IN-PERSON: Learning. Life. Work

Abstract

In our experience, hybrid teaching and learning have often been a disappointment. Like a hybrid car that runs on gas and battery, online and face-to-face students are brought together but simultaneously segregated from one another socially and physically in the interest of making education “work”. Like the mule, the combination of asynchronous and synchronous (or virtual and in-person) learning allows us to carry an increased load of students; yet, it has often proven an infertile ground for connection and creativity. Relational, embodied and holistic education is not new. However, hybrid learning creates renewed challenges in bringing our minds, bodies, and souls together: we struggle to create a shared sense of place and togetherness; the lack of synchronicity prevents the entrainment of bodies and ease of building community; we can feel ungrounded, placeless (neither “here” nor “there”), and disconnected in our Hollywood squares. We are too often left self-conscious and with aching bodies. We are students and instructors with an interest and experience in embodied and relational learning. In our interactive presentation, we explore how hybrid education can become more holistic, allowing for embodied, relational, and rhizomatic possibilities. During our session, we will: offer our experiences as well as insights from educational literature, elicit participants’ ideas and experiences, and invite attendees into embodied exercises of inquiry as we work together in exploring and creating alchemistic pedagogical possibilities in hybrid education.