The Online Teacher: "To Be Or To Not Be Authentic"

The interesting topic of for consideration is the question: Do you think it is possible to be “authentic” when teaching online?  

I think this is a great question because we are all walking in the path of the beginning stages of online learning, even though it’s been around now for over a decade. Nam Jun Pail makes the point “Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality (online). Technology has become the body’s new membrane of existence.” So, her point is that technology today intervenes between us and realty and that is interesting to contemplate.

A question that has been posed in my coursework is what my personal choice would be; choosing authentic or formal, as a teaching style. I wonder, why can’t being formal be authentic – or why can’t I both?

Whether teaching online, or onsite, quite honestly, I would want to be as much of my authentic self as I could be and I believe a good mix of formal, when “professionally teaching” is needed to do the job well.

For example, being authentic for me would be bringing humor as well as truth to conversation and that is authentic – but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to have a formal setting with some guidelines and policies.

For example, there has to be guidelines as to how long assignments should be and what the parameters are – it can’t just be “write a paper as long as you want...”

Being online means having set times for class and that online class meetings would be mandatory, not “eh, stop by if you want…” So guidelines should be in place. A syllabus of course reading and mandatory project and assignments, just like traditional courses are not only appropriate, but are mandatory, for me as a teacher – lest I would be doing a disservice to the students if I allowed a “learn what you want, when you want” virtual setting. I understand that some courses are like that. I have taken a MOOC that was quite frankly, exactly that.

But at the same time being authentic to myself would be my open-mindedness in understanding that not all students fit into the same box of criteria, therefore, if a student had trouble with some of my criteria and was having difficulty, I would be open to working with them and proposing new opportunities that would achieve the same learning results and meet the parameters of the learning objectives.

During my time as a manager in the corporate world, many of my subordinates didn’t excel in what I did and in the beginning of my career as a young manager I didn’t appreciate it that as much as I should have. But I did keep them on my team. In time I learned to let them play to their strengths and promote those strengths because having a diverse team of personalities was critical to the overall success and health of my team. I learned that in DISC training early on and that stuck with me.

But the “teacher persona” is something all teachers have to learn and decide how to craft. Interestingly the word “persona” has the Greek meaning “mask” therefore we understand that a persona is what we portray to the world, it can be viewed as our mask.

How do we do that in the online teaching world as opposed to in person? Does it look the same? As one of my readings asks to consider – should or can the online teacher construct a virtual doppelganger?

Maybe, but there may not be a perfect 100% duplication. For example, not having to be physically present means a different dress code can be used that one may not have used in person. So there are things to consider.

The online teacher can allow students to know more or less, as our digital profiles and online presence can divulge information that may never come up in a past classroom-only setting.

What tools we use to communicate with students also tells students about the teacher – even what the name we go by or if we choose an avatar to represent us.

So the nature of the online teacher is ever evolving and I assume that for me, I would want to be as close to authentic as I can be but that I would also be a formal teacher in that there are expectations that I as a teacher expect to hold myself to as do I expect to hold the profession of teacher to a professional standard.

There are negatives to online learning though, for example, the feeling that online learning is isolationist and that students have reported that they feel disconnected. I would create a course that would combat that with “teaming” the students together for support and interaction so as to create a “buddy system” effect for the class, like onsite classes often create. I believe that communication is much more critical in an online course setting so if a teacher is not comfortable with having a strong online presence, it is something to consider.

I personally believe I would want to teach online because of the ability to reach students in so many locations; this allows a teacher to teach students they never would have been able to reach.

Ultimately being authentic and being formal, a good mix of both, is important to being a good online instructor.