Hi! I’m David Fetterman, President & CEO, Fetterman and Associates, past-president of AEA, founder of empowerment evaluation, author/editor of 17 books, and the recipient of both the Lazarsfeld and Myrdal Awards.
Tired of meeting on Zoom all day? Want a bit more than talking heads to keep your colleagues, students, and clients engaged? Try an avatar-based format. VirBela allows you to communicate with people in a more “embodied” and collaborative manner.
You create your own avatar. In my case, I pick white or gray hair, glasses, a polo shirt, and jeans. Linda, my evaluation colleague, selects a purple outfit, dark hair, and sneakers. We meet in virtual classrooms and present our PowerPoint slides to prepare for an empowerment evaluation exercise. Later we sit by the beach in a private area to discuss the pros and cons of using a survey or focus group for our next task.
Hot Tip:
Navigating from room to room is easy – just select the setting from a menu. Moving around the campus simply requires the use of directional arrow keys.
Cool Trick:
One of the benefits of this collaborative meeting platform is that it gives you the sense of meeting with people in a shared setting at a conference, classroom, or recreational area. Just like in a professional association conference, you can “take off” on a boat and talk about both work and family – all from your desktop computer.
Rad Resource:
Give it a try when you want to enhance participation and collaboration, particularly with youth. It is a good way to keep everyone attentive and motivated, while combating Zoom-fatigue. I have a brief tour on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YpdXi8FRaU&t=68s.
For more information about VirBela see: https://www.virbela.com/.
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