I have been a part of webinars before. I watch scholastic virual field trips with my students, these are really just webinars. I also particpated in a parent webinar about my son's trip abroad this summer. Both of these experiences were positive and very similar. So I was surprised to find that School library journal's archived webinar was a different experience. The webinar I watched was 21st Century Digital Knowledge Management: The changing role of the media specialist with classroom technology . It was originally broadcast on May 13, 2010.
Unlike the other webinars I participated in, this webinar did not have any live video of the presenters. Instead it showed a powerpoint with audio from the speakers. There was a question area but all questions were answered at the end, there were no other interactive features. I found it hard to stay on task but that might be because of the quality of the workshop more than the presentation format.
Webinars are a powerful way to learn without a huge time or dollar committment. I don't see them replacing a conference. The energy and networking of a conference just can't be beat. I certainly see webinars augmenting knowledge. Watching a pre-recording seminar is much more flexible than keeping an appointment, but you do lose the ability to interact. The scholastic webinars allow the students to vote which would seem silly if we were not watching live.
The technology of a webinar is so simple. just click and view, and learn!
No comments:
Post a Comment