The Empathetic Online Classroom, Part 1

In this episode, we talk about a block seminar titled “Owning Your
Position: Critical Argumentation Skills for Scholars of Culture”
that Tyll had taught in July 2020. The concept of the class was to
give students tools to transfer their knowledge of critical theory
into discussions they have in their everyday life. Tyll had planned
the block seminar to take place over the course of one week in a
classroom, with a lot of discussions, interaction and role-playing,
and he addresses the challenges of having to redesign the class for
online teaching. He talks openly about his insecurities and his
vulnerability about his lack of experience with online teaching,
and how his honesty led to a very supportive, empathetic classroom
atmosphere in which the students took an active role and showed a
lot of appreciation and kindness towards him and each other. In the
first part of this conversation we talk about the concept of the
class, rhetorical strategies and toxic tropes that people use in
destructive discussions, how Tyll adapted the class to the needs of
the students, specific teaching challenges in a Zoom classroom, how
the students shaped the social contract of the class, ways of
communicating that facilitate trust between teachers and learners,
and about the power of showing vulnerability.