities and am reasonably good at fostering them. Zoom I’d used mostly for research interviews and meetings — not with students. These Zoom classes last week were synchronous digital disembodiment — the dark screens and silence undid me. My face was the only one on the screen. My voice was the only one I heard, gradually realizing I was filling the silence with nervous words as my careful “plan” for the classtime broke down along with, for whatever reason, Zoom’s breakout room function.
At that realization, I stopped. Asked what was going on, why so quiet? And then waited. Looked at their names on the screen and tried to imagine us together, telling myself that we are, in fact, here together. It felt like I waited for minutes of silence though it was probably only 20 or 30 seconds. I clasped my hands against my desk to remind myself not to talk, to listen, and try and hold space for their voices. As I waited I wondered if that was part of the problem, that I hadn’t really been hearing them properly. Finally, the silence made one of the students speak up. He unmuted himself and mentioned how tired he was. How dark the day felt –it was raining in Los Angeles– and how the stress was a lot right now.
I’d like to say his sharing this prompted other students to share, that we had a discussion about why discussions are so hard right now, but that isn’t what happened. When he stopped speaking, the silence began again.
This time I broke. I filled the time by talking about how great their recent blog posts are, encouraging them to go and read each other’s writing, going over the assignments for the following week, and finally ending class a few minutes early, feeling unease.
When I wished them all a great day, said I’d see them Monday, most of them unmuted themselves to say “Goodbye” and tell me to have a good day. And I was left wondering what I’m not hearing.
Image credit: M.G.N. – Marcel ON OF (used under CreativeCommons license)
Hmm..interesting. So the Breakout rooms didn’t work. Hmm… I do love the breakout rooms for student response. When I am in a whole group Zoom I often call on individual students to get a discussion going-at least a discussion between that student and me. Upon reading your post, I think I will try to ask students come up with questions or even just ideas and then other students to respond to those ideas. I have 20 points for participation which includes talking in class, chats, and other small assignments. Thanks for helping me think.
Quaker’s have meetings which are mostly silent. You wait for God to speak to you and then you can talk. That is a big responsibility-speaking for God. That’s kind of the burden I think students often feel when in whole group. They might be thinking, what could I possibly say that is wise enough to fill this hallowed space? I think that’s part of the hesitancy of the students in class. As you mentioned, they do have good thoughts that they write down on assignments that apparently you like.
One other thing I do to try and energize the class is to play some cool music at the beginning and after break like Guns ‘n Roses’ Sweet Child of Mine. I also do a bit of gentle seat dancing along with the music followed by a (John Oliver style) Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! At break time, I tell students they have to do exercises, “20 pushups! Everyone!” After break I asked certain students what exercise they did. I know they don’t all do it, but it’s fun.
Let’s get some more opinions. I know it’s not just Annemarie and I with this problem.