Wow. Well it is definitely hard not to go through and just fix the paper when it's sitting right there in front of you. The personal interaction is gone and I cannot see the writer of the paper. Therefore, I feel like it is so much harder to have a conference about the paper. It's extremely difficult to try to work on improving the writer when the text is sitting right there. The exercise where we had to do an asynchronous tutoring session made me a bit nervous. I hope that I focused more on the writer than the text. It was definitely a conscious effort. Also, I think that a really hard part of online tutoring is that you have no idea how the client will take your comments. When I am in face-to-face conferences with a clients, I can tell if my comments are making sense or if they are going to put them to good use. I have made useful comments to students before who seemed disinterested in them, and I could tell they were not interested in being a better writer. They just wanted a better paper. It's much harder to tell that online. If I don't get another message back, it could be because the student thought I was a horrible tutor. It could be that he/she didn't understand my comments and doesn't want to seem student. It could be because he/she doesn't care about becoming a better writer. In person, I can usually read if a person feels stupid or clueless, and I do everything I can to make them feel better about this. If I don't know about the problem in an online session, I cannot fix it. If they don't understand my comments the first time around and they don't shoot me a message telling me so, I'll never get an opportunity to explain it differently.
On a more positive note about online tutoring, I felt like I really had time to examine the text and to make comments. When I am sitting next to the client, I don't like for them to wait while I am thinking. This is the time period when usually pull out the cell phone, mess with other homework, or stare at the clock. It's hard to get them back in the working state of mind after this happens. In an asynchronous session, I get a few minutes to read and collect my thoughts on the paper. I also get all of my ideas out. Sometimes, the client and I get caught up talking about other issues and I forget to mention something I meant to. In these types of online sessions, I get a chance to type out all my thoughts on the paper.
I still feel like I would rather have sessions in person, but online tutoring has its benefits.
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