Communication is the sharing of information between two or more than two parties and takes various forms such as interpersonal, intrapersonal, verbal, non verbal etc Many people don't realise it but body language speaks volumes and in some cases may be all that can be used to communicate, e.g. where there is a language barrier or in communicating with a differently abled person, a smile, a hand gesture, a wink may be all that can be used for communication.
Similarly, when we as teachers go to our classes, we send out volumes of information via our verbal skills AND our body language; a student knows when you are listening to him/her, they know when u are into the passion of what you are teaching, they know when u make a lesson come alive. Your body language makes a whole lot of difference in what you say in the classroom and how you say it makes the difference between a good lesson and a bad one and yes, i am saying this from personal experience on reflection on my own practice. i can sit at the teacher's desk and dictate notes and have a sleepy class (sometimes the teacher too) or i can walk the classroom at intervals, glance through notebooks, show the children that i am there and i am a presence in the classroom and so aid my classroom management.
How then is face to face interaction different from online interaction? Definitely in online interaction there is no physical classroom, to manage you cannot use body language to the full extent that you would in face to face interaction.
The question is, "How can the online teacher/tutor establish his/her presence minus the aid of body language?" i can surmise that your written communication becomes that much more important to your students so that what is written and how it is written is crucial to the success of the class. in addition, if the class should use video conferencing or audio conferencing, the tutor can inject a bit of body language into his/her class interactions. (See the video attached)
Video conferencing would lend itself to successful communication because you facial expressions can be read. Audio conferencing would depend heavily on voice modulation to spark and keep interest in what is being said.
Another major difference in between face to face and online is that the online tutor cannot physically be there to guide the student and as such, feedback from both tutor and student is vital to the success of online tutoring. There must be a constant flow between both tutor and student at regular intervals to make online tutoring work.
That's it for now, hope you enjoy reading this post and looking at the video. Till next time, derek
Similarly, when we as teachers go to our classes, we send out volumes of information via our verbal skills AND our body language; a student knows when you are listening to him/her, they know when u are into the passion of what you are teaching, they know when u make a lesson come alive. Your body language makes a whole lot of difference in what you say in the classroom and how you say it makes the difference between a good lesson and a bad one and yes, i am saying this from personal experience on reflection on my own practice. i can sit at the teacher's desk and dictate notes and have a sleepy class (sometimes the teacher too) or i can walk the classroom at intervals, glance through notebooks, show the children that i am there and i am a presence in the classroom and so aid my classroom management.
How then is face to face interaction different from online interaction? Definitely in online interaction there is no physical classroom, to manage you cannot use body language to the full extent that you would in face to face interaction.
The question is, "How can the online teacher/tutor establish his/her presence minus the aid of body language?" i can surmise that your written communication becomes that much more important to your students so that what is written and how it is written is crucial to the success of the class. in addition, if the class should use video conferencing or audio conferencing, the tutor can inject a bit of body language into his/her class interactions. (See the video attached)
Video conferencing would lend itself to successful communication because you facial expressions can be read. Audio conferencing would depend heavily on voice modulation to spark and keep interest in what is being said.
Another major difference in between face to face and online is that the online tutor cannot physically be there to guide the student and as such, feedback from both tutor and student is vital to the success of online tutoring. There must be a constant flow between both tutor and student at regular intervals to make online tutoring work.
That's it for now, hope you enjoy reading this post and looking at the video. Till next time, derek
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