Face-to-face is for Special Occasions

Clive Shepherd writes:

Having spent the past 25 years advocating the greater use of online tools and resources for education and training (not to mention many other aspects of our lives), I’ve met my fair share of opposition and have to admit that I’ve been frustrated at how slowly we have responded to the opportunity.

I needn’t have worried! All we needed was a pandemic. All of a sudden, it seems quite absurd to question the concept of online learning. For me, this is the silver lining on a very dark cloud.

Of course, the crisis will come to an end and, when it does, we have a chance to re-think before automatically assuming our previous positions. So, should we simply go back to doing as much learning as possible face-to-face? Or perhaps dispense with the idea of face-to-face learning altogether? To answer the question, I return to my post of 9th December 2011. For me, face-to-face is for special occasions …

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Ask yourself. What proportion of the music that you consume is at a live performance? Chances are it’s something between 0 and 10%. What proportion of the drama that you watch is at the theatre, rather than at the cinema or on TV? I’d be surprised if it’s more than a few percent. And what proportion of the sport you watch is in a stadium rather than on TV? You get the idea.

And yet, there’s a good possibility that those live events that you have attended – music, drama, sports or whatever – are among the most memorable occasions of your life. Perhaps even peak experiences.

If you wanted to up the percentage of time you spent watching live music, drama or sport, it would come at a considerable price in terms of admission fees, travel, time and sheer adrenaline. Chances are that, unless you’re rich and with considerable discretionary time, it would be completely impractical. In fact, with all the rush of modern working life, you’re probably finding it increasingly impractical to watch TV or listen to radio at the times at which the programmes are broadcast. A great deal of your media consumption is almost definitely asynchronous – under your time control – using downloads, streaming media and the like.

Is it too fanciful to apply the same logic to learning? The default position is now asynchronous and online, giving you complete control over time and place. If you want to share an experience with other learners in real time, you go synchronous, using some sort of virtual meeting platform. If you need a rich sensory experience that you’ll remember for years, then spend the money, put aside the time and meet up face-to-face at a conference or workshop.

There was a time when the only way you could listen to music, watch a play or a sporting event, or attend a class was live and face-to-face, because there were no ways to transmit or record these events electronically. Quite clearly those days are gone and we are the richer for it.

About – Clive Shepherd:

Clive is a workplace learning consultant, writer and speaker, working with a broad range of public and private sector organisations internationally, helping them to build capability and to transform workplace learning through the effective integration of formal, informal, on-demand and experiential learning.

Clive is regarded as an expert in workplace learning and development, with hundreds of published articles to my name. He is an author of a number of books, including The Blended Learning Cookbook, The New Learning Architect and Digital Learning Content: A Designer’s Guide. Clive speaks regularly at major international conferences and contribute regularly (although not as regularly as he did) to his blog, Clive on Learning. Clive has  designed and delivered programmes on digital and blended learning for the Chartered Institute in Personnel and Development, for whom he is a member of their L&D Advisory Group.

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