As someone who was sceptical of Virtual Facilitation (I practically learnt it only in the post pandemic era), I have come to terms with it. And at some point, got comfortable with it.
But a hybrid session - with a few folks online and few offline is truly challenging. For one, the rooms are not built to take it. The facilitator voice has to be carried from where the facilitator walks. Two, we need to be able to treat them a group (or groups).
Net result is a bit of a broken sub optimal experience. You forget to engage the virtual folks. Or if you are using a tool - a physical tool - they cant use it. Or they lose your voice and so on and so forth. We somehow managed it the last time we did a hybrid session - but yes, this is a problem that has not been solved for fully.
Some companies which have a built video conference rooms - these have mic pick ups throughout, the participants can see each other, the facilitator and the room - such places offer truly seamless hybrid experience, but other than that, hybrid sessions are an uphill climb.
Now that schools have started and teachers are working on online sessions - I can only imagine how much of a pain it is - thats when this thought came back to me.
As I said earlier, the post covid world will see some changes and this is one of the changes I hope to truly see.
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