Reflecting on the webinar life!
I think I now officially like webinars!
I've always been kind of -- well perhaps suspicious is too strong a word, but less than enthusiastic about webinars as a format for learning. They seem to carry a very high risk for being difficult to relate to, and presenting material in a stilted, difficult-to-hear format. I have attended very few webinars in my working life outside of a couple of software demos (which felt overly drawn-out), and so perhaps my perspective is also a product of only seeing them from afar..
Well, regardless, I very much enjoyed being a participant and a presenter in webinars over the past couple of weeks. Some of the main reasons:
I definitely think, in the future, I'd like to try limiting my amount of off-the-cuff speaking. I have long identified as somebody who enjoys talking without a script (though definitely with research and preparation!) but this time, while I think our presentation was generally successful in communicating its main ideas, I wish I had chosen fewer words and spoken more precisely. This was especially apparent to me at the end of the webinar, when I was trying to express ideas about Universal Design and felt that I was being rambly and imprecise. I've always admired folks who choose their words carefully, and in the spirit of other moments in SI 643 that have caused me to slightly rethink my social interaction style as an educator, I'd like to channel more of that energy in the future! I don't think I did a terrible job of this, just a takeaway I'm trying to internalize.
Overall, lovely experiences, great to be geeky about pets together, and yay to webinars generally!
I've always been kind of -- well perhaps suspicious is too strong a word, but less than enthusiastic about webinars as a format for learning. They seem to carry a very high risk for being difficult to relate to, and presenting material in a stilted, difficult-to-hear format. I have attended very few webinars in my working life outside of a couple of software demos (which felt overly drawn-out), and so perhaps my perspective is also a product of only seeing them from afar..
Well, regardless, I very much enjoyed being a participant and a presenter in webinars over the past couple of weeks. Some of the main reasons:
- The webinars emphasized asking the right questions. Even for topics that don't typically capture my imgination like the intricacies of copyright and orphaned works were extremely well-presented and engaging, and I think the heart of that was the emphasis on creating a space for questions that felt genuinely meaningful and curious.
- To that end, there was a really interesting interplay between formal presentation, attendee conversation in the chat, and chat-and-spoken interactions between attendees and presenters. Without exception, there was always something interesting and unexpected going on in the chat -- I particularly appreciated learning more about books for prisoners donation organizations, for instance. This dynamic did sometimes risk grabbing attention away from the main presentation, but I felt the push-and-pull between chat and presentation made things interesting and unexpected in a way that worked for me as a learner.
- 30 minutes feels like a nice slice of time to go deeply into a new topic. There was enough time to really explore a new topic area, talk out some important questions and hypothetical scenarios, and pique some interest, but it didn't feel intimidatingly long or a huge investment of energy. I feel like an hour is a reasonable limit for how long I'd like a webinar to be at maximum, although I definitely think 30-45 is great to shoot for/something I'll look for in the future.
I definitely think, in the future, I'd like to try limiting my amount of off-the-cuff speaking. I have long identified as somebody who enjoys talking without a script (though definitely with research and preparation!) but this time, while I think our presentation was generally successful in communicating its main ideas, I wish I had chosen fewer words and spoken more precisely. This was especially apparent to me at the end of the webinar, when I was trying to express ideas about Universal Design and felt that I was being rambly and imprecise. I've always admired folks who choose their words carefully, and in the spirit of other moments in SI 643 that have caused me to slightly rethink my social interaction style as an educator, I'd like to channel more of that energy in the future! I don't think I did a terrible job of this, just a takeaway I'm trying to internalize.
Overall, lovely experiences, great to be geeky about pets together, and yay to webinars generally!
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