I am a highly visual person, and so the process of both participating in and creating a webinar has been an interesting one for me, because while there are slides and a chat box, there is no visual feedback of either moderators or participants. Despite that, I find myself having a fondness for the form. I really enjoyed attending my classmates' webinars and a few days later, find myself retaining the information that I gained from them much better than I would have expected, given my pretty dismal track record of being able to recall spoken lectures. It probably helps that all of the topics emphasized serving underserved communities in the library, which was one of the cornerstones that drew me to library science in the first place.
Creating a webinar was interesting, because it forced me to think about how I was presenting content in a whole new way- the slides are only on computer screens, rather than a projector, which changes how they can be read, and the logistics of being able to have a presenter and someone moderating the chat at the same time were not insignificant. I presented my webinar this morning, and for some reason, when I practiced, it went perfectly. When I was actually speaking to a live audience, I stumbled over my words, forgot what I was saying, and felt otherwise discombobulated. It was not a bad first attempt at a webinar, I think, but I was taken aback by how different presenting to audience felt, even when I could not see them.
Lessons moving forward? Always, always test your equipment first. And practice makes perfect, particularly if you can practice with an audience, with the chat box distracting you at the side of the screen.
I didn't get to see your webinar (I'm sure you did fine!) but I can definitely relate to feeling "discombobulated." It's odd to be talking to people in real time, but unable to see or hear them. And the chat box really is distracting. But I think you're right that, with some practice, webinars are a good format for teaching.
ReplyDeleteI think it's normal to have some issues when first learning a new system, like Webinars. I know that Krista and I got together to mess around with Blackboard for at least an hour, but when it got to the morning of our presentation, there was still some confusion over how things were working. I found, for me at least, that having the chat box covered and being comfortable enough to have my peer moderate the chat while I spoke, helped me stay grounded in my speech a lot. I think if I had been able to see the chat box as I was talking, I would have been much more distracted and detached.
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone in feeling that there is a lack of visual feedback in the webinar format for the presenter. I feel that there is an unperceived, at least for me, dialogue that occurs when one presents or teaches a workshop between presenter and audience. And this dialogue is lost in a webinar. The mechanisms of the webinar platform attempt to create a virtual version of this dialogue, through the chat box, etc., but it feels rather forced and is not quite the same.
ReplyDeleteAs I read your post I could identify with having to speak and having something distract you at the same time. My experience is from the listener’s point of view however. When you are listening to someone’s presentation, and you have to try and listen to the presenter and the screen reader, it’s challenging. But as you say, practice makes perfect. So the more I do it, the better I’ll get.
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