{"id":1015,"date":"2015-08-25T09:10:29","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T13:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2015-08-25T09:10:29","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T13:10:29","slug":"talking-about-the-elephant-in-the-room-how-to-create-a-safe-space-for-online-case-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2015\/08\/25\/talking-about-the-elephant-in-the-room-how-to-create-a-safe-space-for-online-case-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking about the Elephant in the Room: How to Create a Safe Space for Online Case Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some case discussion groups have the luxury of preexisting rapport, having already achieved affiliation and understanding. But for ad hoc or online case discussion, case-based learners may find it difficult to share honest opinions, making it hard to reach collective understanding on sensitive issues.<\/p>\n

\"3266056756_5631882f3e_n\"<\/a>Professor Charles Nesson has developed an exercise to tackle the Elephant in the Room<\/a>. This activity, designed for Nesson\u2019s JuryX MOOC but replicable in other in-person and online settings, plays with the spectrum of privacy to broach sensitive and deeply personal issues at a supportive pace.<\/p>\n

Anonymity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The exercise begins with an acknowledge of affinity\u2014the group has something in common, some reason for convening that is ripe with the potential of community. This perspective can give participants the sense that rifts can be overcome. It rules out the notion that a change in dynamic is impossible.<\/p>\n

Participants are asked to suggest anonymously what the Elephant in the Room is. Participants can the Berkman Question Tool<\/a>, a web tool that collects responses with the option of anonymity, to enter their idea and vote up (affirm) the suggestions of their peers. (Of course, this exercise is possible using other online or low-tech ways of collecting anonymous responses.)<\/p>\n

Together, but without the trappings of identity that can skew actions and judgments, the group identifies the thorny issue. But it is still too dangerous to touch.<\/p>\n

Anonymously, participants then share their fears about the Elephant in the Room\u2014why it is hard to talk about, what might come of discussing it. On the Question Tool, participants see the thoughts of their peers, without the judgment that identity invites. They may be surprised by the commonalities that emerge or the perspectives they had not considered. These seeds of conversation and what follows may be difficult, messy, unsuccessful even, but it leaves participants wanting clarity and closure. It makes them participate and struggle through.<\/p>\n

Pseudonymity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Next, students move toward self-identification. Participants choose a pseudonym to complete the next portion of the Question Tool. Here, participants get to play with identity: how much to divulge, what context to cast on their comments, how they might be perceived. They share their hopes for talking about the Elephant in the Room. The anticipation builds. Indirectly, the group is talking about the Elephant and the ways to move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cNymity\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, participants convene to discuss the Elephant in the Room. They have imagined this moment, established common ground, aired worries and objectives that open channels of discussion. Now, they participate by name, and share a personal story about the Elephant in the Room. The stories not only provide a point of entry, but set a non-confrontational tone to the discussion. It can be easy to question someone\u2019s logic, but harder to question how someone feels. At this point, identity has more meaning; participants are more aware of the context behind the discussion.<\/p>\n

This exercise has been helpful in building rapport among online discussion groups, but it could also be used to begin negotiations or mediation between unfriendly parties, build community amid deep-rooted bias, or solve problems collectively. Instructors can access the full instructions for the Elephant in the Room module in the teaching manuals of Professor Nesson\u2019s case studies from JuryX: The Snowden Effect<\/a>; Thinking Big<\/a>; The Decriminalization of Marijuana<\/a>; and The Color of Police Action in these United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some case discussion groups have the luxury of preexisting rapport, having already achieved affiliation and understanding. But for ad hoc or online case discussion, case-based learners may find it difficult to share honest opinions, making it hard to reach collective … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5482,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CR8M-gn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":262,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2013\/05\/07\/leadership-training-for-practicing-lawyers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1015,"position":0},"title":"Leadership Training for Practicing Lawyers","author":"Lisa Brem","date":"May 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Case Study Spotlight: Ernest Shackleton\u2019s Journey to the Endurance Ernest Shackleton\u2019s first journey to the Antarctic ended in a very public failure. On his second expedition, in a race to the South Pole, Shackleton turned back within 100 miles of his goal. In his third journey, Shackleton not only failed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Development Initiative Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Development Initiative Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-development-initiative-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/d\/d1\/Shackleton_nimrod_86.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":857,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/09\/23\/5-questions-with-professor-adriaan-lanni\/","url_meta":{"origin":1015,"position":1},"title":"5 Questions with Professor Adriaan Lanni","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"September 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Product: Prosecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case HLS Professor Adriaan Lanni came to us with a vision for her criminal adjudication class: teach students the ethics and discretion of prosecution. Rather than explain landmark examples of prosecutorial discretion herself, Professor Lanni wanted students to find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lanni","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2014\/09\/Lanni.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":673,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2013\/12\/17\/5-questions-with-dr-lisa-rohrer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1015,"position":2},"title":"5 Questions with Dr. Lisa Rohrer","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"December 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Lisa Rohrer will tell you that she\u2019s \u201cdrunk the case studies Kool-Aid.\u201d She has been writing and teaching case studies for years, and as the newly appointed executive director of the Case Development Initiative, she\u2019ll be overseeing the biggest source of case studies at Harvard Law School. We sat down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Development Initiative Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Development Initiative Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-development-initiative-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":874,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/11\/05\/5-questions-with-copyright-advisor-kyle-courtney\/","url_meta":{"origin":1015,"position":3},"title":"5 Questions with Copyright Advisor Kyle Courtney","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"November 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"New Products: What\u2019s Fair about Fair Use? The Battle Over E-Reserves at GSU (A) and (B) Kyle K. Courtney, Harvard University\u2019s Copyright Advisor in the Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication, wanted to develop a case study on the contentious institution of fair use at a university. He chose to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kyle Courtney, Copyright Advisor at Harvard University","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2014\/10\/9.13.13HLSHeadshots515-357x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1369,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2018\/03\/01\/fair-use-week-5-questions-with-kyle-courtney\/","url_meta":{"origin":1015,"position":4},"title":"Fair Use Week: 5 Questions with Kyle Courtney","author":"eyook","date":"March 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of Fair Use Week, we are reposting our blog about our case study: How Fair is Fair Use?\u00a0The Battle Over E-Reserves at GSU\u00a0(A)\u00a0and\u00a0(B) Since it was published, this case study has been downloaded 82 times. Kyle K. Courtney, Harvard University\u2019s Copyright Advisor in the Harvard Library Office for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kyle Courtney, Copyright Advisor at Harvard University","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2014\/10\/9.13.13HLSHeadshots515-357x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":905,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/12\/16\/case-studies-greatest-hits\/","url_meta":{"origin":1015,"position":5},"title":"Case Studies Greatest Hits","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"December 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"As the year comes to a close, we\u2019d like to share our greatest hits of 2014. Do you have our top cases and role plays yet? Top Three New Cases of 2014: Sue the Consumer: Digital Copyright in the New Millennium (FREE) An Advanced Problem Solving Workshop background note about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}