Miscommunication

Close up, blurry image of a pink flower

Random moments of misconnection:

George, a Chinese UG, tells me how hard it is to study independently when there is so much he does not understand in lectures. He struggles to understand aurally and finds it hard to use lecture notes to find out what he missed because he … does not know what he missed. We talk about strategies, I suggest some support networks. I tell him not to struggle alone.

Later that day some of us struggle in an LTHEChat as the terminology used by the question setter is obscure. I laugh with my network. It does not matter to me that I am not understanding as nothing hangs on it. Still, I feel frustrated that an opportunity for a conversation was lost.

Unboundeq runs scavenger hunts. These are FUN! We share blurry, close up pics of everyday objects with each other and try to guess what they are. It’s hard. I realise how difficult it is to anticipate what others will and will not find obvious.

We also talk about ALT-text, and realise how hard it is to add this in a way that makes visual activities inclusive. I don’t feel I have an answer to that.

There’s a lot to process here.

This entry was posted in HE, Learning, Online learning, Peer interaction, PhD, Teaching and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Miscommunication

  1. tutormentor1 says:

    When I opened your blog the image stretched vertically and looked to me like a sorta red table cloth. However, when I went to post this comment, the image came into better focus and looks like a close up of some sort of flower. Maybe it’s neither.

    I feel like many times people look at images I post on social media and get a blurred feeling in their mind.

Leave a Reply to NomadWarMachine Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.