Reflections on the Webinar

So, I just presented in my first webinar.  I have to admit, I was a little hesitant to begin with.  I didn't know how many people would actually show up, but it turned out a lot better than I thought!  We had around fifty people join in at a time.  It was really cool to see where everyone was from:  people from Boston, North Carolina, Kentucky, even Middle Earth.  The internet certainly has made the world a very small place.

I loved reading through the chat stream and commenting on questions people would pose.  It was gratifying to get thanks from people as I posted links and comments.  The idea of having my face on so many people's screens when I presented was a little terrifying, but once we got rolling, it was actually a lot of fun.  I even voluntarily went back and spoke again on my ideas of social proof.

It is amazing to be able to see that around the world people are interested in the same things that I am, that they take interest in the work that I do.  It was especially cool to be able to have Jeff Swift chime in and have him as a part of our presentation although he was in North Carolina.  He had some really great questions and insights and took a real interest in what we were doing.  I was glad to see so many people taking our work and ideas seriously as I read through the chat stream.

A webinar was definitely better than a multiple choice test or an essay for our final exam.  This was a way to really be able to apply what we have been learning, and make our work important to more than just ourselves.  This way we were able to give life to our work in a way that just posting our papers would never have done.  This way we know that our ideas reached a much broader audience, and they are now free to look up those ideas in which they took especial interest.  That was the whole point of this class, to make our work pertinent and important to people other than just our professor, and I think we did a good job.