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1/09/2007

Relieved ... [wipes brow] ... :) (SDI Webcast)

I can't tell you how relieved I am to have today's SirsiDynix Institute talk on Learning 2.0 behind me. With my training background and all the hours that I've logged standing in front of group of people, it seems very rare for me these days to work up a good sweat about speaking in public. But for some reason this online thing really threw me for a loop. The main thing I find mind boggling about it, is that 1) there's no way to see the faces of the people you're talking to so you can judge their reactions, and 2) you also don't have audio (laughter, chuckles, moans) to go by. For 50 - 60 minutes straight, your voice just has to fill a dead space in the hopes that some of what you may be saying is making sense to your audience.

Anyway, I'm glad it's over and although I barely slept last night, I feel pretty good about the presentation and was happy to see I was able to cover all the material with just a few minutes to spare.


In a review of my comments, a co-worker did point out one glaring piece of miscommunication in my presentation. So for those of who you attended, let me correct this here. The budget for Learning 2.0 project was 10K, not 1K as I blunder in the online presentation. I'm hopeful that some of you did do the math as I suggested, because 226 mp3 players (one for every participant who completed L2) x 38/player definitely comes out to more than $1000. Add to this figure (roughly $8500) and a new laptop that was raffled off at the end and you get the actual budget of $10K.

With that one misquote aside, everything else I shared was pretty much on target. If you're interested in the slides, I'll try and post them tonight they're added below. In the meantime, thanks to all who joined me on the nerve racking adventure. In retrospect, it wasn't that bad and yes, I think I could do one of those again. I'm just incredibly relieved to have this first one behind me and now all I want to do is get home and recapture my lost sleep.

Slides: Make Play your New Year's resolution (pdf)

PS: Archive of the event should also be up in a week or two.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

No need to worry, Helene, the presentation was terrific. Thanks for sharing.

Meredith Farkas said...

I just did a Webcast today for SLA that was 90 minutes long (!!!) and for which I got very few questions, so I definitely know how you feel. I'm feeling a little burnt out on Webcasts (I've done 6 already and have 2 more in the pipeline) because, like you said, they are more stressful than regular talks. I like seeing people's faces and their reactions. Telling a joke when you can't hear people laugh is really unnerving for me.

I'm rolling out our redesigned Website tomorrow (no stress!), but once the dust has settled, I can't wait to listen to the archive of your talk! I'm sure you did a great job, though. I always feel like an idiot when I do a Webcast, but the comments are usually largely positive, so I think it's hard for the speaker to be a good judge of their performance in that environment.

Anonymous said...

Have to thank you for a great SirsiDynix Institute talk. This fits in perfectly with what I've been trying to encourage at our library system. You did just fine and trust me I chuckled several times (in all the right places) even though you couldn't hear me. Thanks for posting your slides.

Beth Tribe
Howard County Library
10375 Little Patuxent Parkway
Columbia, MD 21044