Attend a Live Webinar

This week's assignment (actually last week's) was to attend a live webinar.  The reason I'm posting today is because I attended a webinar today.  I actually had planned on attending a webinar last Wednesday night, but, even though it was marked on the calendar, it was not presented, presumably due to Thanksgiving being the next day.  Anyhow, I found a webinar on Discovery Education to attend.

The webinar that I attended was titled Discovery Education Techbook: The Student Experience.  The hour-long program was hosted by a man named Duane Waber and began at 4 p.m. on Monday December 2, 2013.  Before I was able to attend, I had to download Cisco's Web Ex application.  The presenter announced his arrival and explained that he was a substitute presenter due to the original host being unable to attend.  He welcomed everyone, explained the purpose of the webinar, and gave the attendees access to view his desktop.  From there, he walked us through the steps on how to create and manage classes in the techbook and gave us a general tour of the techbook interface and how to switch between grade and content areas.  He continued with explaining how assignments worked and how they could be shared through a wide variety of social media including Facebook and Edmodo.  Finally, he showed us a newer application within Discovery Education known as the "Board," which was very similar to Glogster.  He also showed us how students and teachers could share "Board" projects with others throughout the Discovery Education Network.  He concluded by asking for any questions, to which there were none, and thanking the attendees for their attendance.

In order to break down my observations of the webinar as a medium, I've created three lists below as strengths, weaknesses, and strengths/weaknesses (I'll explain that one when I get to it).

Strengths
The greatest strength of a webinar is the ability to communicate with the host, attendees, or both.  It is not just a lecture, rather a conversation.  This allows for the host to mold his talking points to his audience.  For example, the host of this particular webinar asked, "has anyone ever used the techbook before?"  I explained that I used it briefly, but for a grad class, not on my own.  Other participants stated that they had never used it.  So, the host took a very general approach to the content.
Some other strengths I observed were the ability to collaborate with people from all over the world, the ability to archive, and, something I hadn't thought of before, the ability to replace a host.  As for the latter, I thought it was neat that, in the event of emergency or some sort of happenstance, someone else could step in instead of canceling the broadcast.

Weaknesses
I really only noticed one weakness with the medium.  Technical difficulties happen, oftentimes beyond our own control.  Power outage, lack of Internet connection, or other hardware issues can render a session kaput.

Strengths/Weaknesses
Finally, I created this category because each item can be a strength or a weakness.  The first strength/weakness is the ability to view the host's desktop.  Its great for demonstration purposes, but if you were to follow along with the host on your own browser or other application, you would have to switch back and forth.  Maybe a small weakness, but worth stating.  The other strength/weakness is the fact that it is all live.  Its a strength because that is the whole point of a webinar, to collaborate live.  Its also a weakness because an attendee or a host would have to be at a certain place (somewhere with access, essentially) at a certain time as opposed to a prerecorded show that could be created or viewed at one's leisure.

Aside from my previous observations, I would say that I enjoyed the presentation in that format.  The content was presented a bit slowly, but of course it was geared toward the other two attendees, who did not have any experience with the techbook.  But, it was definitely nice to have the host explain the techbook with a live demonstration.  It made it easy to follow along.  I do think I will attend some webinars in the future.  They are typically free and easy to access, so it would be a great way to help myself professionally.

This type of webcast could be incorporated into the classroom as a way for students to connect with professionals around the world.  Initially, my mind shot straight towards high school students attending webinars as a surrogate for college orientations or as a way to interact with professionals in their potential fields.  But, then I also thought that elementary or middle school students could benefit from this in the form of meeting veterans on Veteran's Day or something along those lines.  Although, I also think that Google Hangouts or Skype would be a bit easier to manage with students.  Students could also benefit from webinars as broadcasters, but again, I would presume secondary students only.  There are certain themes that go along with being a broadcaster such as digital literacy, public speaking (sort of), professionalism, flexibility, and content mastery all of which benefit students immensely.  Students could present their own broadcasts as an alternative to typical projects or even broadcast live events such as sports or band concerts.


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