Shadowing Marcia - Chat Management
Here is a section of a chat transcript in which a group of VET practitioners discuss access and equity issues in e-facilitation.
You will be able to follow Marcia's progress as she facilitates a fairly lively and opinionated group on a sensitive topic. As you will see, it takes her a while to get into the swing of managing this group.
As the chat progresses, Marcia will demonstrate 4 examples of unskilful practice and 8 examples of good practice in e-facilitation. See if you can identify them. You can either:
- Print this document out and mark the examples, or
- Use the Reviewing tool in Microsoft® Word to highlight the examples.
You can check how you went by reviewing all the examples at the end of this document.
*Chat start*
Delia bit hot up ere
Emma bit cold down here
*Luca has entered the room*
Marcia hi Luca and welcome :)
Delia lol
Delia sunny fine and glorious sunshine - sigh
*Jenny has entered the room*
Jenny sorry i'm late
Delia hi jen
Marcia hihihi
Delia just saying broome is gorgeous
Jenny hi delia
Jenny i ould be resentful delia but i choose not ot b LOL
Delia huh i wanna brag
Delia lol
*Steve has entered the room*
Luca Is anyone elses screen flicking?
Marcia Hi Steve :)
Marcia What do you mean by flicking Luca?
Steve Howdy peeps :P
Luca Its stopped now
Delia hay guys!
Emma Hi delia!
Steve It may just be a refresh thing Luca.
Luca Refresh? What is this?
*Cliff has entered the room*
Steve When the page reloads
Cliff Sorry, am i late?
Marcia No, we’re just starting Cliff :)
Marcia now everyone's here, if we're ready ….. OK - LET'S START
Marcia Firstly, thank you everyone for being here today.
Marcia > Our topic is access and equity issues for e-facilitators. What are the issues involved in supporting learners who may for example, be sight or hearing impaired or dyslexic or have low literacy.
Jenny Well I’m just not comfortable wiht this access and equity thing…
Marcia > Thank you Jenny, we're interested in hearing about your experiences but please try to wait for directions before talking.
Jenny opps sorry !
Marcia To start us off, would each of you please start by commenting on how you feel...
Emma i think that learners with physical impairments should aslo be inlcuded.
Jenny I’m not trained to deal wiht these people… its hard enough managing the normal kids...let alone ones with a disability..i wouldn’t no where to start
Steve i agree, emma
Marcia > Thanks Jenny that’s a really honest response raising some big issues about resources and professional development.. can you identify specifically what the issues are for you?
Delia I’d just like to ask ..what’s NORMAL!!!????....spekin as sum one hwo is dyslexic and BTW I’m not stupid or retarded..my brian just work differently… this labelin an all the assumshons that go wiht it realy bug me
Cliff i think i’d be the same as u jenny
Steve Access and equity isn't just about disabilities, its about barriers such as technology too.
Marcia >Whoa Delia I don’t think Jenny was attacking you. She was just responding openly to the question. Chill out we all know how brilliant you are despite your disability
Jenny one issue 4 me is so many people to look afta in each class there isn''t time to help disabled leanrers
Cliff brilliance isnt really a factor in my area. But we don’t get many disabled learners. They just wouldn’t make the grade in a practical area like mechanics so its a no brainer as far as im concerned
Marcia Not everyone’s disabilities are glaringly obvious Cliff...u might be surprised how many of ur learners have problems with reading and writing for example can u y think of anyone who might fit this bill?
Marcia Delia, would you like to share some issues with us?
Delia but i dont no if peple r aware that sometimes u can't c the isoos
Steve Sure are. What about students acessing large materials from a rural location? They need alternative content.
Delia i dont reely hav ishoos miself
Marcia Good point, Steve - thank you.
Marcia Emma, are you there?
Marcia >C’mon Emma...u must have lots 2 say based on ur experience
Delia here u go wit asumpsions agin mayb ema dosent feel lik sayin anything :( u dont hav ot say anthin if u don want to! Its OK to lurk
Cliff wots lurking?
Jenny Lurking = ??
Delia jus reading no typing
Steve Lurking is reading and not chatting.
Steve beat me to it :P
Emma Im not lurking Delia just thinking carefully about what i want to say..
Jenny unlike sum in here!
Delia talk abot pots nad kettles!!
Marcia > OK give Emma a chance plz and be polite with each other!
Cliff I'd liek to see more technology use. Surely it can only benefit
Emma ummm ... i am not sure about all this - i wanna be able to run my course in a blended online and face to face mode
Delia but i no that sumtimes its hard to c if stoodents hav disabilities
Delia i think that it is hard to help stoodents unless u have empaffy
Marcia Good point Delia.
Delia thanxs
Jenny even with empathy u need time and skill i dont no wot ot do to help
Delia jen r u dislecksic too
Jenny nah just can't type :-)
Luca Yor a clown, delia;)
Emma LOL, delia :)
Marcia > Okay - so far, we have identified technology, empathy, not knowing, any others to add?
Luca its speaking thats really important for me… Im really keen to start using voice tool thats a great way to overcome lots of the problem with reading text and typing...for me voice tools are the anser makes everyone equal no probs!
Jenny What about the cost of voice tools? Many of our learners are low end of economic food chain some don’t even have computers or they are using old dodgy machines which wuldnt handle whiz bang software even if they could afford it
Emma Yeah technology is pretty expensive
Steve It doesn’t have to be. There is good open source stuff for free.
Cliff Technology isn’t always expensive. pdas are quite cheap and prevalent now.
Steve If you plan to use PDA's then you'd need to factor they have a very small screen into the equation. You'd need to make things clear and legible.
Jenny and wheres the support!!!... last week I waited three days for technician to the data projector in my room so I could use a simple Power Point!! everyone was mega frustrated…I felt like giving up!
Luca Open source brings software, no hardware.
Cliff i can see pdas fitting quite well into my class. we already use a number of electronic handheld systems for timing etc
Steve What about the need to comply with legislation?
Jenny but the institute has to give us the support to comply
Cliff how do you mean legislation?
Marcia Steve, what sort of legislation are you referring to?
Cliff are there mandates or things we have to adhere to?
Marcia > Yes Cliff, that's what Steve is saying. Can we hear more about that, Steve?
Delia we hav to bee awar of the problms and make shoor that we no the lors
Steve Every state has a variety of access and equity laws (I can't quote any tho) that relate to students right to aceess materials.
Jenny i hate this stuff about threatening us with legislation when we dont have the resources 2 help disabled learners
Marcia Jenny, I don't think we should see legislation as a threat -
Jenny whos responsible thats wot i want 2 know
Marcia let's try and see it as guidelines or a framework for us to work within.
Cliff Everything i've been doing for years works fine, why should i have to start following these rules?
Delia >but tri being disabled four a weak and c how it is
Emma but there are guidlines out there that help us meet the legislation
Luca I am really keen to use this as a toll, but I don't want it to mean even more responsibility
Luca tool
Delia no1 even notises u
Jenny hard 2 miss u delia ! LOL
Marcia Luca, all trainers have a responsibility to ensure access and equity for all learners.
Luca yes I agree
Delia heheheee
Jenny what does it mean 'all trainers' is that me?
Luca but why I am happy to learn and embrace, I am a teacher not a lawyer
Marcia yes Jenny, if you're involved in VET delivery - it means you.
Steve As an 'expert' (kinda) in the technical area, the standards that are out there are hard to understand to non-nerds.
Marcia Good point Steve. It is a mystery to a lot of people, and we worry that we're not doing the right thing….is there a website or somewhere we can go to find out about 'what is expected'?
Steve The most commonly used website is is the home of the Web Access. Initiative
Marcia Thank you Steve! Let's make a note of that URL, maybe we can look at it after this chat and see what we can learn.
Marcia Emma, are you still with us?
Emma w3c is where i always go for web accessibility issues
Cliff i can build an engine up from scratch, but buggered if i can tell you about accessibility
Marcia > Can I ask you all please just to hold your thoughts for a moment, we need to recap.
Marcia > The issues we have identified are:
Marcia > 1. Legislation, we need to comply.
Marcia > 2. Technology - this can be a barrier to access and equity.
Marcia > 3. You don't always know if students have a disability.
Marcia > 3. You may not see how access and equity is relevant to your area of teaching.
Marcia > (sorry, that's #4)
Marcia > 5. Who can show us what to do?
Marcia > 6. Empathy is important.
Marcia > 7. As a developer, technical requirements are challenging.
Marcia > 8. How do we know what's 'reasonable' - ie; where do we draw the line?
Marcia > ......
Marcia Is that everything so far?
Cliff thx marcia
Marcia Please let me know if I missed an important point.
Jenny good summary marcia
Steve No that sounds good marcia
Luca yes very helpful
Emma sounds good to me -
Marcia Okay, thank you all.
Delia well i hate 2 leev u all but they have mornign tee hear and its too good to miss hehehehe
Delia good by now
* Delia has left the room*
Cliff delia the slacker... ;)
Luca hope she falls in the pool
Marcia Cliff, please try to be polite.
Cliff or gets hit by a low flying mango
Luca mmm...mango...
Marcia > Cliff and Luca - those comments are inappropriate. Please show some respect.
Marcia So, is there one of those points that you particularly want to discuss?
Marcia Perhaps you could nominate one that is most relevant to you as an e-facilitator, that might be a good starting point.
Steve I think #8 is an important point.
Cliff Number 5
Marcia Thank you Steve and Cliff.
Luca I would like to know who will show us how to do stuff
Jenny who can show us wot to do is important 4 me
Cliff or 3/4
Marcia Okay, so that's two votes for 4, one for 3, one for 5
Cliff BINGO!!
Marcia :)
Cliff Oh, sorry...
Marcia > Okay - how about we work together over the next week, before our next chat session, to try and find two points each that we could contribute to that introductory list?
Marcia There's 5 of you in the group - so two each would give us ten.
Steve What were the original points again? :)
Marcia > Steve, I'll post a log of this chat to our discussion forum - you can review the points then.
Steve Thanks
*Chat finish*
See the next page for all the examples!
8 Good Examples of E-facilitation
The coloured italic text highlights Marcia’s skilful e-facilitation.
Example 1:
Marcia > now everyone's here, if we're ready ….. OK - LET'S START
Marcia > Firstly, thank you everyone for being here today.
Marcia >Our topic is access and equity issues for e-facilitators. What are the issues involved in supporting learners who may for example, be sight or hearing impaired or dyslexic or have low literacy.
This is an example of good e-facilitation practice. Marcia announces the formal start of the session, acknowledges the participants and states the topic clearly.
Example 2:
Jenny > Well I’m just not comfortable wiht this access and equity thing…
Marcia >Thank you Jenny, we're interested in hearing about your experiences but please try to wait for directions before talking.
Here is another example of good practice. Marcia tactfully but firmly reminds Jenny of an essential chat protocol. This is important in maintaining order and structuring the conversation.
Example 3:
Delia > jen r u dislecksic too
Jenny > nah just can't type :-)
Luca > Yor a clown, delia;)
Emma > LOL, delia :)
Marcia >Okay - so far, we have identified technology, empathy, not knowing, any others to add?
This is an example of good management practice. The conversation is drifting off topic and getting very frivolous. Marcia summarises the issues identified so far and brings the conversation back on track without stomping on the humour and spontaneity.
Example 4:
Cliff > are there mandates or things we have to adhere to?
Marcia >Yes Cliff, that's what Steve is saying. Can we hear more about that, Steve?
This is another skilful bit of e-facilitation. Marcia clarifies a key point and asks a knowledgeable participant to elaborate on it.
Example 5:
Marcia >Can I ask you all please just to hold your thoughts for a moment, we need to recap.
Marcia > The issues we have identified are:
Marcia > 1. Legislation, we need to comply.
Marcia >2. Technology - this can be a barrier to access and equity...
This is an excellent example of good practice. Marcia skilfully pauses in the conversation and provides a succinct numbered summary of the key points to date.
Example 6:
Cliff > or gets hit by a low flying mango
Luca > mmm...mango...
Marcia >Cliff and Luca - those comments are inappropriate. Please show some respect.
This is a fine example of skilfully reinforcing netiquette and gently moving the conversation on to the next stage.
Example 7:
Marcia >Okay - how about we work together over the next week, before our next chat session, to try and find two points each that we could contribute to that introductory list?
This is excellent work by Marcia. She is taking steps to ensure that something practical which addresses access and equity issues will come out of the session. She is also laying the groundwork for the next session.
Example 8:
Steve > What were the original points again? :)
Marcia >Steve, I'll post a log of this chat to our discussion forum - you can review the points then.
It is an excellent idea to make the transcript available as soon as possible as a reference and resource for participants.
Now see the next page for examples of unskilled facilitation.
4 Unskilled Examples of E-facilitation
The coloured italic text highlights Marcia’s unskillful e-facilitation.
Example 1:
Jenny >I’m not trained to deal wiht these people… its hard enough managing the normal kids...let alone ones with a disability..i wouldn’t no where to start
Steve > i agree, emma
Marcia >Thanks Jenny that’s a really honest response raising some big issues about resources and professional development.. can you identify specifically what the issues are for you?
At this point, although Marcia summarises well and gives positive feed back, she fails to address the slur on disabled learners leading to Delia getting upset and angry.
Example 2:
Marcia >Whoa Delia I don’t think Jenny was attacking you. She was just responding openly to the question. Chill out we all know how brilliant you are despite your disability
This is not good chat management. Marcia’s attempt to calm and reassure Delia comes out as patronising and sarcastic and is likely to make Delia even angrier.
Example 3:
Marcia >Emma, are you there?
Marcia > C’mon Emma...u must have lots 2 say based on ur experience
This is not skilful chat management. Marcia’s attempt to encourage Emma comes across as a put down and doesn’t offer Emma anything concrete to help her respond to the session topic.
Example 4:
Emma > Im not lurking Delia just thinking carefully about what i want to say..
Jenny > unlike sum in here!
Delia > talk abot pots nad kettles!!
Marcia >OK give Emma a chance plz and be polite with each other!
This is also an example of unskilful e-facilitation. Marcia still hasn’t helped Emma to give a focussed response and she is sounding shrill and frustrated and a bit out of control.