Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
“Flying by Foy” in the classroom: face-to-face teaching as live theater, wires, pulleys, and all

“Flying by Foy” in the classroom: face-to-face teaching as live theater, wires, pulleys, and all

Last updated on: April 28, 2020 at 5:41 am by Kristin Du Mez

“Flying by Foy” in the classroom: face-to-face teaching as live theater, wires, pulleys, and all 2020-04-27T14:12:29-04:00 Kristin Du Mez

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Elesha Coffman, Baylor University

In this semester of Coronavirus, we professors who are accustomed to face-to-face teaching have to think hard about what we did in the classroom and how to translate that work into an online environment. In a previous job, I taught in-person and asynchronous online sections of the same class during the same semester, so I’ve had a bit more time to ponder this than many of my colleagues. During that earlier experience, I came to think of in-person teaching as akin to live theater, but not for the reasons that come most readily to mind. Consequently, I believe that teaching online, which is more akin to TV or movie production, poses formidable pedagogical challenges—but, again, not for the reasons that come most readily to mind.

Teaching a class, whether in person or via video, is a performance. Voice projection, body language, and set design all matter. There can be stage fright. In person, the teacher can read students’ reactions and use that feedback, and that energy, to fuel the presentation. Neither the feedback nor the energy conveys as well on-screen, which leaves many people who got a charge out of in-person teaching depleted by the online simulacrum. There’s a “collective effervescence” in the classroom that no Zoom meeting can replicate. This is all significant, but—at least for an introvert like myself—it is not the most significant way in which online teaching differs from the in-person variety.

When I say that face-to-face teaching is like live theater, I’m thinking of production values, “Flying by Foy” versus CGI. The amateurish, cobbled-together clunkiness that mars so much of our online teaching is, I believe, what makes our in-person teaching successful.

“Flying by Foy” is the company founded by stage-effects specialist Peter Foy (1925-2005), who, among other accomplishments, made Peter Pan fly on Broadway. He used harnesses, wires, pulleys, and pendulums to create a credible appearance of flight, but his systems were never invisible. A sharp-eyed audience member could spot the moving parts and guess how the tricks were done. Often, I would imagine, this ability enhanced rather than detracted from a spectator’s enjoyment of the performance. There is awe in watching a fellow human seemingly defy the laws of gravity, but there is also delight in the dawning realization, “Oh, I see how they did that.”

Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) produces very different responses from viewers. There are no wires or pulleys visible, and often very little that is recognizably human. The visuals are successful to the extent that they are polished and seamless. Only someone with extensive graphic-design proficiency could begin to imagine how the effects were produced. No one else gets the frisson of realizing, “Oh, I see how they did that.” That kind of participation, of imagining how one could recreate what is seen, would interrupt the suspension of disbelief and likely ruin the experience.

Online teaching (particularly but not exclusively of the MOOC variety) is like CGI in that its success is tied to production values. For most of us, watching our home-recorded lectures produces more cringes than delight. We’re trying our best, but when students grumble or don’t watch or (we suspect) start the video and then leave the room, we can’t entirely blame them. Instead of recording any lectures this strange half-semester, I repurposed existing, well-produced video content instead, for precisely this reason. My non-existent video editing skills can’t compete with John Green’s “Crash Course” series, so it didn’t seem worth my time to try. I don’t judge any instructor who made a different choice, I just could not bring myself to talk to my screen, knowing how unsatisfying the resulting video would be.

In the classroom, low production values operate very differently. I don’t mean that a mumbled lecture or ugly PowerPoint is better than an audible, aesthetically pleasing version of the same. We try our best in the classroom, too. But whether our teaching persona is more “sage on the stage” or “guide on the side,” or some mix of both, we do whatever we do live, unedited, no post-production. The wires and pulleys are on display for all to see.

Elesha Coffman, courtesy Baylor ISR

Yes, we train and practice for this. Yes, we are the experts, and if we traded places with a student, the educational quality would go down. Teaching is a performance, and the gifts of the performer matter. But a sharp-eyed student can see the moving parts of our lessons, can glimpse the disciplinary methods that support intellectual flight, can—if we’re doing our job well—imagine how they could recreate what they’re seeing. In the low-tech, face-to-face setting, a student is not just learning history, or sociology, or mathematics, but how to be a historian, a sociologist, a mathematician. “Oh, I see how they did that,” the student realizes, “and I bet I could do it, too.”

It’s not impossible to bring students to “I bet I could do it, too” awareness through online learning. It’s just a lot harder, and the better (by most metrics) we get at conveying content online, the harder it is for students to see the wires and imagine themselves in flight. So perhaps the question for online instructors is less “how can I make this smoother?” and more “where can I let the scaffolding show?”

Talk about method. Talk about how what you’re doing online isn’t what you usually do, and what you think is lost (or gained) in the transfer. Talk about what it’s like to perceive the world as a historian, a sociologist, a mathematician, in this moment. What are you reading? What are you wondering? What are you worried about? What were you recently amazed to discover? What did you previously think that has since been proven wrong? You know, the stuff you used to say off-the-cuff in class, that wasn’t on the PowerPoint. The stuff that would never survive post-production edits on a video meant to be used over and over and over, as if your academic discipline were a static, unchanging thing severed from its historical context.

By all means, produce materials you can use again, if possible. You may well need them in the fall or beyond. Just don’t hide all the wires and pulleys. Your students need them, more than they know.

About Kristin Du Mez

Elesha Coffman teaches American intellectual history and religious history at Baylor University. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

April 27, 2020

A Mist That Appears For A Little While

Next Post

April 29, 2020 How Unique is Our Present Crisis Really?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who prepared spices for Jesus' burial?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Salome Martha Mary Magdalene Mary