Comments on: Maximizing face-to-face time

By: Jon Becker

Jon Becker — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:36:11 +0000

I spent a total of 14 hours at those meetings. If we had spent 1 day (8 hours) at the meeting actually talking, questioning, interacting, the value of the time would have been infinitely higher. I could have then had the other 6 hours as my own, to watch the video presentations and/or do other things. I could schedule the 4 hours or so of actual presentation time within those 6 hours or another time that works for me.

In the case of the Colorado teachers, the time the kids would normally spend doing homework is spent watching the teachers “lecture.” The time the kids normally spend in class being lectured at is spent working together on the activities that would otherwise have been done at home.

All that said, I would find a little extra time (not much, though) to commit to a learning experience if I knew there would be good, meaningful face-to-face time and some time to learn that could be scheduled flexibly.

By: Steve Ransom

Steve Ransom — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:12:26 +0000

@Justin – could we then at least break even on this and rather than spend 2 days at a conference along with 2 days of expenses, spend only one there, while covering the content in preparation prior to meeting face2face. The result potentially would reap greater benefits at no extended time cost and perhaps for personal cost savings. Of course, this is assuming attendees would take the time to prepare for face2face meeting time. If not, we are probably no farther ahead than before. I’m thinking along the lines of what some high schools are doing with podcasting. Refer to my recent post on the notion. http://ransomtech.edublogs.org/2009/02/28/youre-not-all-that/

By: Justin B.

Justin B. — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:49:26 +0000

I am a little concerned about time, though, Jon. I know where you are coming from and can’t count the number of hours of pointless presentations I have attended, but recording those ahead of time and then having participants watch them, in addition to coming to the actual lecture, seems to double the amount of time I have to devote to any one issue. Now, were you to cut a day off the session in your case for instance, then I would be all for it.

I know that in such a method of pre-recording and then interacting better face to face you are getting a better product, but you should get a better product, you are devoting twice as much time to it. If we are going to integrate technology, I want to save hours AND get a better product all at the same time. Just doubling the amount of time I have to devote to a project doesn’t really help me.

By: Lost_control

Lost_control — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:22:34 +0000

Cool!

By: You’re Not “All That” | EdTechTrek

You’re Not “All That” | EdTechTrek — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:34:21 +0000

[...] a recent post by Jon Becker, he notes that many professional presentation could be recorded a few weeks ahead of a meeting or [...]

By: Steve Ransom

Steve Ransom — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:20:33 +0000

So true. Somehow we all like to think that WE are the most important aspect of the content and that telling/reading it to a “captured” audience is the best way to deliver it. The same holds true in our own classrooms. No doubt, as you admit, information is important. But stand-and-deliver is not always to best use of face2face time where we could be taking advantage of the complex social mediation that needs to take place as part of learning.

Changing this is a challenge for us all, I think.