Opting out of "presenting" online
Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 07:31PM If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.
W. C. Fields
I gave two talks for Libraries 2.0 yesterday and went to bed feeling incompetent. While a feeling of inadequacy is not exactly a rare occurrence in my life, feeling like I'd done a poor job as a presenter is pretty darned rare.
I'm still not quite sure why things didn't feel right. The evening talk was essentially the same one I gave (live) at AASL last Saturday that went well. I've done webinars before that felt positive and useful to participants. The Library 2.0 event itself was well organized.
There were some technical challenges, epecially in the evening session. I could not see the chat window and needed to rely on my moderator (who seemed to often be otherwise occupied) to relay comments and questions to me. No one attending seemed to use the hand raise, smiley/frowny face icons during the talk. I could load only a limited number of slides to the Blackboard platform. And I have to admit, by 8PM my energy level is not what it is at 8AM which may have been the major problem.
I am tempted to just take a pledge never to attempt another webinar - as presenter, anyway. It doesn't fit my style, temperament, abilities, etc. Just take Fields's advice above and stop being a damn fool about this one thing.
The bigger question is "Do we let all educators "opt out" of a method or tool that does not seem to work with their teaching style? I am tempted to say yes, but I am curious what reader's thoughts might be.
Reader Comments (9)
Absolutely. As long as the alternative is just as effective in communicating the ideas.
I agree with J. I know a very good math teacher who uses a chalkboard. His daughter, also a math teacher uses an IWB.
Hi Doug,
I couldn't agree with you more. I've done a couple of webinars and I think I lost a little bit more of my humanity each time. Maybe with practice it gets better, like radio talk show hosts. But I don't believe either of us would ever have opted for that as a career in the first place. It's about directly connecting with another's eyes.
In my opinion, the only reason to perpetuate this practice would be in the case of offering staff development for those who cannot afford it otherwise.
I am going to respectfully disagree - unless we all want to go back to overhead projectors and mimeograph machines. I do accept that there is a way that a teacher feels most comfortable teaching, but if we want our profession to advance and be given the respect it deserves, we must be ready and willing to adjust and adapt.
How many of our students would benefit from us getting out of our comfort zones and teaching to their strengths?
I have "attended" webinar sessions that have been wastes of my time; yours were not wasted time. As a "real teacher" turned teacher librarian and still relatively new to that scene,I always jump at the chance to read/listen to anything Doug Johnson (and a very few others).
That being said, backchatting during a webinar presentation often is off-topic and distracting, so I don't follow them closely. Perhaps I would (and do) enjoy and get more out of online, recorded sessions than live webinars.
I would much rather listen to and learn from a well-rehearsed online presentation in which the presenter has control of the technology. Please don't let the technology that's out of your control prevent you from sharing your expertise with us in the future.
Much of the value of a webinar for me comes from the audience, both as a presenter and a participant. If the members of the audience just sit there and provide no feedback, it doesn't matter whether everyone is in the same room or online. If there's not going to be any interaction, just record the lecture and upload it to YouTube.
We've been doing more with online training in our district (largely due to the fact that finding space is difficult and traveling to that space is even worse) and it's been a challenge helping people unfamiliar with working online learn to effectively moderate these sessions (I'm still learning myself). But I'm thinking we also need to help people understand how to actively participate in webinars, also not an obvious skill.
Blackboard.......there was your first problem. :-) Don't jump on me, I use Blackboard every day for my on-line U.S. History class, I know the problems of this stone age program.
Do we let educators "opt out" of a technology if it does not suit their teaching style? Absolutely, but with certain conditions. First of all, I agree wholeheartedly with Kenn. I am a huge proponent of educational progress, and I believe teachers, like students, should be given a toolkit to use in their lives. They need to be exposed to a wide variety of tools, then select the one(s) that work for them in a given situation. In the case of educators, the tools must also work for the students. For this reason, overheads, mimeographs, worksheets, etc. are not appropriate in the vast majority of cases.
I used Blackboard as a grad student and was underwhelmed with its functionality. There are many software options that create a much ricer, problem-free collaborative space, and those should be used for webinars when appropriate. I love the Library 2.0 experience, although I could not attend live (teaching all day in the library), the recorded sessions that I have seen, while not perfect, came out OK.
The key here is to be open to new tools, and be OK with discarding the ones that do not work in favor of tools that get the job done, both for the educator and for the student.
Doug - please keep presenting in online webinars, and request that the organizers provide a more user-friendly platform. A request from you would carry much weight, and event organizers need to be as flexible as the rest of us!
Len
Hi Spiro,
I think your last comment that without online opportunities some people would have no chance at training at all is a valid one. Better than nothing?
Doug
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the kind words. On reflection, I am guessing I would get better at online presentations were I to get more practice doing them (and not schedule them for evenings.) Comments on the blog post here are making me re-think my stance.
Doug
Thanks, Kenn. Good point.
Doug
Hi Tim,
This is a great point. I always include some purposeful discussion times in my F2F talks - why have I not done this more in the online stuff? Dead air making me nervous?
You made me think. Thanks,
Doug
Hi Rich,
The platform may be part of the problem. To tell the truth, I've not had enough experience to differentiate among them, but Blackboard did seem more limiting than some. But then my dad always said its the poor carpenter who blames his tools!
Doug
Thanks, Len. You and Kenn have made me reconsider. Dammit, I hate changing my mind!
Doug