HIgh Tech, High Touch - Long Live F2F
Tuesday, March 7, 2006 at 03:48PM As I start getting mentally prepared for 12 hours flight time (probably close to 20 hours total travel time) to Santiago, Chile this Saturday where I will be presenting at an AASSA conference, I read with some interest the following from Elliott Masie's "48 Learning Hours in a World Getting Flatter"
... in these 2 days:
- Saudi Arabia by Video - Tuesday Morning - 1:30 AM: Sitting in my office in Saratoga Springs, NY, I deliver the keynote address to the Higher Education establishment in Saudi Arabia on the future of e-learning...
- Board Meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio By Video - Tuesday 9:30 AM...
- Tom Friedman by Web - Tuesday 11:00 AM: I leave the Board meeting to participate as a student in a live via web e-Learning segment by Tom Friedman, produced by Linkage...
- Leadership Coaching by Video - This Morning: As I send off this note, I'll be heading into a quarterly coaching session that I lead, via video, with the leadership of a telecommunications company...
- Tonite: Australia Defence Department by .WAV File & Phone: At 6:30 PM, I will go "down-under" via a lower tech model of collaboration...
Part of me thinks that Massie has a pretty slick deal going. Lots of work, lots of teaching/learning going on, and probably a very large bank deposit at the end of the month. But another part of me, the larger of the two, shudders. Even knowing I will emerge from the plane next Sunday morning tired and cramped with sinuses full of viruses and legs filled with blood clots, I am delighted to be actually travelling. Why?
Mary Ann Saffer in a March 5 posting to LM-Net, perhaps offers a hint as to why I'd rather put up with the discomfort and time commitments of travel than go "virtually":
...On page 242 of [Making Love Last Forever, Gary Smalley] writes "At Purdue University, a study was conducted with librarians. Half were asked to touch those who came in to check out or return books or ask for information. The other half were to conduct business as usual, with no touching. And the study concluded that those who were touched had higher regard for the librarians and the books in the library, and they followed the rules more willingly."
I much prefer teaching when there is genuine real, live human interaction. I've taught totally online courses; I've taught ITV classes; I've presented over ITV to organizations in other states; and I've even done taped seminars. It's not that I'm technophobic - it's just that I prefer to teach in an F2F environment. Even though there is minimal physical contact when I work at conferences (and I am not just saying this because the LWW might be reading), there is contact and communication that goes on in a physical room that just doesn't happen in a virtual space.
John Naisbitt in 1982's Megatrends predicted:
- The utilization of electronic cottages will be very limited: People want to go to the office; people want to be with people.
- Computer buying will never replace the serendipity and high touch of shopping for what we want to be surprised about.
- Teleconferencing is so rational, it will never succeed.
He didn't write, but I hope: The world will never get so fast paced that people will not take the time to meet physically to learn. Bricks and mortar schools and libraries, real conferences, and human teachers will be supplemented, not supplanted by their virtual counterparts.
One can hope. Given the choice, would you really prefer an online class?
Rants 
Reader Comments (2)
Safe journey to you. My humble thought is...as an avid blogger, real-life class (face-to-face should be the only way. This provides for more "blogable" material online.
be well,
Amy