Blog Post 12
Last week in class, we discussed webinars and how they can be used to efficiently share information online. I am excited to have the chance to conduct my first ever webinar in the following weeks and will work hard to make sure it is inclusive and interactive. One problem with the webinars I have watched in the past is that they are very similar to lectures. Using software like BlueJeans will allow for conversations to take place between participants and for a moderator to watch and feed questions to the presenter. I have conducted online presentations for work previously, but they tend to be challenging in a few ways. First, questions are not well moderated. When someone has a question, they often interrupt your flow and ask it. Next, video calling is always a little strange - why do they want to see my face and how does it benefit the presentation? I would feel more comfortable just using audio, so I am happy to hear that’s what we are doing. There’s no need to distract from the interesting information and online chats with my beautiful face and reactions!
As someone who tries to actively avoid social media, it was challenging finding “social media influencers” in my circle. As a result, I began with two well-known HCI/design schools. I have been following their published research for the past few years, so reading the articles is a good way to stay informed quickly, and find sources without reading through full papers. This past Summer, I had the chance to work with Dan Saffer for a month at my internship. At the time, he was the lead designer at Twitter and has published many influential works in HCI, such as Microinteractions. His Twitter helps to show the use of interaction design in the industry.
As I progressed through college, my interests shifted away from design and towards social computing. Two influencers in this field, and people I’ve worked personally. They may not be influencing a large community of people and learners, but they certainly influenced me significantly. Their work keeps me inspired to continue in this field and keep up with the research to see what they are doing in academia.
https://twitter.com/dabbish
Thanks for the list of people to follow for HCI! I also had a lot of issue finding people on social media, as it makes me rather uncomfortable. However, the library community has an incredibly active twitter community. Kristin suggested I create lists on my computer to follow certain sites and people as a compromise to actually creating various social media accounts.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about how webinars are similar to lectures. In a way, I'm excited to give a presentation in a webinar format. I'm not the best public speaker, so it takes the pressure off of having to get up in front of people. The only thing that's concerning is making sure there aren't technical difficulties...
ReplyDelete"There’s no need to distract from the interesting information and online chats with my beautiful face and reactions!" That comment made me laugh :) Though I do wonder how common it is for webinar presenters to show their faces. The ones I've watched have only been audio.
The webinars I've watched have only been audio as well. It begs an interesting question of why companies ask employees presenting online (like WebEx) show their face in addition to the slides. The two situations to me seem really similar. I wonder how video might help increase trust and communication between the presenter and audience. Video would be more useful when there are more visual cues to read, like a full body shot that includes gestures to emphasize information.
DeleteI have attended a lot of webinars and often feel like it's just a lecture, like you said. They can also be disappointing because the lecture doesn't really lend itself to any actionable takeaways for the audience. I'm excited that our assignment requires audience interaction because it has forced me to create something that is not just a lecture and it has made attending my classmates' webinars more interesting.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your social media list! I'm also interested in other Information/Design schools, but for some reason never thought to look them up on Medium. On a more random note, I noticed that Dan Saffer also has an account called "Dan Pets Dogs" (@danpetsdogs) -- if you're interested in seeing lots of doggos on the internet, I highly recommend following Dogspotting on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/dogspotting/?fref=nf
I love that you included people who may not be extremely well-known but have had a significant influence on you in this post. I feel like when we refer to social media influencers, our minds immediately go to whoever holds the most influence over the largest number of people, and we don't think about who has influenced us personally. I hope the influencers you shared here get the opportunity to have the same impact on others that they have had on you!
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