How to move from distance to presence in e-learning?

Presence is more than the inverse of absence.

The social presence theory states that presence has an essential social dimension. Everyone can see this with a simple exercise. For example, when one sets a rule of silence in an exchange. One speaking without interruption in a given time and the other listening in silence without sending back even non-verbal signals, the silence leaves room for expression and underlines the qualities of presence in the posture of transmission or reception.

The presence of the listener

The one who listens in total silence, including emotional silence and without moving a single muscle in his or her body, or even blinking, may feel a sense of discomfort for himself or herself and for the other. When the situation lasts, it can even be energy consuming not to let anything show to the one who is speaking in front of you. Eventually listening is weakened.

This situation illustrates that the gesture of listening and the associated nonverbal communication mark a presence when the body is inhabited. One may say nothing but if the nonverbal is expressed, a presence is perceptible. This is called active listening. To listen actively one should therefore not utter any words and let one's body speak.

The presence of the one who expresses himself

Presence is not just that feeling of assurance conferred by an imaginary rooting in the ground. The drama teacher tells you " root your legs in the ground, stand up straight, look into the distance, breathe deeply, occupy all the space, then your presence will radiate " Unfortunately, one's own presence depends on the gaze of the other. There is no immanent charisma that some people have and others do not. There are hardly any tips and tricks to project one's aura outside of oneself.

No power of the gaze that passes through men and walls makes you more present. Let it be known, speaking in front of someone who expresses nothing in return is difficult and particularly confusing, even more troubling than gloating alone in front of one's mirror. The speaker feels his opposite. Facing him, in total silence, he is either omnipresent or completely absent. Faced with the mask of a total void, the speaker loses his confidence. Without an audience one has no charisma.

Presence an alliance of mind and body

This situation shows that the sensation of presence is in the representation of the one who expresses himself as much as in the one who receives. It is the dual channel of physical presence and mental presence that ensures the balance of the relationship. If there is dissonance between these two dimensions, here is an imperceptible disturbance that sets in and gives the sensation of incoherence.

The need for alliance between the two presences guarantees the credibility of a speech. Therapeutic and pedagogical currents also perceive the importance of the body-mind couple in the idea of "here and now" presence. Gestalt Theory or form psychology shows the continuity of the couple in a system rather than its separation. Here and now presence also known as the "art of contact" illustrates the power of embodied attention. The gentleness of language in substance and form completes this art.

Acknowledging presence to oneself to others and to the world is at the heart of Theory U developed by Otto Scharmer. In the United States it is promoted by the Presencing institute and in France by the association Génération Présence. In this movement of ideas, what presence allows is a deep connection through relationship to perspectives of transformation of self, organizations and society as a whole.

Otto Scharmer refers to " generative listening " or " generative conversation " In longer times (more than 10 minutes), listening becomes more inner, layers of filters disappear, a state of full awareness can even be reached; little by little the listener touches deeper elements and goes to the essence of his or her being, a recomposition of beliefs can take place. Simple and sincere mutual listening produces possibilities of meaning beyond the beliefs and cleavages of representations nested in each of us.

How technology intersects with presence

Technology offers, through a debauchery of means of connection (telephone, visio teleconferencing, telepresence robot, hologram projection), the opportunity to feel close despite distance.

The science fiction author Isaac Asimov in his short story "Naked sun" written in 1956 evokes a planet where a man and a woman to be decent only communicate by interposed hologram. On this occasion he is the first to imagine human feelings in such a situation. He has the intuition of the social presence. This will then be the subject of extensive research at the time of the development of  online training.

In Garrison's model, distance is as much psychological and social as it is physical " certain collaborative interactions allow for the creation of a presence at a distance which, in turn, favors the emergence and development of a "community of inquiry"; this type of community then having a positive influence on individual and collective learning " Annie Jezegou critically analyzes this model. The dimensions of remote presence developed by Annie Jezegou in online training make us understand instead that with the growing use of technologies and the Internet,  relationships have been liberated from the suffered character of distance (2019).

In addition to physical and mental presence, the meaning of words that carry psychological and social reality matters. It is crucial to integrate the meaning of  exchanges and contexts. In communication one remembers the triptych between referent (the thing spoken of) - signified (the convention for expressing the concept) - signifier (the vehicle of expression, the material aspect of the sign).

Online communication, especially on social networks, feeds on implicits since a part of the messages that went through bodily presence is amputated. In the exchanges, it is a question of drawing information to understand the intention of his interlocutor from his way of using the means of communication :

• The choice of the medium of exchange : those taken as reference by a group or those chosen by one;
• The responsiveness in the responses, the rhythms, the tempos of the exchanges;
• The lengths of messages;
• The care given to spelling, forms, politeness, ethics in place;
• The regularity of a speaking engagement;
• The intrinsic quality of the messages, vocabulary, images, references from other situations;
• The repetition by others of the messages of one and its centrality in a network (frequency of reference to its interventions).

The transition from implicit to explicit information requires sustained attention to the social forms of exchange online. The balance between signified, signifier and referent is recomposed. The conditions of high relational quality in physical presence or online obey new benchmarks that therefore value more the fine understanding of the very social conditions of the interaction framework than of the words exchanged alone, even if those are essential.

Presence rather than distance better characterizes the pedagogical orientations to be explored in order to build mobilizing learning situations at times when attention is at risk of fragmentation.

Sources

Generative Listening - http://savoiragile.com/2015/10/15/au-dela-de-lecoute-active/

CNRTL -  http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/pr%C3%A9sence

Community of Inquiry in E-learning: about Garrison and Anderson's model Journal of Distance Education / Revue de l'Éducation à Distance, Canadian Network for Innovation in Education, 2010, 24 (2), pp.3-9

Jézégou, A. (2012). Presence in e-learning: theoretical model and perspectives for research. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education, 26(1).

Jézégou A. (2019). Distance, proximity and presence in e-Learning https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01951530

Presencing institute https://www.presencing.org/

Generative Conversation http://www.diffusion-focusing.org/doc/theorie-u-conversation-generative.pdf

Otto Scharmer - http://www.ottoscharmer.com/

Wikipedia - Signified and signifier - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signifi%C3%A9_et_signifiant

Wikipedia - Social presence theory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_presence_theory

Wikipedia - Psychology of Form  - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologie_de_la_forme

Theoretical model of the online learning community https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Modele-theorique-de-la-communaute-dapprentissage-en-ligne-Garrison-Anderson-et_fig1_291348549

Mindfulness Institute https://www.pleine-conscience.be/la-pleine-conscience/