First a brief summary of the existing literature that deals with humour theory, authentic digital learning and humour in education, leading us to a present-day consideration of how those concepts align with using humour as a pedagogical tool in digital learning.
A facilitated discussion with participants addressing the following:
- How do they think about humour in education generally?
- How has moving to online teaching reshaped the ways in which they use humour?
- Does humour fit into our participants' perception of their own professional identity?
Have they successfully or unsuccessfully used humour in online learning platforms and if so how?
Going forward, how can we create a resource for using humour in education which reaches a wide and appreciative audience of educators?
Attempting to model the practices and ideas, the tone will be informal and light-hearted. We also want to emphasise to participants that this is not about “doing online stand-up comedy” and telling jokes or reducing education to “edutainment”. Rather, diverse uses of humour such as “call-back” and memes can increase student engagement and also help connect those involved in the educational process as humans mediating communications through technology.
The objective is that participants will leave the session with an understanding of the importance of online presence and authenticity in an online learning environment and how various uses of humour can be a key component of that.
Mark Curcher
Chris Smith