Today, I delivered what turned out to be an incredibly humiliating and ineffective webinar. And it was brilliant.

A short thread
1/n

Delivering a new session to academic staff on some new functionality that's being introduced. At the beginning I knew something was wrong, because I couldn't access the functionality... this could be tricky.

2/n

So, I did my intro bit, set the scene, etc. all going swimmingly. Tried to get things working while I talked... no luck.

Two options: blag it by describing what 'should' happen, or own the problem and run with it.

3/n

I chose to own the issue.

Now, I had over 100 academics giving me their time to find out about something they want to use in their teaching in a couple of days time. This is a hugely stressful and anxious time normally, but massively heightened by the current circumstances.

4/n

By being honest with them, it let them know that if a 'techy person' can run into problems, then it can happen to anyone.

Hardly confidence inspiring though

5/n

However, what I hoped I did was show that remaining calm, thinking about the situation carefully, and communicating with your students, you can get through whatever issues you are facing.

6/n

So I shared my screen, I explained the situation and we switched our collective approaches.

We completely shifted 100+ people from one webinar to another!

Almost flawlessly

7/n

Except, even that didn't work out. Some people couldn't get the link, some people were sat waiting in the new room without me. But we got it sorted in the end.

We did the demo, answered questions and everyone was happy

8/n

Until my webinar software crashed. Thankfully I got it back up and running quickly and only missed half a question. Except, the functionality I was demoing had now mysteriously disappeared from the room I moved people into! We managed to limp to the end, together.

9/n

So, in conclusion: technology is like a teenage lover, it will let you down at any time, especially those critical moments. But by embracing the humanness of the situation and talking with your students, you can get to the other side. Almost successfully.

10/n

TL;DR

Tech didn't work. Owned it and explained it to students. We all worked together to get where we needed. People are ace. Trust them to help create your learning spaces.

Fin

11/11