I never considered myself a true Luddite; it was more of a posture. Now, the older I get, the more I fear I really am one. That's not a good realization at the beginning of BOLT 101.
Let me clarify "Luddite." I find myself preferring to not use technology, find myself steering away from it. I find myself with a short fuse when I use it. Thus, the tone of voice used by the blogger tutorial almost caused me--yes, it caused me; it was not a choice on my part (emoticon)--to shut my computer and go home for the day. I suppose this should give me pause and alert me to the fact that, when I use videos to connect to students I had better--what?--be myself behind the camera.
Which brings me to another issue of technology: self-awareness. I dislike conference calls, video chats with anyone I don't know, etc., because the technology makes me feel very self-conscious and self-consciously aware that I'm once removed from whomever I'm talking with. That and, like my children--this is not a good sign--I'm very tempted to make faces into the camera. Isn't that what cameras are for? "Say cheese" "Now do a funny one."
All these things make teaching in front of a computer somewhat counter-intuitive for me, which means I'm starting this with an uphill battle.
Then again, I've been trying to imagine doing all of this via written communication. I write better than I speak, so on one hand that's good news. Then again again, I can't imagine writing everything to everyone, so the idea of being able to record what I want to say makes me think, yeah, that makes sense.
In short, I've begun plodding along but I have hope that my plodding will become a more leisurely but directed stroll.
I had my mom ship out my collection of silly hats that were still in storage back at my childhood home just so that I can have something to wear in the videos I'll have to make for this class. If I'm forcing people to look at me looking slightly off center in their general direction via webcam, they should at least have something else to ponder besides whether that's a booger in my left nostril.
ReplyDeleteRight? Are students less self-conscious about mediation? Will this become the norm? Even when I did my youtube video, it paused me in awkward positions at the end that made the whole endeavor pure comedy.
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ReplyDeleteDonald - I will admit to doing a short video for class where I wore a St Patricks day hat, and another time a clown wig. Howard, I share your sense of awkwardness in how youtube and other video recorders have me in an awkward position with my mouth half open and just ready to talk... grrr!
ReplyDeleteI also think about the level of "quality" that we want to create for our students. Just like a movie like "Fireproof" has a great message that is almost undone by below average acting, I wonder how that applies to my video capture of myself for an online class. Do I just need to get over that? or will enough "practice make perfect"? And does it matter, because my in front of the classroom acting might not be that good either...
Brian Hoekstra (apparently I am BH on google and I really don't know how to fix that right now...)
Prepping for the camera just seems to add more angst and take more time. While I would like to "prep", in reality I don't think it matters, especially when we get caught in those awkward moments with your eyes half closed and mouth hanging open.
ReplyDeleteWhen my kids Snap Chat they certainly don't before their picture of video clip. In the world of techno spontaneity I would wager our emerging adulthood audience doesn't really care......so why does it matter to me?