This year, due to budget cuts, our school was unable to provide money for us to attend conferences and workshops. Thus, I began really getting into the world of webinars. I have attended about 10 of them since September. They have been on topics as varied as the new SAVE legislation (Schools Against Violence in Education), Suicide prevention, and a number provided by the Career Cruising database.
I was very nervous for my first webinar. Would I be able to connect to it? Would I figure out how to ask questions? Would I pay attention? Well, I survived and actually enjoyed the process. I always make sure I log in early to avoid any computer issues and I have learned a lot from each one. For a few of the webinars I attended, I used the LCD projector and screen at school and watched with a number of co-workers.
One of my biggest complaints about some webinars is the timing. A number of them are held during the school day and I can't just close the library to attend one. (I am the only one working in the library for most of the day). I especially don't understand when webinars specifically geared towards school librarians are held during the school day.
Although I prefer to attend a "live" workshop with lots of living breathing people, I'm happy that I have access to so many webinars.
I like to login early too, make sure everything is running. And it's fun to hear the chattering of the presenters ahead of time. I'm much more likely to attend if an event is live. I have good intentions for doing the archived ones, but I don't always follow through. I even paid $$ for one last year that I couldn't attend, still haven't watched the archived version.
ReplyDeleteI agree - I like Webinars (have only done a couple) but as we lose more and more $$ for attending conferences, this may well be the wave of the future. Trying to think how I can use it here to share with all of you. Any ideas??
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