Presence in the Online World: A Contemplative Perspective and Practice Guide for Educators is an edited collection that addresses the question of how we can bring the insights of contemplative pedagogy into the space of online learning. While the digital space can be one of distraction and disconnection, contemplative pedagogy offers time-honored practices that focus on cultivating mindful presence, awareness, transformative growth, and deep connection. These practices can help learners and educators tune into both their inner and outer worlds at a variety of levels: emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual. The volume's contributors, who come from diverse disciplines, offer their reflections on their experiences bringing the contemplative and the online together during the tumultuous pandemic years of emergency remote, blended, and online teaching. They provide both practical guidance in introducing contemplative practices in the online or blended classroom and insights into the meaning of "presence" and the possibilities for deep connection in an online world. Together, their contributions demonstrate how students and teachers can cultivate a holistic presence with each other and to their shared human conditions as they navigate the virtual classroom.
Leslie Ann Jeffrey is professor of Political science at the University of New Brunswick Saint John. She specializes in human rights, gender politics and Global North/South relations. Agnieszka (Aga) Palalas is associate professor of open, digital, and distance education (ODDE) at Athabasca University and Director of the MEd and EdD Programs. Karen Robert is associate professor of history at St. Thomas University, where she teaches courses on Latin American history, world history, research methods, and global automobility Yuk-Lin Renita Wong is professor at the School of Social Work at York University.
Introduction 1.Guided Practice - Connecting to Land: Pause, Breathe Bill Cohen & Karen Ragoonaden 2.Being Whole in a Graduate Online Classroom: A Contemplative Perspective Agnieszka Palalas 3.Cultivating Emotional Presence: Building and Nurturing an Online Community of Inquiry Debra Dell 4.Vignette - Support for Contemplative Pedagogy Through Shared Teaching Presence Martha Cleveland-Innes 5.Grounding Presence: Beholding the Vulnerability of Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning Karen Robert 6.Vignette - Presence and Silence in the Virtual Classroom Margaret Anne Smith 7.Connection and Compassion: Presence Inside and Outside the Online Classroom Leslie Ann Jeffrey 8.Guided Practice - Presence With/In/Of Nature: Sit Spot Practice and Forest Therapy Walks Monika Stelzl 9.Fresh Eyes, Beginner's Mind: Contemplative Photography and A Walking-Based Pedagogy of Embodied Presence When the World Goes Online Yuk-Lin Renita Wong 10.Hard-wired for Presence in an Online World: A Contemplative Perspective and Practice Guide for Educators Charles Scott, Heesoon Bai, & Laurie Anderson Epilogue About the Authors
