How do you visualize a round circle discussion? If you were to draw connections between speakers, it may look like spiderweb! Ian Wolf from Fayetteville Technical Community College presented an asynchronous session at the Lilly Conference entitled “Leveraging Curiosity, Sociality, and Authenticity to Create Impactful, Student-Led Discussion”. Wolf uses questioning and a structure to set students on productive dynamic conversations. Pre-session content is assigned as homework, and in class students sit in a circle and discuss interpretations of the readings. What’s really interesting is that the grade is assigned to the group based on Wolf’s notes and a ‘spiderweb diagram’ evaluation! Wolf also emphasized the post-discussion feedback as an opportunity to clear misconceptions and provide suggestions for better future sessions. Reviewing the diagrams and images of notes was one of the best parts of a great session: you can see the degree of interaction and notes about topics or periods of silence. Wolf discussed how students often improve their discussion skills and are committed to learn as a group instead of try to “get their A”. For me, it would be different cult at first to stick to a single grade, but I also see the importance of this here. Wolf ended by discussing opportunities for spiderweb discussions in online environments, including the use of Flipgrid and forum threads. I even thought about doing this with Hypothes.is and annotations, and then evaluating interactions. Hmm… a lot to think about here! Some limitations may he class size and accuracy of the observer’s notes, and this can be easier if software captures the data on interactions.
