I did a synchronous session with my Drexel class directly after my class in Cork. Here’s the main thing I learned—I rely on my “audience,” so much. The thing I hadn’t thought about at all was that I wasn’t going to get affirming head nods and eye contact and smiles. I got a huge vacuum of silence, and it was the funniest to me when I made a joke—no one laughed! But they could’ve been laughing, for sure, alone in their own rooms or coffee shops or wherever they had decided to log in. No one was going to hit their “talk” button just so I’d hear them laugh or nod or even say, “Ok.” But here’s the best part: that didn’t stop me from pausing and waiting for it…

Also interesting to see how many of them didn’t turn on their video—let’s see—that would be–practically all of them. So I decided my only recourse was to turn mine off and on, off and on. That part is actually very hard, too, to watch yourself talk even though it’s a little window in the corner of the screen. Every time I drove myself crazy with how much I touch my hair or face I had to shut the video down. Next week I’m going to try to be more professional (or something) and turn it on when I’m talking for a bit, then shut it back off. That would make sense, right? Be the Big Brother talking head when I’m speaking, but shut my face down when I’m not.

It went fast and was fun, but I miss the energy of 20 people actually in the same room.