At the refinery we had initial classes about the process and equipment. The real heart of our training, however, came from other operators. The refining process is incredibly detailed and depends on balancing levels, pressures and temperatures. There is so much to learn! And when you work with such dangerous pressures, high temperatures and toxic materials, everything depends on knowing what you are doing.

A few operators were glad to answer questions and good at it. Some would get arrogant, as if to say, "If you think you belong here, lady, why don't you know it already?" (Of course, some of them were just bluffing when they couldn't answer a question.) Others would try to explain but leave me so confused that I wondered whether they were trying to mislead me. It seemed that some were sexists who would not share what they knew with a woman. Others simply did not share with anyone except their selected protege. Some would just say, "Look it up in the books." We all joked about the operator who seemed to keep the "secret stuff" to himself so that he would remain indispensable.

During the first few weeks of this online class--when we were making our way through the maze of instructions for search engines, ISPs and software programs--I felt like I was back in the refinery. There was all kinds of information, but no one to help me make sense of it. It all made me feel stupid and slow. It felt as if the people writing these unintelligible outlines were malicious.

Now I realize that what was missing was context. Some of those operators really meant to help and share information, but we had little common context so that they could link their experience to mine. They had no idea how to explain some concepts to someone who had not spent years working on a car, for example. (I am enormously relieved to conclude they really did not resent me that much after all.)

The problem with most computer instructions is that there is no context, only information. If  I am trying to post my first page, all the "blueprints" for how to insert special Java effects do me no good. I need instructions addressed to the task at hand. Solving the task at hand is my context.

So for online educators, I think, Providing Context is the big issue. In classrooms instructors usually do that with lectures or by answering questions during discussion. But lectures, even with links, are deadly printed on the web. How do we learn to do something different?

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