Facilitating Online/Facilitating, moderating, or teaching

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A meeting taking place in Khammouane Province of Laos, March 2006, as part of the Lao Extension Approach. Meeting is being held in village temple, participants are farmers. Who do YOU think the facilitator is in this picture?
Many people either don't understand the differences, or too easily confuse the different roles of a facilitator, moderator and teacher. Some teachers believe that teaching is an act of facilitation. Some facilitators see their main role as moderating discussion and keeping order. Over these two weeks we will consider the differences in these three roles and attempt to describe situations where they might be mutually exclusive from one another.

To do

1. Try to determine what the different roles and behaviors are for these three roles:

  • Facilitator
  • Moderator
  • Teacher

You might like to look for their definitions on something like Wikipedia.

2. As a post to your blog, answer each of the following questions:

  • When might the role of a teacher undermine the role of a facilitator?
  • When might the role of a moderator undermine the role of a facilitator?
  • When might the role of a facilitator undermine the role of a teacher or moderator?

Try and identify some of the skills required to carry out the different roles and post these on your blog.

3. Attend a meeting to discuss these roles and work collaboratively to develop a list of skills and techniques for facilitation.

Extra resources