I’m taking a class online.
It’s not my first online class, more like my one hundredth.
I’ve mastered the fine art of having my camera on when necessary and when not
to have it on. For example, I’ll have the camera on during a curriculum meeting
since I’m one of the hosts. But, during a faculty meeting, I am prepping to get
the hell out of Dodge, so I keep the camera off.
Oh, sure, occasionally I might add something to the Chat to
remind people I’m “really participating.” But mostly I just go about my other
business. If my camera is on during a meeting, you can bet good money that I’m
working with a split screen and totally doing something more constructive with
my precious time.
This particular class that I am taking is rather interesting, fun, and totally interactive if I so choose. It’s worth points toward renewing my professional teaching license, so I sort of want to pay attention, although the teacher is zooming through the information so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. Boring is not a word I would attach to this class.
So it must be sheer exhaustion that would cause anyone to
doze off during a forty-five minute interactive class. But, for the love of all
things sane, shut off your camera.
For real. SHUT. OFF.
THE. CAMERA.
This gal, and I tried to disguise her as best as I could in
the attached picture, totally slept during the class. She leaned back in her
chair and started sawing wood like there was no tomorrow. Part of me felt sorry
for her, but mostly I was disappointed. How can you be a teacher and not have
mastered the fine art of knowing when and how to nap during a meeting? Online
format is totally made for napping through meetings. It’s almost a given.
This is the difference between amateurs and professionals.
Professional meeting nappers remember to shut off the cameras, and truly gold-medal
pros will also throw a sticky note over the camera lens on the monitor just in
case that camera icon should activate again while we are napping.
