The Fireside chat took place this morning for the K12 Online Conference. There was a good roll-up of attendees via the Elluminate platform, topping out at one point at about 110 people. David Warlick was on hand to answer some questions from the group, and people were firing questions at him at a rapid pace. The chat stream was like a fast-flowing river, with comment after comment after comment streaming up the screen. Sometimes I wonder how effective these really large chat streams are, as it’s so hard to have a deep discussion let alone a coherent conversation! As someone noted in the chat, it was like being ADD on steroids.
However, the opportunity to connect with a worldwide group of educators and engaging in discussion and conversation about things that we think matter was wonderful. David did well to field the diverse (and sometimes quite difficult!) questions from members of the group. I even got to throw a question to David myself.
Virtual environments like this are an interesting experience, and it was clear that it was a new experience for many there. It was great to see so many people turn up for it, take part in the event, and learn from it.
You can listen to the audio version of the chat here (53 Minutes, 17Mb)… unfortunately, Audio Hijack didn’t get both sides of the conversation all the time, so you can’t hear all of the questions being asked by the audience, but you do get the answers from David and the Moderators. Still, I’m sure you’ll get the idea!
http://www.virtualstaffroom.net/k12online/fireside.mp3
Tags: k12online07, k12online, conference, education
Sitting by the Fireside by Chris Betcher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Chris,
After a few minutes, I began to “ignore” David (figured there would be a transcript of his remarks, at some point) and concentrated on the chat sidebar. Recognized some names from my RSS feed – found it hard to keep up and keep track. I’m a mature newcomer to the blogosphere, and I sometimes find it hard to keep up with the younguns. Guess it’s good training for the classroom!
Had a blast; am recuperating with white wine.
What a great age we live in!
diane
Chris, I agree w/ the assessment of like being ADD on Steroids. I also had guilt pains when I found out some of the people I had encouraged to join/attend were not able to get in, yet there I was adding to the mayhem. But I do get brownie points b/c an administrator from IT in the district office contacted me last week to say they saw me in the chat room in the recording they watched later. WOOT! Like Diane, I concentrated on the streaming chat since much of David’s talk was a rephrasing of both Keynote 06 and 07. What was MORE interesting was the thoughts that folks were sharing in response to Dave. I also picked up a few more twitter friends and RSS feeds (as if I really needed that.) I won’t complain though, b/c that is what this is all about–to model social networking for the good of all.