Chatroom Meeting

Well, my group met in a chat room set up in WebCT on Monday at 5:00 p.m. I came away from the meeting feeling energized because I believed we had accomplished our objective of nailing down the topic/question we wish to use for the project: How can we use "virtual labs" to access "right-brained" thinkers? I have expressed reservations about seeing the brain as a right vs. left instrument and I posted them on a PBWiki page a weeks ago. During our chat, I quoted some pages from Woolfolk's text that support this, but we are still stuck with "right-brained" as our way to talk about higher-order, creative, intuitive, emotional thinking. I hope when the others have done their literature comparison that this will change. Anyway, at least we were all going in the same general direction. On a good note: although only one person responded to my post, "Who Are You?", on the discussion board, I felt like we all got along well, that everyone was heard, and that each person's questions were answered.

But, Tuesday morning there was a post to our discussion board that read "So, is our topic...using virtual labs to access visual learners? I don't think we decided on a specific topic, just the direction?" Again, I was so frustrated. We had talked about visual learning being one element of "right-brained" skills, but I had disagreed that we should be limited to this one area. This is a slightly-edited version of what I posted as my reply:

"I didn't come away with limiting ourselves to "visual learning." There are all kinds of skills that go with right-brain learning. I suggest we write some clear and concise objectives to present to Dr. A. in relation to the rubric that she provided for us, but for the purpose of establishing some "general" cognitive (problem solving/synthesis) objectives. I suggest that we actually have two objectives (the literature review of Pink and Woolfolk's books, and the application of "virtual labs" to access right-brained skills and thus improve learning for students). See proposed objectives:

A=Audience B=Behavior C=Condition M=Degree of Mastery

1.(C) Given a survey the literature (Woolfolk's and Pink's)
(A) our group
(B) will be able to write a visually pleasing, well-crafted, grammatically correct Wiki Frontpage that exposes the strenghts and weaknesses of teaching to the "right-brain"
(D) which can be used as common language and underpinning for our group's exploration of "virtual labs" as teaching tools.

2.(C) Given a selection of "virtual labs" provide by group members
(A) each person
(B) will present an independently constructed Wiki Subpage containing a "virtual lab" that accesses the skills predominantly controlled by the right brain
(D) and that can be used as a teaching tool in the classroom to improve the education of secondary students ages (10-16).

There are actually other objectives suggested by the rubric that are in the "affective" and even "psychomotor" domains, but I propose this for simplicity sake....I will post these objectives on the Wiki so everyone can see them and edit them if they choose. Thanks."

Since posting them day before yesterday, I have had no response. I will check the Wiki again tonight. Question: How can I communicate more effectively? How can I assure that we are all "hearing" and "perceiving" what is trying to be conveyed?

Books On The Way:
Raising Your Spirited Child
Mary Sheedy Kurchinka
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen, and Listen So Kids Will Talk
Faber and Mazlish

Someone told me that both books even help with adult interactions.
We'll see! Until next time...