After my post about a workshop I led for SAQA/Indiana, a commenter wrote: "This experience of yours reminds me of the value of taking a hands-on class over an on-line one.... I found these kinds of group evaluations always turned up unexpected ideas. A pooling of knowledge energizes the whole experience. Something similar CAN happen with on-line classes, but something is lost by not being in the same room with each other."
I have to agree that being in the same room with other people is usually the best part of attending a workshop. Even when the teacher is fabulous, it's better to be there when others are learning and doing alongside you. If the teacher is less than fabulous, it's really better to have comrades in learning; often you can come up with a group DIY response that compensates for whatever holes the teacher has left unfilled.
From the teacher's standpoint, it's also helpful to have several people in the room. If one doesn't understand your point, another often asks the right question; if one is being obdurate or crabby or goes off on a tangent, the others can often exert peer pressure to bring her back in line.
I have had good experiences with on-line classes -- the Photoshop classes from The Pixeladies were wonderful and I recommend them to any quilter who wants to up her tech skills -- but I have also had lukewarm ones. The better ones, as I recall, were those in which there was group conversation as well as individual back-and-forth with the teacher. Which is exactly the point!!
I had my second cataract removed on Wednesday and am thrilled with my wonderful new distance vision. For the first time since I was six years old, I can see out the window without lenses, and the trees are in focus! The tradeoff, of course, is that my wonderful new distance eyes are useless up close. I'm experimenting with my husband's drugstore reading glasses and they let me read, but I get vertigo if I try to look or walk across the room with them on. Another trip to the drugstore seems in order to find a better prescription. But this should last only a month until the eyes are both fully healed and I get new glasses.
Meanwhile I'm doing my daily calligraphy and my daily miniatures even though I can't really see what I'm doing. It will be interesting to look at these pieces later and see how bad they are! Here's my favorite miniature of the week, front and back:
My mom had her two eyes done, and had the same experience. Drove her nuts for a while as she is a button collector/historian, and does rather a lot of up-close work. Similarly another fiber artist friend was in the same boat. At least it passes and gets better. I'm sure I've heard somewhere that patience is a virtue. :)
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