More On Brookfield

I was somewhat unimpressed with Brookfield's chapter on Teaching Online. The chapter held little insight for me in terms of the best ways to teach and engage effectively in an online format. He had some good tips on getting feedback, but that is ubiquitous throughout the book, and the feedback tools he listed in the online chapter could have been the same as any other portion of the book, so I failed to see how it was unique to teaching online. I was looking forward to that portion of the book and found as I read it that I grew more and more disappointed. That being said, the maturity of the user group and the expectations have shifted greatly since this book was updated.

That being said I was very happy to read the chapter on Responding to Students' Resistance to Learning. I found this chapter to be very helpful and worthwhile. This did provide very relevant tips, tricks, tools that could be immediately useful for creating that engagement. Would some of these directly transfer to the online teaching aspect? Sure. And I look forward to doing just that.

Again, both chapters have as a hallmark feedback loops that allow teachers the opportunity to gauge, adjust, and adapt to the class to make immediate and long-term improvements. Part of that reflective learning strategy that I wrote about previously (see here). I think the one thing I feel was completely underwhelming, as I mentioned above, was Brookfield's linking this to an online world. Almost all of the advice he gives to his readers could easily be transferred to online, and it was strange to see so little of it actually applied with forethought and precision in the Teaching Online chapter. Felt as though he slipped this in as a sop to his publisher who was demanding an update. That being said, his advocacy for online tools for generating feedback were very worthwhile, twitter, polls, etc. and I've already instituted some of those in our own online teaching paradigm and look forward to the results.

As I read the Teaching Online chapter I tried to subtlety count the things that we don in our own classes that Brookfield advocated and provided in his book. Warming Up to the Online Environment Setting Expectations . . . As this book was last updated in 2015 and technology and expectations have shifted in that time, I kept wondering what more we have seen other organizations do to create engagement and to train effectively online? The changes, updates, and verve for online learning have accelerated rapidly in just the past 6 months, what other tools or techniques could be added to this chapter since it's been written? 

I think my organization is definitely cutting edge in these terms. We can't just present a flat power point via Zoom and call it a day. I'm glad that the reflection tools that Brookfield brought up are there, they provide a much-needed reminder of what needs to be done, especially online, for learning to occur.

Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom. John Wiley & Sons.