Face-to-Face Superiority and other reflections

I'm in a one week face-to-face residency program this week. The price to get here goes well beyond the cost of plane ticket and the hotel. There's work to miss, family to leave at home and all the other trappings of a stable well-adjusted adult life that require local attention. And there we go, "require local attention". I suppose that is really the big issue and the big debate with "online vs. face-to-face learning" what elements of learning require a physical local presence. What people and things need to be co-located for a period of time and what happens then and only then. It is a puzzle and I don't think I'll get any closer to an answer in this blog that others have gotten in much longer and much more concentrated efforts. That said, I think I'll move on and do a little reflecting on a particular face-to-face experience... Day 1 of my first year doctoral residency at UoPx

It was a long grinding day. Not an 8-hour powerpoint marathon but eight hours of diverse learners sharing stories of their personal educational journey and the sorts of challenges they had faced on their educational journey. I confess that I don't do emotional-encounter stuff so well. I have emotions but it takes me awhile to reach a level of self-disclosure that goes beyond the weather, current sports scores, and other ritual niceties of conversation. However, I am very empathetic to the emotions of others and try very hard to process their feelings when I encounter them. That is the kind of grinding day it was. Making sense of things is what learning is all about and making sense of people's feelings and current station in life is tough and intense learning. I learned a lot about the varied paths that people take on their doctoral journey. There is a lot unique to each journey but there are a lot of commonalities. The commonalities are comforting...even the painful ones have a comforting effect when shared with others. --At least that is the effect it has on me.

We covered some useful information about program process, way points along the way, things to look out for, etc. That will serve as good reference material (I took notes). However, the sharing had an effect that is larger than mere information that people conveyed about their lives. I can't really pin it down so I won't try to "make-up" something. I'm still sorting it out.

I spend some time staring at the ceiling....thinking about life, priorities, dream, ambitions, etc. I didn't have a great epiphany but did realize that I need more "ceiling-staring" moments. --Will try it again tonight.