Two: Civility in MOOCs #edcmooc

Being civil, is not the same as agreeing with those whom you secretly disagree in order to be polite. It means being able to disagree and yet maintain the tones and language of polite dialogue. This maybe easier for those who have infinite patience, generally machines and robots. The super market self checkout might continue to explain in the same tone any number of times that there is something unexpected in the bagging area and the best course of action is to remove it and start again. Simple repetition alone will not win arguments and may eventually provoke a breach of the civility rule.

There are, also, systems that seek to engage with us on the phone, who possess the qualities of civility and infinite patience as they invite us in near human voices to speak sentences into a voice recognition machine. They also have the knack of repeating back to us as if we were children. Did you mean NO. Without any inflection in the voice it is possible to know if they are being ironic.

Between human actors civility both allows and invites a response. Incrementally building a dialogue that is informative and instructive to participants and others who may read it. It creates an exposition of a subject that reaches far beyond the initial exchange.

"So be civil"