Monday, July 17, 2006

Group Dynamics: Enforcing mic usage

The in-class group in a Centr-in-Class situation does not expect to use the microphone when coming to class. So, the habit formation takes some time as they cannot imagine the frustration the distance learning undergoes as a result of missing an in-class student's comments/questions - especially when the instructor does not repeat them (too long/forgot/too short/judged trivial).

The microphones where not strongly imposed on day 1 - as a result, no one in-class indulged in this non-incentive task. The GSIs were requested to enforce mic use, by interrupting in-class students who were about to express themselves. Within 2 sessions the in-class population adapted to the mics and naturally asked for the mic in advance of making comments or asking questions. Much to the relief of everyone.

Judging from their facial expressions during inital interruptions of their verbal expression, it was clear that they didn't mind being reminded again and again to use the wireless handheld mic. Earlier, we had a situation where we did not have wireless handheld mics, but a network of desk mics. I will post about the advantages of wireless mics over wired mics & mic mounting in a different post.

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