In Hypothetical Session: Developing a Climate Friendly Idn

 The course I am hypothetically developing is on Developing a Climate Friendly Identity. I prefer a mixture of both synchronous and asynchronous instruction. I think that both are necessary for a quality educational experiences. I also think, based on our readings, there is room to parse what is meant by sync/async a bit further. Because in our Theory and Practice textbook the distinction is based on time and place vs time and pace, whereas in the Sync/Async Balancing Act article (2007) the simpler definition that I am more familiar with seems to be the accepted term. The major difference being a course in which the teacher is engaged and running things vs the students are entirely in charge of the experience and there is no set time frame (not even a term/semester/school year). A course that you would sign up for through one of the learning platforms we are exploring for class this week would be a Theory and Practice defined async course, while in Levy's (2007) article,  async means that within a course with a set time and an engaged teacher, learning experiences and assignments happen outside of live time with the teacher or fellow classmates. 

So, for my course, I prefer sync experiences in the sense that there are live sessions, and that there is a set amount of time that the teacher is engaged with the course and it is intended to be completed in. I prefer also that there are components of async experiences in which the student is conducting classwork autonomously, and on their own timetable but within the confines of the course runtime at large. I also prefer that there are synchronous times in which classmates are meeting together synchronously as well as interacting in asynchronous ways as well. I do not think my course would be effective as a pre-packaged situation in which everything was async as defined by Theory and Practice, and there were minimal to no elements of collaborative or social learning (async or otherwise). I will outline what a session would look like, along the way nodding to how elements would be similar or used similarly for the course as a whole.

Learning Objective (for course): Develop a personal climate identity and be able to discuss and express the concept of personal identity and collective identity as it relates to living through and during climate change.

Example of how course would run: 

Using an LMS platform this course would cover 6 weeks of material broken into bi-weekly modules. The first module would always be a reading with thought questions in preparation for a live session or guided learning experience that would be housed in the second module for the week. 

An example of a reading material I would require of the class: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/exploring-concept-identity

The reading material comes with its own reading prompts which I will list here if you don't want to follow the link:

1. Review Beverly Daniel Tatum’s list of questions in the first section of the text about the outside factors that can shape an individual’s sense of who they are. Choose one or two of her questions to discuss together as a group.
    
2. Review the second section of the text that defines personal identity and social identity. Then share your Sketch to Stretch ideas. What similarities and differences do you see between your sketches? What questions do you have about personal identity and social identity that you want the class to help you answer?
    
3. Agree or disagree with the following statement and explain your thinking. Give evidence from the text and your own experiences to support your answer:
   “Each one of us decides how to answer the question, ‘Who am I?’ to some extent, but there are aspects of identity that may be defined by forces beyond our control.”
    
4. Reread the final section of the text with the quotation from Kwame Anthony Appiah. He discusses the relationship between labels (names, words, or phrases used to classify or categorize, sometimes inaccurately, people or things) and behavior. 
   • When, if ever, are labels useful?
   • When, if ever, are labels dangerous? 
   • How do you feel when society, a group, or another individual labels you in a positive or negative way?
5. With your group members, compose a tweet that responds to the question: “What are we talking about when we talk about identity?” Your tweet should be no more than 280 characters. You can include emojis and hashtags. 

 I would list these questions in a live poll asking students to rank which one they would most like to explore together for the class time. Based on the highest ranked that would be the topic, however students would have been prompted to consider all of the questions with a few sentences of initial thoughts (in journaling, voice note to self, or with a trusted other) when asked to read the article in preparation for the live class session. If two questions were ranked the same then we would run the live poll again with just those 2 questions and narrow to a single question with the understanding that in a future class we could cover the 2nd ranked. 

After the discussion we would then apply the topic discussed to climate change terminology that they were familiar with as it related to people and how people thought of (or didn't think of) climate change and their roles within it. This application, with some preamble to help shift the mentality from just identity towards identity as it relates to climate would be assisted with a short video clip. A similar method of transition and prompting connection and reflection would be used in other live sessions. 

Students would participate in a live construction of a word cloud (TEC Activity 69 - though adjusted to be a synchronous activity), prompted by the teacher to submit key words from thoughts that came up for them as they watched the video. Students would be given the opportunity to share their word (all words submitted to the word cloud would be anonymous) and why they chose it and whether or not they felt it related to the discussion about identity. 

Their next reading would help them reflect more deeply on what comes up for them in relationship to the suggestions about how they can act on a personal level in more climate friendly ways. What are the barriers? Are the validating or dismissing those barriers? Are those barriers identity related? Are there suggestions that feel like they have less barriers? What makes those more feasible? Are there versions of those things that can be done in sustainable ways in their lives? (etc.) Students may then have a learning experience in which they are encouraged to attend an event outside of the course, but as a class, in which climate friendly leaders in the community speak, or in which they explore different ways they might change habits or behaviors toward more climate friendly ones in ways that fit their lifestyle.

In building this hypothetical I find that in my own experience in synchronous courses the issue of a teacher not knowing how to step away from the sage on the stage habits guide what I want to avoid in a synchronous setting. Though the authors' in our texts write the ideal of not re-using recordings, not using long Powerpoints, not having lecture based material ... that is still what I see a lot of. However, the complication with this is also highlighted in Levy's (2020) article, though not really (for me) in the way Levy seemed to intend.

When I hear that a learner bases their participation on whether or not they can fold laundry during a session, what I hear in that is an opportunity to be aware of my student's needs. I think that when education plays the role it often does in our society - a barrier toward living sustainable lives (not climate sustainable, but resource sustainable/survival sustainable) - it makes the process of learning a thing to be crammed into otherwise very busy lives. Adult learners especially may need to have asynchronous classes that follow less effective methods of educating because what they need from a course is certification to move on to their next pay raise, or next position, or new opportunities. Often something they are already more than capable of doing, or capable of achieving with on the job training, but that isn't accessible to them because they lack a certain external metaphorical key of entry. 

So, I think that having the intent to be aware of my learners, as an instructor, is crucial to understanding how to structure a course. I don't think the assumption should ever be made that if someone is gauging my content by its ease of completion while multi-tasking that it means I must create a course that is more engaging or cut that piece of it entirely. I think it's a deeper conversation. With that said, in situations where learners come with an expectation and desire to be engaged, to have a meaningful and impactful experience, I think that I owe it to them to design synchronous courses that engage them, and utilize practices and theory that we are ingesting in our readings for this course.