“Ghosts by a black hole” (2021). A collaboration of my children, ages 7 and 5. Photograph © 2021 Esa Ruskeepää.

I headed this first subject with Sebastian in our ONL211 peer group.

We decided to focus on two points: how much of your personal life and/or yourself should you share, and what kind of professional content should you share and how.

I was thinking a lot about this peculiar fact: why is a lecture, recorded at a live event with live audience, so much more effective than the same lecture, recorded at a classroom and/or with blue screen without audience?

I can watch live lectures online one after another without getting bored but will be struggling to get through one lecture recorded by a teacher all by him/herself. This is especially the case with video. Audio works much better without audience, but even with audio there is a psychological difference. I have listened to several podcast by Richard Pogge on astronomy, recorded at the Ohio State University during live classes. You almost never hear audience but just to know the audience is there makes the content easier to approach. This is mysterious to me.

Maybe the reason is that we are all social beings and just knowing we are not alone (temporal differences aside) will make us more receptive, more alert, more focused? I personally enjoy making things by myself, being by myself, but this is a clear indication about some basic human condition. Important lesson about teaching and learning!

In addition to our focus points, I remember Doug Belshaw’s eight essential elements of being digitally literate from his meme-filled TED Talk:

1. Constructive
2. Communicative
3. Civic
4. Critical
5. Creative
6. Confident
7. Cultural
8. Cognitive