Yesterday PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 joined up to host the December segement of PBS Teachers LIVE! a free webinar held once a month, open to educators at all levels. This month’s topic, Education in the Digital Age: a tour of FRONTLINE’s Digital Nation, went behind the scenes of a documentary produced for FRONTLINE, about education in the digital age. The webinar was hosted by Digital Nation producer, Rachel Dretzin and moderated by Classroom 2.0 founder Steve Hargadon.
How To Find Out About Upcoming Educational Webinars?
I recently joined the Classroom 2.0 social-network and found out the PBS Teachers LIVE! series through their e-mail newsletter and I highly recommend both resources to anyone looking to collaborate with other educators in the field.
Snapshot of the PBS Teachers LIVE! website
About 200 people joined for the hour-long session and even though it was my first time participating, I found the flow of information easy to follow and the presentation itself very engaging. The webinar was presented using Elluminate software, one that I’m not too familiar with but eager to look into. The audio was clear with minimal hiccups (a common problem with webinar software) and I have never seen such a high level of audience participation as I did with this session. The Elluminate software allows for multi-media integration within the webinar so the audience may watch videos or answer questions from a poll. The software then allows for immediate tabulations of the poll, allowing users to share results in real-time with participants. Hosts (like ours) could also pull up a graphic of a world map and ask participants to mark where they are watching from at that very minute. It was incredible! This software also integrates a chat section and a raise-your-hand feature where participants ask questions out loud with their own personal computer microphone when called on. I personally think because of the high level of audience participation functionality and multi-media, this webinar kept me focused for close to the entire hour time slot!
I would definitely make a mental note to check out the archives, or some of the upcoming webinars:
January 26, 2010
Middle Level STEM Education With “Design Squad,” “Fetch,” and DragonflyTV” with PBS producers and curriculum experts focusing on Science and Engineering
February 23, 2010
Exploring the “Faces of America” with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. focusing on History and Social Studies
For more on this particular webniar topic, check back soon for a recap post, How Well Can Students Multitask?
