Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Face value: why won’t students turn their cameras on?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This article begins asking you to imagine yourself as a lecturer presenting online. "You conclude, sit down and ask for the thoughts of the students. Silence." Now we are led to believe that this is because of the medium. "Everyone would prefer to be teaching and learning in person. When the cameras are off, virtual learning feels impersonal." But no. First, I've seen exactly the same thing happen in in-person lectures and classes. And I know that, if an instructor stares as intently at a person as a camera does, they'll hide from the instructor too. The article invites us to think of the camera as an invasion of privacy - and in many ways, it is - but it should question more this idea that teaching consists of talking face-to-face, staring into each others' eyes.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 25, 2024 08:42 a.m.

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