To Sea the Ocean Waves...

A classmate's thought has helped me move through something that's been evolving for a while for me. I've often wondered if a sighted person's on line interaction experiences in some way resembles everyday interactions of a blind person. The reason being, so often the lack of visual cues is what students of on line learning say they miss from the traditional face to face classroom experiences. After reading my classmate's post, my brain drifted back to ponder that notion once again.

As I pondered, I recalled time spent with a blind person recently and thought about a few of our conversations. One of the things I found myself doing during our conversations was creating metaphors that referred to past experiences when she was sighted. I knew they would paint a picture for her by describing the current experience using metaphors from past experiences.

Summary: When talking face to face with a non-sighted person, I create metaphors so they can visualize the current experience through past experiences.

On line experience for me (sighted) lacks visual cues because I am accustomed to being able to see the people with whom I interact. And, no one creates metaphors to fill the gaps I'm experiencing during my on line interaction.

On line experiences for a blind person may actually give that person the upper hand in an on line setting. Neither the sighted or the non-sighted person has visual cues in the on line setting, but the blind person is expecting none. While the sighted person is 'feeling' the absence of the visual cues, because of the traditional face to face interactions to which they are accustomed.

Summary: When talking on line, a sighted person is likely to feel the absence of visual cues but will not easily have those gaps filled. A blind person is not expecting visual cues so may feel more comfortable sooner in an on line environment.

This is really meaningful to me as I think about the impact of this notion on creating accessible and usable web resources and on line learning environments. It actually gives me a new way of thinking about how to research how people adjust to on line learning. It also opens up applicable instructional strategies and methods that I could consider applying to on line learning environments.