My most memorable online learning experience has been joining page called Black Fellas on Reddit. It’s dedicated to black masculinity and culture. Although online spaces have the potential to be unsafe, this space surprised me. There were threads for moral support, updates on events, and sharing of experiences. I do not access Reddit very often but knowing that pages like this exist motivates me to seek out and access more. I was able to connect with brothers from all over, asking about similar lived experiences to mine. I also saw threads that were geared towards more vulnerable topics, held well and respectively by users of the page. Substitution is used in place of text when folks can post up videos, or audio resources, memes etc. It does enhance the experience of each Reddit thread, as users inject their personality, opinions in different sometimes humorous ways. I’ve always struggled with the navigation and accessibility of Reddit, which is why I don’t use it very often. Compared to social media platforms I use daily i.e., Facebook or Instagram, that being said it feels less structured, in a way that allows users to be more open.
In terms of academia, this type of communication between students like course spaces for example, could be used better if there were more opportunities for modification and personalization. I notice that some courses ask students to interact on the course spaces blog, but unfortunately it is not very engaged, and less involved. I would argue that this leads to less engagement and motivation to interact with this type of framework. When thinking of the what, why and how a student uses an online tool, it helps when the teacher creates alternatives for students to work with. This class for example, using WordPress and annotations is very different than other courses I’ve taken in university. It is refreshing as a psychology major, I am normally assigned readings, then expected to insert my brief thoughts for a grade. The lack of customization in how I want to present my work, saps my motivation and often times reduces my interest. Whereas having the agency to create my own page, like you would on social media or a forum, and be encouraged to access my imagination and agency, is more enjoyable. As 7.4.3 Strengths and limitations of the model describes, we still need to understand how and why media and technology could be used to transform teaching in the first place. There is an opportunity to enhance online learning.
As I student, I do not know what limits course spaces has on a teachers ability to create more flexible online learning environments. But a course that showcases other avenues of learning for students, is a step in the right direction.