Both Sides Now
I recently returned from a wonderful extended teaching trip in New Hampshire, where I got to see the last of the brilliant fall leaves, spend a perfect day in Boston, and make friends with lots of great weavers.
In 2020 I was able to teach just a few live workshops before covid shut down the rest of my schedule for the year. I spent the remaining months figuring out how to record loom demonstrations, put all my lectures into a slideshow format and teach on Zoom. In 2021 I taught 21 Zoom workshops, perhaps slightly awkwardly in the beginning, but becoming more and more adept as the year went on.
Then this year, exactly two years to the day after my first workshop was cancelled for covid, I ventured out on my first live workshop again. I loved the experience of being with weavers in person again, even though we all had masks on for that first workshop. Now we are all vaccinated or choosing to continue wearing masks.
As this year approaches its end I see that it has been a fairly balanced mix of live and virtual workshops. The coming year looks like it will probably have a similar balance.
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the Joni Mitchell song where she muses on clouds, love and life from different points of view. I’ve been thinking lately about the pros and cons of the two formats of teaching, both from a guild and student point of view and from my own as the teacher.
For guilds, there is no need to find and book a location for the workshop. There are also no travel expenses to cover, and no need to find someone who is willing to host and take care of the teacher. This keeps the cost of holding a workshop down for both the guild and the workshop participants.
The feedback that I get from students is a fairly strong preference for taking workshops by Zoom. This is what I hear that they like -
They don’t have to schlep a loom, tools and materials around. They can work on the loom they like best at home.
They have time in between Zoom sessions to get more weaving done. This is because I typically teach two non-consecutive days on Zoom in each of two weeks unlike my live workshops which are usually three or four days in a row.
The Zoom sessions are recorded and can be watched by participants as many times as they wish, which enables them to absorb more information.
No travel involved - this is especially beneficial for anyone who lives more remotely or has any kind of travel or mobility issues.
Some of the downsides for the Zoom workshop participants -
They miss out on the social aspects of a live workshop.
They don’t get to see and feel my woven samples.
They don’t get to walk around the room to see and learn from what the other weavers are doing at their looms.
If there are problems with their loom or their warp it can be very challenging for me to help with the troubleshooting.
I’ve counteracted some of these downsides by scanning my woven samples and including them in new slideshows. I also have students send me photos of what they are working on and I put together a virtual class show & tell slideshow for the end of each workshop.
I’ve learned a lot of new skills in the process of getting set up for teaching on Zoom. Now that I am teaching in-person workshops again I’m incorporating much of my Zoom materials into the live workshops. Instead of standing at a whiteboard and drawing with markers, trying not to block the view from any of my students, I now use my prepared slideshows and talk through the lectures during class sessions. My finished slides are much neater and more effective than what I can draw on a whiteboard. I also have the option of doing live loom demonstrations or showing the recorded videos or both. There are some advantages to both approaches.
And what about the pros and cons of these two formats of teaching a workshop from my point of view?
Not having to heft a heavy carry-on full of samples up into the overhead bin of an airplane. That suitcase somehow seems to be getting heavier as I get older!
As already mentioned, there has been an overall improvement in the appearance and professionalism of my materials because of using available technology.
I can send out links and pdf files for materials. Students can download and print off their own notebooks, saving me the time and expense for printing and compiling notebooks and either having to ship them ahead or carry them with me.
I am able to reach an audience all over the world. I’ve had students from every time zone in the country and many around the world come into my Zoom workshops.
I would say that overall time involved is pretty much a wash. It’s true that I don’t have days on both ends of a workshop for travel getting to and from, but there is also more time spent on preparing and constant updating of materials. From beginning to end a virtual workshop spans about ten days to two weeks of my time communicating with students rather than three or four days.
As for the downsides for me -
Much more time sitting at my computer with a bright light in my eyes than I would like. I can tell that my body would much rather spend a day walking around a workshop room than sitting in a chair at the computer.
Technology glitches! The technology is a real gift when it works, but a nightmare when it doesn’t. My internet and my power have gone out in the middle of a workshop session more than once. Just this last week my power went out and I had to reschedule a session for 25 students. Lesson learned - always have a contact phone number!
People expect I would say that not having to travel is an upside to teaching on Zoom, but the fact is that I love to travel and have missed it over the last couple years. I don’t even mind my days at airports and on airplanes as long as everything goes smoothly. I’m able to get a lot more reading done than I do in my regular life.
And most of all, not being with weavers!
I figure that over the past fifteen years or so I’ve had the opportunity to have several thousand students and have probably had a couple hundred wonderful hosts. I’ve become good friends with many of these weavers. Many of them have visited me in Santa Fe, I have visited and stayed with some of them while I’ve been traveling, and I have even traveled overseas with some of them.
I’ve gotten to see many parts of our country that I likely wouldn’t see otherwise, and have gotten to have so many wonderful experiences that I doubt I would have otherwise. Some particularly memorable ones have been -
Dancing in a music video that the son of my host was making with his band.
Participating in a dragon boat crew practice in the waters around Vancouver B.C.
Getting to attend a concert by Itzhak Perlman and the afterparty for his Sri Lankan pianist.
Riding on a garden railroad -
I’ve gotten to visit many cities and towns, see all kinds of local sights, and see all kinds of museum exhibits that I never would have seen otherwise.
So in the end, I have to say that it’s all good. I’m glad that I’ve gotten to teach so many of you, even if I only see you as a little window on my computer screen, and I hope to see many of you in person at a workshop or conference somewhere in the world in the future.
