“The Overly Online Hero” and Other Zoom-era Archetypes: Finding Joy and Humor in Remote Learning and Teaching
We are using this challenging moment of isolation and Zoom fatigue to consider how we might embrace uncertainty through the power of humor and collective storytelling.
In this unconference, participants will choose an online archetype to create a simple story -- one we may all commonly recognize during our time on Zoom. Our cast of virtual characters might include “The Overly Online Hero” (trying to “do it all”), “The Silent Chatter” (conversations in private in the Zoom chat), “The Fading Faculty” (trying to make it through the semester), “Just the Forehead” (non-committal camera angles), “Forgets to Mute” (self explanatory) among others. We will use our stories to create a collective matrix to determine what types of online interactions might produce the most joy and engagement in our lives. The matrix design is inspired by the New York Magazine Approval Matrix, and will be accessible and editable by each attendee during the unconference via a collaborative platform such as Miro.
The proposed unconference is scheduled as follows:
4 min: Introduction of archetypes and presenters (sharing individual experiences as faculty, staff, and administrators)
1 min: Introduce prompt: Choose an online archetype that is familiar to you. Create a story (beginning, middle, end) that recounts something experienced or something hypothetical that has brought joy to your digital life.
15 min: collaborative or individual working time in response to prompt
7-10 min: Discussion and integration into Matrix
In this unconference, participants will choose an online archetype to create a simple story -- one we may all commonly recognize during our time on Zoom. Our cast of virtual characters might include “The Overly Online Hero” (trying to “do it all”), “The Silent Chatter” (conversations in private in the Zoom chat), “The Fading Faculty” (trying to make it through the semester), “Just the Forehead” (non-committal camera angles), “Forgets to Mute” (self explanatory) among others. We will use our stories to create a collective matrix to determine what types of online interactions might produce the most joy and engagement in our lives. The matrix design is inspired by the New York Magazine Approval Matrix, and will be accessible and editable by each attendee during the unconference via a collaborative platform such as Miro.
The proposed unconference is scheduled as follows:
4 min: Introduction of archetypes and presenters (sharing individual experiences as faculty, staff, and administrators)
1 min: Introduce prompt: Choose an online archetype that is familiar to you. Create a story (beginning, middle, end) that recounts something experienced or something hypothetical that has brought joy to your digital life.
15 min: collaborative or individual working time in response to prompt
7-10 min: Discussion and integration into Matrix