Suddenly Virtual

CHAPTER 6Best Practices for On‐Camera Communication Through a Webcam: The On‐Camera Coach Perspective

Decades ago, Hollywood showed us glimpses of what videoconferencing should be like. In 1989, you might recall that iconic scene in Back to the Future Part II when Marty McFly is fired by his boss who screams at him through the video monitor. To go even further back, think about that videophone that was prominently featured in The Jetsons, the cartoon from the 1960s that lived for decades through reruns. In both of these shows, the technology worked in a similar fashion. With a push of a button, a friend, coworker, or irate boss popped up on the screen, as ready for a conversation as if you were both in the same room. The only oddity was that you could only see the top half of the person on the screen.

Sound familiar?

Yes, the old Hollywood version of videoconferencing does resemble the real‐life version today, but there's a distinct difference. In the fictionalized version, the characters could easily carry on a conversation with whoever was on screen, all while maintaining the same eye contact that they would face‐to‐face. Both parties could easily read each other's expressions along with hearing each other's words, all while looking straight into each other's eyes. Unfortunately, the technology available to most of us today lacks a camera lens embedded in the screen, which limits our ability to hold natural eye contact with our conversation partners.

Imprecise eye contact ...