The SCA ethics of online classes

I can confidently say I was one of the last of the old-guard of my group to carry a mobile phone at events. In fact, the only reason I really do now with any consistency is personal safety owing to some medical considerations.

I still twitch when I see laptops at events.

And I'm none too happy with the sight of tablets, either.

And I'm only marginally tolerant of cameras. (Its not that I don't live some of the photographs, mind you, but the sight of a $700 Nikon showing up in the middle of a field of view when I'm looking at $20K worth of court garb at an event is jarring, I will say)

Lets face it, the line of acceptability at events when it comes to technology had moved a mile since my first event in fall of 1997. We all thought email was a revolution in communication when it finally found us in Mooneschadowe, and our yahoo group was as close as some of us ever thought we would get to Star Trek.

And then Facebook rolled in, and the world changed forever.

I get it, as a society, we exist in a world where wristband sized PCs are no longer fiction, and are probably going to be practical home tech before my son turns twenty. That type of revolution is hard to keep out of our game.

But at the same time, we have to ask ourselves about some of the steps we take.

One of the hallmarks of SCA culture here in the north of Ansteorra is the collegium event, a chance for instructors to take center stage and teach what they know. The events are not terribly common, but they are respected and usually well attended. They, of course, build on the idea of the local class, be it A&S, heavy fighting, history, whatever the subject may be. The point is that a huge part of what we do involves coming together to learn.

Right now, the absolute last thing any of us what to do is to offer even the slightest incentive for people not to get out of their homes and come to local meetings or events. We do not want to do anything that breaks the community metric of learning that so much of The Dream is built on.

On the surface, an online class does that. Taking your class to video and offering it online, even in a log-in environment, more or less says up front that you don't wish people to get out of their chairs and come together to learn whatever it is you are teaching.

Like it or not, however you want to spin it, that is one of the major net effects.

And this is a large part of why I have avoided online classes, both giving them or taking them, in the SCA. Doing that, I felt, and still largely feel, diminishes from the social aspect of coming together to learn more. This is not trivial, and I feel it is a large part of the social contract that goes into medieval recreation.

So why, you might ask, did I just post a Facebook event notice for my "Introduction to SCA Lyst  (Tournament) heraldry"?

Well, let me tell you, it wasn't a simple question for me, and it wasn't something I just jumped into.

On the one side, we have a social metric and educational method that builds community and helps standing and new players better understand each other.

And on the other, we have a now largely free online platform that can allow us to easily reach a much larger audience than most people would be able to manage without a major event to bring them together.

So, I have compiled this list of questions that I asked myself before deciding that this online class is more beneficial than detrimental to the SCA.

Q. Is it practically useful to the SCA?
A: Yes. The overwhelming  majority of events in the region have tournaments that require heralds. 

Q. Does it encourage increased SCA participation?
A: Yes. people learn lyst heraldry in order to cry a tournament, and those are at events and some fighter practices.

Q. Does this teach a skill that can be used outside of the SCA? | Are we creating a way for people to skip the SCA all together and just gather information?

A. No, Lyst heraldry has almost no application outside the SCA. People who learn it are very likely to be at least intending to come to an events. 

Q. Does this do something an in-person class can not?
A. Technically, no. However, the current state of voice heraldry in our region (the north of Ansteorra) is exceptionally weak, with trained heralds few and far between, and most of what few new ones we have being worked too hard. The fact of the matter is that there are too few heralds across too large an area right now to make relying only on in-person classes practical. Lyst heraldry has to be taught, practiced, and and relearned semi-regularly in order to keep those heralds from getting rusty. What an online class does is it lets me reach a larger audience more frequently in order to refresh and teach skills that are needed at events.

Note: When heraldry in my area is healthy enough to self support, you will probably see me stop teaching my class online, but for the moment, this is the way I see this equation sorting itself out.

This is hardly a complete philosophy. In fact, I'm sure as I move forward, I'm going to change this perspective a lot. But this is where I am starting with this concept at the very least.

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"