Fear and Loathing

1. If you have many people logged in, the screen scrolls quickly and you cannot read fast enough. My students complained of frustration and a feeling of being left out. Most of us teachers don't have a big problem with this, but then we've been practicing; and since we're language teachers, we're probably good at reading quickly. But our students sometimes find the speed of the interaction daunting.
2. Some people can't type well or fast enough; they also feel left out because they cannot keep up with the conversation. What expectations can we make about our students' typing abilities, and how can we better include those who do not type well?
3. Often, disagreements and fights occur, simply because a student on the MOO was trying to be witty. But as we all know, pure text cannot carry all the irony or sarcasm intended, and a comment can look downright rude or affrontive. Students can get angry, and because of this, feel demoralized. I joined a student group one day and found the students insulting each other. I intervened, but felt that perhaps it would have been better to talk to the students about it afterward, if I mentioned it at all.
As other MOO-using teachers, including Leslie Harris, have noticed, discussing cross-cultural issues on the MOO can sometimes put students into a tolerant, learning mode, but some experiences can just as easily result in conflicts which polarize them, resulting in an "us" versus "them" standoff between groups of students. Not only do we need to alert students to the possibility of these problems; we also need to encourage them to analyze and discuss these interactions (perhaps by using transcripts of the conversations) with the class to shed light on the effective and ineffective use of rhetorical strategies in computer mediated communication.
4. Students often feel as if pure text is just too difficult for communicating, especially when they cannot see the others in the group. They long for facial expression, gestures, tone of voice, anything that would help them communicate better and establish rapport with their partners. On-line community does not come naturally for some groups, particularly when those groups have not formed naturally through time and interaction. Teachers often have to create groups because the semester or quarter is simply not long enough to let groups form naturally. But there is no guarantee that relationships of trust and cooperation will be built, particularly when participants can neither see nor hear each other.

As we have seen, working with long distance partners on a MOO can be disorienting, and disagreements sometimes lead to frustration that threatens to break apart on-line groups.

But I would like to discuss several ways in which teachers can use these moments of disorientation and disenchantment to lead students to a better understanding of some basic principles of gathering information, and of the strategies of rhetoric.

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Lost in the flow of text: skimming not surfing

Let's start with the problem of students becoming frustrated and disoriented with the quick flow and fast- scrolling screen of the MOO. Sometimes it's like trying to paddle upriver, but being swept downstream in the flow of text, as we all know. We get lost and upset, and the more we try to catch up, the more mistakes we make and the more frustated we become. Many people I know have just given up after trying to participate in such a conversation.

Of course we all know that the easiest way to slow it down and let students get used to it is to put students in small groups, say of about four each, and let them talk to each other at a natural speed.

And yet, by exposing them to faster speed discussions with lots of participants, could we not prepare them for experiences many of them are likely to have as workplaces and communication environments go electronic? Yes, of course we need to prepare them for such experiences beforehand.

I might further claim that by asking them to glean information from MOO sessions, we are also helping students to better navigate the "firehose of information" being aimed at them now through the Internet. Few schools that I know of have classes in which students can learn about information gathering and techniques of computer mediated communication; so as writing teachers with students who increasingly use the network, it is perhaps up to us to address these issues.

From my discussions with teachers all over the country, I get the feeling that we're being caught unaware by a tidal wave of information. It is clear to me that educators had better do something quickly before our students are left behind. We need to help them swim, not sink.

One of the most common metaphors these days for browsing the net is not swimming but SURFING, that is catching the wave of information and riding it by following connections rather than getting caught in the depths of just one source and wasting valuable time there.

Yet, I think that SURFING isn't quite the right analogy for the behavior we need to encourage in students. It reeks too much of the outcast and maverick, or of someone who might just ride right over a lot of good information without seeing it. For purposes of illustration, I would like to suggest that we use the word SKIMMING in order to help conceptualize one of the skills I think students can learn from having to deal with fast pace MOO discourse. In another context, Eric Crump has called this process "skimming and diving."

Think of all the ways students have to skim on the Internet-- just consider Web pages, and e-mail lists, and gopher sites -- in order to find information of value to them. Learning to skim through MOO conversations could be good practice. We could create practice exercises for students by having them monitor one of the fast paced discussions on the MOO and isolate at least a few cogent insights. Or we could ask them to try to follow just one thread of conversation, ignoring the others for survival's sake, and to summarize that thread.

Or, if students complain of difficulties following the fast paced, multi-threaded conversation on the MOO, the class can review transcripts of conversations to discuss strategies for quick scanning and response in the flurry of the on-line conversation. Further, they might practice creating clear comments and responses which would help others keep up with multi-threaded conversations without confusion about who is responding to whom. As we have seen, following just one strand of a complex conversation can be difficult, akin to listening to several conversations at a cocktail party at once.

I hope you understand that these skimming skills are applicable to other contexts besides the Internet. Indeed, how often do we have to skim sources, bibliographies, indexes, tables of contents, papers, and abstracts, in order to find useful information? Do we have time to read every single word?