Stephen Downes

This interesting post discusses the concept of 'presence' and breaks it down into five elements: attention, connection, self-knowledge, reflection and curiosity and creativity (I don't know why the last two are joined as one item, but they are). But really, for Alexandra Mihai, presence boils down to this: "Being truly present means engaging all of our senses (and) a recognition that the classroom is a shared human space. Presence means truly seeing and hearing one another, paying attention when someone speaks, responding thoughtfully, sensing the emotional atmosphere of the room, and developing awareness of the group dynamic." Which takes us back to a fairly traditional educationalist's stance. But I have to wonder - is the classroom the best place to foster anything like 'presence' as described here? I have personally found it to be the worst environment to focus on anything, let alone all the stuff described here.