Moodle Discussion Board Facilitation

Keli Shapiro
For E-Learning for Educators, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Summer 2016

Below is a copy of a discussion board question that I wrote and facilitated in Moodle.
The names of the participants in this class discussion have been changed to protect
their privacy.

Can you use tone effectively?

by Keli Shapiro - Wednesday, June 22, 2016, 10:13 PM

Hello!
In our class reading on facilitation from George Collinson's Facilitating Online Learning, Chapter 6: Tone, he lists the
following tones as useful in online moderating:
Nurturing
Humorous
Imaginative
Neutral
Curious
Analytical
Informal
Whimsical
Which of these tones do you believe will be most useful? Explain. Practice using that tone by writing a few sentences in
that tone.
Excited to see how you craft your examples.
Keli @ Onalaska
useful tones
by Nancy - Thursday, June 23, 2016, 7:53 AM

Keli,
By nature I think the role of the teacher is nurturing. Therefore, I believe that a nurturing tone is the most useful.
A neutral tone may leave students feeling that they really didn't get much feedback. An informal tone may lead
some students feeling too chummy with the teacher which could lead to problems later on. Sometimes a curious
tone might be appropriate. When asking for more information on comments the curious yet nurturing tone would
be useful. I'm not sure about the imaginative tone. I guess it depends on the prompt. I find that students like
concrete feedback, not too open ended responses.
As for a few sentences in a nurturing tone, here it goes.
Joey,
Thank you for your ideas on the Spanish Inquisition. I thought your connection to the Salem Witch Hunt was
insightful. I think you are off to a great start. History tends to repeat itself. Could you make a connection to a
more modern-day event? I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Mrs. Nancy

Re: useful tones

by Keli Shapiro - Thursday, June 23, 2016, 10:31 AM

Dear Nancy,
I agree with you that the nurturing tone is useful in many situations.
You did a good job with your practice example--thanking the student, complimenting his ideas,
encouraging him to go further.
I think different situations might call for differnt tones in our posts. Can you think of a situation where a
humurous or whimsical tone by be useful?
Keli @ Onalaska
humor & whimsy
by Nancy- Thursday, June 23, 2016, 9:11 PM

Keli,
I can't think of an example right now, but I'm not totally ruling it out.
Nancy
Re: humor & whimsy
by Keli Shapiro - Friday, June 24, 2016, 8:23 AM

Nancy,I can not think of one either.

I can not think of one either.
Collison suggests they could be useful to break tension or conflict but I think you would need to
be extremely careful to not make the situation worse. I think there are better ways to deal with
conflict and tension in a purely textual situation.
Thanks,
Keli @ Onalaska
Take "humor" off that list for middle school students
By Robert - Thursday, June 23, 2016, 6:46 PM

Hi Keli!
While I am thinking about the best tone, I would like to suggest that humor be taken off the list for middle school
students. Humor, especially irony and sarcasm, is very much lost on many students this age in my experience.
Worse, if read at face value by parents or administrators it could lead to grave consequences.
Here is an example which may seem funny to adults, but which could leave a 7th grade rather unsure of what is
going on.
"Your essay about electricity was shocking. Watt were you thinking? You should use more current sources. I'm
going to put a plug in for a great rock group, AC/DC. Maybe you should listen to them before you write another revolting assignment."
"Watt" do you think of using humor with this age group, Keli?
-Robert

humor
by Nancy - Thursday, June 23, 2016, 9:13 PM

Robert,
Wow! You are very sharp. Do you live on the edge of town? :) Watt a great post.
Nancy
Re: Take "humor" off that list for middle school students
by Keli Shapiro - Friday, June 24, 2016, 8:20 AM

Dear Robert,
You are so punny! It is a gift. I can see your students rolling their eyes at your puns.
You are absolutely right, sarcasm should be used carefully in almost any environment but especially in a
middle school classroom. Most middle school students are not developmentally ready to understand
sarcasm.
When we communicate without non-verbal cues humor and sarcasm are difficult to pull off with any age
group.
I think Darcys point below, that different tones are useful at different times is correct. I am having a hard
time, like Nancy, thinking of a good purpose for using humor in online conversations with our students. In
the book chapter Maggie assigned to us about tone, Collison says humor can be used to relieve tension
or conflict. I see that technique potentially useful in face-to-face conversation but it could really backfire in
online communication creating more tension or conflict.
I was hoping you all might enlighten me but it seems we are all at a loss to come up with an example of
where humor might be useful.
Thanks for your thoughts. They are always useful in helping me process what we are discussing.
Keli @ Onalaska
Tone and Diction
by Darcy - Friday, June 24, 2016, 11:21 AM

Keli,
Online moderating can use each of the tones you have listed depending upon the purpose of the communication.
There is no one size fits all communication style as there are many online communications that have varied
purpose. I also agree with Brent that humor must be carefully used and the audience and purpose must be
considered. When using probing questions, this would be more suited to a curious tone. When providing
feedback, nurturing or an alaytical tone would be effective.
Curious Example: Can you elaborate on how how your own comfort with the material has influenced your choice
of instructional strategies?
Nuturing Example: Your research in this week's topic of instructional strategies provided cited sources and viared
theoretical perspectives exemplifying your dedication to filling the requirements of the assignment. To support
your reserach efforts, remain aware of the credability of your sources.
Tone can shift and change depending upon the communcation purpose but also upon the diction (word choice)
used. It is imparative to remain aware that whichever tone is intended, word choice can either be supporitive or
detrimental. I found two interesting online resources, Five Words to Avoid in Your Social Media Posts and Three
Words You Must Avoid Using In Yor Communication.Though online facilitating uses text to communicate in a

professional manner, the words noted to avoid illustrate the impact the addition or omission of certain words in
conveying tone and purpose.
After reviewing the two resources, how can this information be useful to you when communicating online?
Darcy, the intern
Re: Tone and Diction
by Keli Shapiro - Friday, June 24, 2016, 8:55 AM

Hello Darcy,
You are correct that the best tone is going to change with the purpose of your post.
Can think of an example of a situation where you believe humor would be a useful tone?
The second link in your post did not work for me. I tried to google and see if I could find the article you
referenced. I do not think I did but I looked at several other similar articles. Every article had a different
list of words not to use.
The overall message is when you only have text to convey your message, your word choice is critical.
Word choice sets the voice, style, and tone. Many of the suggested words to are easy to avoid if you are
using a professional voice. Face-to-face conversation uses different words and different sentence
structure. Using proper grammar and a more formal style eliminates the majority of the words listed to
avoid. For example, one list had "really" as a word to avoid. This is an overused word in conversation
and has little value in conveying your message. Its use is casual and not professional or formal, and easy
to avoid.
The best advice I found was to eliminate "me" and in many instances "I" from your communication. It is
easy for the things we write to be me, me, me. Taking "me" out and reducing the use of "I" changes the
tone completely making it sound more professional and authoritative.
Have a great weekend!
Keli @ Onalaska
Troubling Technology
By Darcy - Friday, June 24, 2016, 11:23 AM

Keli,
Thank you for sharing the broken link. I have corrected it in my post as well as I am providing it
here for your ease of reference.
3 Words To Avoid
Thanks,
Darcy, the intern