Trust, Safety and Confidence: Building the Foundation for Online Interaction

Cari L. KleckaUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-

ChampaignDepartment of Curriculum and

Instruction

klecka@uiuc.edu

Context: The Novice Teacher Support Project (NTSP) Cross-institutional partnership Multiple school districts Created by a Design Team Outreach activities

Series of Saturday workshops Summer Institutes Mentoring Website http://ntsp.ed.uiuc.edu

Conferencing areas include issue-based forums, informational conferences and grade level conversations.

Electronic conferencing Targets new teachers in primarily rural

districts who lack access to teachers who teach similar content or at the same grade level (Klecka, Clift &Thomas, 2002).

New and experienced teachers interact in an online, group context. Two to three face-to-face meetings yearly. Many participants do not share same teaching

context. Participants are identified by last name online.

Site Statistics Year One & Year Two Year One-- volunteer participants

118 participants 41 novice teachers 73 e-mentors

256 messages posted from 10/00-04/01 45% posted during training

Year Two-- volunteer and participants paid stipend 112 participants

82 novice teachers 40 e-mentors

Over 3000 messages posted from 10/01-05/02

Site StatisticsYear Three Year Three-- volunteer, e-mentors paid stipend

98 participants 50 novice teachers 48 e-mentors

1718 messages posted from 08/03-04/18/03

The study What is the nature of participation in the

e-conferences? Follow up to the pilot study

Safety via technology (e.g. Carboni & Friel, 2000; Dewert, 1999; Merseth, 1990).

Safety in the NTSP (Klecka, Clift &Thomas, 2002)

What constitutes safety in this context?

Data collected focused on users’ experiences Four open-ended surveys Five focus group interviews

Multiple new and experienced teacher groups Personal communications Meeting notes Personal journal entries from the perspective

of the online moderator and one of the project developers

Preliminary findings:Conditions for participation Safety: actual and perceived Confidence in the environment Trust in people and in the medium Safety, trust, and confidence dependent

on the degree of anonymity

Safety Context of safety

Defined by policies and how those policies are enforced (policy to exclude administrators)

State of the medium independent of what participants perceive

Perceptions about safety Participants have the power to guard or violate Breaches in security: Violating the context of

safety

Trust Dimensions of Trust

Trust to complete a task (respond to messages/engage)

Trust in (or inability to trust) online colleagues Implicit trust: expected participation based on

personal experiences

Trust not established“Meeting other beginning teachers- that’s very nice, but actually over the computer with them… I can’t see them. I don’t know if I can trust them or not… it’s difficult to read people over the computer. But, when you’re in person, you can get a feel if you can trust… you can’t trust all teachers. You can’t trust all e-mentors… We don’t know what motivations they have… It’s very difficult to trust… any of the messages [on the e-conferences].”

Confidence Influenced by safety (perceived and objective

state) Notification of breaches in security

Nature of context can shape level of confidence within it Individuals can establish confidence based on who

has access to the e-conferences. Administrators In-school colleagues

Self-identified anonymity: Confidence in safe space

“I can go in my building to somebody, but I don’t want to show that I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s really hard for me to do that… I think, I should know this answer. So, a lot of the time, I’m in misery. I try everything I can to not ask a question. This way [using the e-conferences] I’m more anonymous and I can get more ideas. I can just feel more confident doing that.”

Anonymity: Shaping safety, trust and confidence Safety in anonymity Anonymity lies on a continuum (Donath,

1999). From full to no anonymity NTSP: Asymmetrical

How can safety be provided for those who do not see themselves as anonymous? Shared alias

Conclusions The degree to which participants feel safe, establish trust,

and have confidence has an impact on the degree to which teachers participate- if at all.

Preserving safety requires ongoing reflection and evaluation on our own actions and the decisions we make. Nonetheless, the degree to which the environment is safe is, on occasion, not even known by the online moderator herself.

New teachers who have communicated an implicit trust participate not only by posting messages but through peripheral participation (significantly reading more than they post).

Thank youThis paper is based upon work supported, in part, by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Partnership for Professional Development, the Illinois State Board of Education, and by the Department of Education (Grant No. P336990042-00A). The government has certain rights in this material. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Education.