Entry #6: Virtual Education

Hi, readers, and welcome back to my final post! Thanks for sticking with me this long and discovering the value of technology within our current environments. 

In my final post, I want to take a look at all that I’ve shared and relate it back to my current work environment as an educator in the corporate world. While my environment is a bit different, my work struggles are pretty similar to that of a teacher. 

I currently struggle with a sense of community; how do I bring together those that aren’t participating or responsive to company-wide professional development opportunities? I also struggle with work completion: how do I get employees involved in obtaining certifications to help their skillset? 

Sound familiar? Yeah; adults aren’t too far off. 

In reading Sherry Turkle’s Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age, it provided me with a perspective during a time period that many of my “students” grew up in, and I wasn’t even born yet. Therefore, my first lesson is learning about the perspective of my audience. How do they perceive the use of technology? It’s up to me to dive deeper into that and to understand it. Once I understand it, it will be easier for me to communicate with them. The reason why communicating with them is so important is because when I create a professional development plan for them, I need to see the whole person. I don’t want to see a proud employee saying they can study and pass an exam in three days; I would be setting them (and the company) up for failure. So how can I go about having enriching and non-threatening conversations where the employee can understand my tone? Face-to-face or virtually (since, you know, COVID). 

My second lesson learned would be to never underestimate the power of a phone call. While we are set up with so much technology, some sites where employees work actually ban specific websites and applications, meaning we sometimes can’t contact them. That’s where the phone comes in handy! I remember I was helping an employee with a specific training she was taking, but we couldn’t talk via email; it would take too long! I picked up the phone and called her. Why can’t it be the same with students? They’re having a problem; give them a call. 

In reading Turkle’s book and conducting research specifically on mobile devices, it provided me a lot of insight on how much we, as educators, have to differentiate the way we use technology to communicate with our students. My hope, as an educator, is to continually become more intuitive at communicating with them. 

I hope you enjoyed the blog as much as I enjoyed writing it! I will leave you with this one last quote by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: “Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.” May all your communications be that stimulating.