{"id":33,"date":"2011-10-05T22:39:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T05:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/?p=33"},"modified":"2011-10-05T22:39:06","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T05:39:06","slug":"not-a-sage-on-the-stage-not-a-guide-on-the-side-who-am-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/2011\/10\/05\/not-a-sage-on-the-stage-not-a-guide-on-the-side-who-am-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Not a Sage on the Stage, Not a Guide on the Side: Who Am I?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Guide on the Side, that\u2019s one of the best things to be when you teach. <\/strong><\/p>\n

At least, that\u2019s what I heard.\u00a0 As a guide on the side, you never ignore the ways students learn from each other (and do not fall under a #5 pitfall of designing an online class<\/a>!).\u00a0 You center your perception around student learning rather than your own teaching.\u00a0 I like this idea, but perhaps it\u2019s the \u201con the side\u201d part of the metaphor that throws me off; perhaps the \u201cguide\u201d part is more important.\u00a0 I would like to guide students on their own path of learning toward the class learning outcomes. But what exactly does it mean to be \u201con the side\u201d?<\/p>\n

Sure, there was a Sage on the Stage, who, probably, was one of your favorite professors ever.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wasn\u2019t there? Well, mine was, because there were no other kinds. My schooling happened in traditional dimly lit classroom environments in Eastern Europe (former USSR) where classroom activities were not encouraged.\u00a0 Even the chairs and desks wouldn\u2019t move. However, the professors were passionate for teaching and learning, and they were inspired, inspiring, enthusiastic, and came across as a \u201cstudents\u2019 revered and primary access point to the desired knowledge<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 Many students held them as role models and wanted to become as bright and knowledgeable.<\/p>\n

In graduate school I took classes from the US professors who came to teach to the former USSR countries. They were no less impressive in terms of how much they knew in their chosen discipline, yet a different breed altogether. They structured classes between lecture and discussion; they let students bring in what was important for them, but they always made sure that some topics got developed and some died out. Perhaps, the concept of a \u201ccontent curator<\/a>\u201d describes this approach which shaped my learning in graduate school.<\/p>\n

In the context where the word curator is used most often, that is, in museums, the curator is the one who has a lot of power and authority over visitors. The curator is the one who has the last word on what gets included in an exhibit and what gets taught in a program.<\/p>\n

I have rejected being a sage on the stage, so I won’t want to fall for a curator<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I do like the way\u00a0<\/strong>Elizabeth St. Germain<\/a> continues talking about it, \u201cthe one who prunes and trains the branches that extend from your expertise out into the world<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 I like the idea of students growing the thoughts and ideas and me suggesting, \u201cFeed this one with the works of C. Wright Mills, and it will flourish.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThis idea needs some time in a dryer environment.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIf you want to grow this, it might now grow here.\u201d\u00a0 Can I be a master gardener in an online classroom?<\/p>\n

Being a master gardener in an online classroom <\/strong>means supporting the branches that lead us toward the learning outcomes. Perhaps, sometimes branches that lead away in a way that is putting the entire plant off balance can be snipped.\u00a0 We all do it, and it seems to me that it is easier to do in the classroom face to face than online. What is said in the classroom disappears in the air if it is not supported by the instructor and the rest of the students. Online, it is written down on the discussion board.<\/p>\n

How do you train and prune the branches on the discussion boards?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Guide on the Side, that\u2019s one of the best things to be when you teach. At least, that\u2019s what I heard.\u00a0 As a guide on the side, you never ignore the ways students learn from each other (and do not fall under a #5 pitfall of designing an online class!).\u00a0 You center your perception […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3267,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58633,59368,60527],"tags":[548,89008,89702,88537,90007,89305],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-loc2-the-online-classroom","category-loc4-content","category-loc7-learner-engagement","tag-communication","tag-discussion-board","tag-metaphors-we-live-by","tag-online-learning","tag-pedagogy","tag-teaching-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coursedevf11\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}