Zoom and Gloom vs Empathy and Creativity

As with a previous post here with Steve Blank (offered again below) talking about how we need to have quality online media interactions that preserve or enhance our humanity, and our sharing of our persona/ self, this AEON essay below delves into our current limitations, and where we could improve, as well as a mini survey of related philosophy that applies to eLearning.  Kudos to Gary for link.

This virtual world is new and different, and not supportive of the kinds of correspondence that we’re used to. We can use emojis and mechanisms such as the ‘raise hand’ button, but it’s just not fluid enough to achieve meaningful entanglement across the void. I encourage my students to use visual gestures on camera. Some school students, I know, have developed a sign language so that they can indicate their emotional states without interrupting the flow of a lesson. That’s good, but takes time and will to adopt.

 

Without that, I guess that my collaborators are probably having as bad an experience of videoconferencing as I am. We get a glimmer of light when a ripple of laughter spreads, falteringly, in response to a video feed somehow appearing upside-down. That’s the kind of thing we need to cultivate (laughter, not upside-down video). But I suspect that the participants are too nervous to let go properly. And the laughter isn’t accompanied by the visual cues that we use to feel confident about its meaning and appropriateness. I make a mental note: practice ice-breaking and ways to reduce the formality.

 

Calm matters in technology. It should be one of the main design goals