Imagine trying to play a piano concerto with a piano which is being wheeled in and out and when it is there, it only has 47 keys. This is similar to what I experienced last Tuesday while trying to present a workshop at the ICE Conference.
I am glad that I had a Plan B while presenting on Collaborative Learning Environments. Fortunately, I had Internet connectivity, but the participants did not, so I was able to demonstrate and lead discussion on how these tools could be used. Effective, but not at all what I had hope to accomplish in this workshop.
So rather than create an experience that allowed me to have participants have large blocks of guided play using tools such as Google Docs, wikis, VoiceThread, Nings, I had to demonstrate and hope that they were able to carve out the time for play when they got home.
I want to thank Leigh Zeitz, Chad Lehman, and Alex Ragone for skyping in and sharing during the workshop. I know as the guide, I learned something from all three, so the day was not a complete waste.
So the morale to the story, always be prepared to use Plan B or Plan C if necessary. You never know when you are going to need it.
I learned to always create screencasts. You never know when the Internet will not work.
Vinnie,
Just wanted to thank you for inviting me to join in your event. It was quite an honor. I hope that the examples of using Web 2.0 tools were useful.
Although I didn’t see the educators that you had at your conference. I had the opportunity to attend an ICE meeting one afternoon and was quite impressed with what I saw. Keep up the good work.
Leigh Zeitz
http://drzreflects.com