3- Looking at my own experiences, I was trying to piece together what would be my most interesting thoughts on the topic of digital facilitation. The one I thought I can think of right away is, that it’s not for everyone. No matter how hard one tries or easy you make it to collaborate to use tech to bring people together, there will always be one (or more) that does not want to work in the medium. Even when everyone has the same goal, you know that there will always be members of the team or students, who will hunker down and fight you on everything.

I also feel that there is a lot to be learned on how to be a facilitator in the digital medium. It is harder and more time-consuming than face-to-face. Just because you’ve been decent in teaching the material in a classroom, you need to be aware that the digital realm of facilitation is a different beast altogether. The third thought on this topic can easily be summed up by my own experiences of facilitation online and working from home for the past two years. I feel that I enjoyed myself more online in a teaching/facilitation role than ever before and am dreading going back to the classroom in September.

2-Moving forward, I have questions about what the future will hold for the digital world of facilitation. Are we on the right track; or did the pandemic force the hand of online education/facilitation, forcing educators down a path we may not recover from?

1- Lastly, I will leave you with a quote from American journalist H.L. Mencken, which summarizes my initial thoughts on digital facilitation:

“Every complex problem has a simple solution that doesn’t work”

(Featured image courtesy of Sam Cotton)