Once upon a time, when there was a seminar you got up very early, spent a large amount of money on a train fare, and a few hours later you arrived having in the meanwhile tried mostly unsuccessfully to do some meaningful work.<\/p>\n
The upside of this was that whilst there you got to make a comment, often skilfully disguised as a question, and if you didn't like the response, you could say so and ask it again. \u00a0This offered you a modicum of agency which sometimes nearly made up for a disappointing experience and tedious journey. \u00a0And you got to talk to people over indifferent coffee.<\/p>\n
Not any more. \u00a0With the rise of Teams\/Zoom you can pitch up to a meeting with 2 minutes to go and take a stimulant of choice in the comfort of your own home. \u00a0What's not to like? \u00a0After all, it's easy and cheap and there's much less wear and tear on body and mind.<\/p>\n
Well, there's a lot not to like as all we regular Teamers\/Zoomers know full well. \u00a0Firstly there's the social isolation; not only are you incarcerated but you're in solitary confinement not able to talk with other participants. \u00a0There's no social interaction at all. \u00a0You are nearly always invisible and sometimes not even your name is on the screen and so no one has any idea who else is there. \u00a0You're always muted and so there's no hope of heckling \u2013 not that this is a regular seminar experience, but it's a useful safety value to have.<\/p>\n
Worst of all, I think, you're completely in the hands of the chair \/ moderator who can do whatever they like, and you come across a lot of people who really do seem to think that they are very good at that sort of thing. \u00a0And moderators get little direct feedback about audience mood in the room largely because there isn't a room to worry about.<\/p>\n
Ah, but what about the Chat, you say. \u00a0There's always the Chat. \u00a0And it's true that you can use that facility to send messages \u2013 mostly to moderators and sometimes to everyone or individuals, messages that they can ignore at their pleasure. \u00a0But the immediacy is completely lost; that face to face uncertainty which comes when someone stands up, opens their mouth, and you've no idea what's coming out (sometimes that includes the speaker). \u00a0Do you remember those moments in proper seminars when a presenter was caught short or completely caught out by an impactful left-field question? \u00a0I certainly do, having been on both ends of it a few times.<\/p>\n
And there are no golden moments shared in the audience like that memorable day in Reading Town Hall at a CEE (blessed memory) conference with the UK's most prominent environmental educator talking on the stage when a student turned to me with a loud whisper: \"That is rubbish, isn't it\". \u00a0It was. \u00a0Alas on Zeam\/Tooms it's all gone.<\/p>\n
I began this post intent on writing about a 90 minute webinar I attended yesterday which was run by a multi-academy Trust [MAT] that takes itself very seriously. \u00a0It was on climate etc education. \u00a0It followed the usual format: an overlong intro, a few talking \"expert\" heads (several of whom talked too much), questions from the moderator to the experts, and then time for a modest bit of audience input via the Chat. \u00a0That's pretty standard. \u00a0What was unexpected was the final 10 minute puff extolling the virtues of a slick resource that the MAT was selling. \u00a0In the end I concluded that pushing this was probably the whole point of the event. \u00a0I'm not in the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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