IFWE'2010 - Circles of Discovery: Building and Sustaining e-Relationships at a Distance
1. Circles of Discovery: Building and Sustaining e-Relationships at a Distance Stella PortoGraduate School of Management & TechnologyUniversity of Maryland University College Christine WaltiUniversity of Oldenburg, Germany MDE Faculty, Students and Graduates
3. Agenda Context Some theory and supporting ideas Circles of discovery: dimensions Our cooperation Personal voices Summaries Really personal Challenges Future
4. Our Context: The Master of Distance Education and E-Learning (MDE) The MDE qualifies present and future managers and leaders to be active advocates for distance learning in their organizations and manage the resulting significant change processes that affect the entire organization.
6. Our Context: The MDE The MDE focus on developing managers and leaders in the areas of e-learning & distance education within different settings, including: K-12, higher-education, corporate, non-profits, government and military. CorporateTraining &Learning Our mission is our means and our means is our mission FacultySupport Media & technology DistanceEducation Potential managers of the DE enterprise Entirely online for part-time working adults International Collaborative InstructionDesign &Support HigherEducation Leaders &Managers
7. Our Context: Who are We? Age Group How we metin the MDE Different Roles GeographicSeparation Image psyberartist
52. Development of an awareness of the group’s communication rhythmsImage: AndreannaMoya
53. Personal Voices: Really Personal “My closest relationships are with those persons whom I have a special bond.” Image: Library of Congress - Flickr “[The] distance existence is often richer than ones which involve physical contact because it permits me to be myself without fear of misjudgment.” “This lack of reliance on emotional or visual expression, therefore, is a positive thing that permits distance relationships to push beyond what may be a hindrance to building relationships.”
54. Personal Voices: Really Personal Image: Library of Congress - Flickr “I am usually much more forthcoming one-to-one (for example, on e-mail or Skype) than I am in a forum where I tend to read what others write and think about it and how it relates to my own experience.” “Because we don’t see each other at the office every day, we are also more mindful when someone mentions an upcoming vacation or that they have the sniffles and are under the weather and very tired. We develop an awareness of the rhythms of our communication and there is a mutual understanding if a reply doesn’t come right away.”
72. Personal Voices: Really Personal "It is so incredibly important to look beyond on our own borders for good practices in this field so distance relationships are critical to us as professionals. .... relationships with women do have a different and special quality.” Image: Library of Congress - Flickr Women, as research will tell us, are more likely to connect through shared common experience. (Think women’s movement—once we started getting together and finding out that our challenges and difficulties were not individual as we had been told but rather a shared experience due to systemic gendered power structures, there was no stopping us from gabbing and collectively pushing together.)
73. Personal Voices: Really personal “... in our co-teaching and in our relationships between instructors and teaching assistants and writing coaches, there does not seem to be a sense of hierarchy but rather of pooled knowledge and expertise as well as mutual respect for each others’ strengths...” Image: Library of Congress - Flickr
74. Personal Voices: Really personal “It is challenging to maintain relationships that are solely at a distance. Contact must be sufficiently frequent to provide continuity and a sense of 'knowing the other'. If there is not an explicit reason for contact (e.g. co-teaching or a common project), it takes motivation and effort to stay in touch." Image: amanderson2
84. Personal Voices: Really Personal “In those first online interactions, I think an initial choice is made as to how much we will reveal to each other in the beginning phases of the relationship. There is usually some hesitation in how much we share, sometimes we are cautious and sometimes not so cautious.” Image: FaceMePLS
85. Personal Voices: Really Personal “The level of openness can depend on individual personalities and experiences, as well as on how much we already know about the person we are interacting with.” Image: ShahramSharif
86. Personal Voices: Really Personal Image: quinn.anya “Whether an online relationship will move from the professional realm into the personal, I think, is based on the level of rapport, honesty, and trust that has been established within the relationship.”
87. Personal Voices: Really Personal Image: Antífama “I see my MDE relationships as a series of interconnected and concentric circles with many layers of overlapping and interconnection… illustrate the many layers of connections between the women of the MDE.”
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89. Flex time to accommodate lots of conflicting demands when it is up to us to decide on the balance
90. Issues of incentives and motivation that vary for adjunct faculty, students and/or gradsImage: webtreats
91. Personal Voices: Really Personal “Because distance relationships often are void of visual cues the non-visual becomes more pronounced. This requires participants to be more self reflective as well as more thought conscious on what is said.” “Often the distance relationships I have with women are more supportive when life challenges surface. The support is ongoing and authentic. .... my expectations are ones of mutual respect and honesty." Image: Bob Jagendorf
92. Personal Voices: Final These relationships make a positive difference not only to the individuals involved, but to the (MDE) community as a whole “Maintaining a network of women friends who shadow my life with their own” Image: attawayjl “A fabulous network or weaving that we are all developing together, but on a many sided loom....some bits are more developed than others ... circles within circles, and drifting in and out
100. We look forward to hearing from you and thanks for engaging!Image: geishaboy500
101. References Boiney, L.G. (2001). Gender impacts virtual teams. Graziado Business Report, 4(4). Retrieved October 6, 2010 from http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/014/teams.html. Finchum, T. D. (2005). Keeping the ball in the air: Contact in long-distance friendships. Journal of Women & Aging, 17(3). doi: 10.1300/J074v17m03_07 Laff, M. (2009). The guiding hand: Mentoring women. T + D, 63(9), pp. 32-35. All images are courtesy of Flickr users who have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license. Thanks to everyone who has contributed!!!
102. Contact Information Thank you! Presentation will be available @ slideshare.net Contact: sporto@umuc.edu christinewalti@verizon.net Image: oddsock