Michelle Lefebvre
How have your virtual presentations been going? How about your virtual lessons? Do you find there are a lot of awkward silences? Both in my role as a teacher and as a graduate student, I’ve started to notice how uncomfortable it can be to ask a question to a group of people when you can’t see most of them and you can’t hear anything.
As teachers, we often talk about the importance of wait time or giving students time to think of an answer before calling on someone to respond. This strategy might have led to some awkward silences in face-to-face classrooms, but I’m finding these uninterrupted periods of silence almost unbearable in virtual classrooms. I had been wondering about this when I came across the idea of “communication in the air”. It was a light bulb moment. Here’s what happened:
A few weeks ago I was teaching a lesson about business protocol in different countries. To introduce the topic, I showed my student this video by The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau. In the video, Erin Meyer discusses communication breakdowns across cultures and brings up the Japanese concept kuuki o yomu or ‘reading the air’. Someone who can read the air is able to pick up on the unspoken communication that influences social interactions. These non-verbal cues could include eye-contact, posture, raised eyebrows, blank stares, or bright eyes. Although being able to read the air is particularly important in cultures like Japan, where communication is often indirect (Nishimura, Nevgi & Tella, 2008), it is also an important skill for most people around the world. Unfortunately, these implicit cues are nearly impossible to read in virtual classrooms. In the past, I was able to look around the room, I could tell if my audience or students were engaged, if they were thinking about the question, and when someone wanted to speak up. Nowadays, asking a question into the silent void of black squares, I find it difficult to know if anyone is even listening.
How are you coping with wait time in virtual classrooms? Do you have any suggestions for ‘reading the air’ in a virtual classroom?
Reference
Nishimura, S., Nevgi, A., & Tella, S. (2008). Communication style and cultural features in high/low context communication cultures: A case study of Finland, Japan and India. Teoksessa A. Kallioniemi (toim.), Uudistuva ja kehittyvä ainedidaktiikka. Ainedidaktinen symposiumi, 8(2008), 783-796.