I’m working strictly on a hunch here, but I think there’s a connection between the sentiment I tried to express here about not getting lost in the bells and whistles of technology, and this article about “hybrid businesses”. One Foot in the Virtual World, One Foot in the Real World According to the author, Glenn Kelman, a hybrid business has “one foot in the virtual world and one foot in the real world.
I keep learning and re-learning this lesson. Be very careful about calling someone, or even thinking about someone as a “former student”. Of course, at BTC, we tend to think that way all the time. We work hard to keep people in classes, and when students don’t come back, it’s very easy to see the enrollment numbers, not the people behind them. Why don’t people come back? See? Even asking the question that way makes it seem like a “
I’ve been working on this video, documenting an instructor training we recently hosted at Brookline Tai Chi:
Our director, Perry, selected music, but YouTube came back saying it was copyright infringement to use that track. Ok…so it gave me an alternative called AudioSwap. This is unbelievable. Basically, YouTube has a soundtrack generation engine, that you can browse by genre and artist and even filter per the length of your video.
I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this work in the future, but we’ve just done a series of demos this fall highlighting the expanding role of evidence-based Tai Chi programs as public health interventions. When you look at the cost of a fall for older adults (I’ve heard figures like $20,000) and the good evidence that Tai Chi can reduce falls and fear of falling (now considered a risk factor for falling), it makes so much sense to fund Tai Chi classes all over: senior centers, assisted living facilities, community centers.
