I am not new to attending live webinars. Over the past 10 years, my role as a Technology Integrationist has included imputing data into our student system, running our PBIS Team, operating a media center, among various other add-ons. Through these little niche' areas, webinars seem to be a prevalent way to spread information. Recently, I attended a webinar over our tiered PBIS system, which I typically attend once a month. There are usually two speakers who have two different focus areas. The webinars are very in depth, including a PowerPoint slide show that is downloadable, live shots of a website, and views of the speaker. Each time, the presenters are well prepared and organized.
One aspect that I like about the webinars is being able to ask questions of the speakers during their presentation. If I don't understand something, I can write a question and it appears on the presenter's screen. Typically, the person who is not currently speaking is the one who types a response.
One of the pitfalls of the webinars I attend is that it's at least one hour long. As a busy educator, it is difficult to dedicate at least one hour to this webinar. Another pitfall is that I can easily got bored if the topic is something that does not pertain to my school or a topic I already know about. I tend to zone out and work on other items until a new topic is presented.
A live webinar could be used for high school students who need a little extra help. A teacher could host a weekly webinar over a specific topic so those who were absent or struggled could find extra help. Another idea would be high school or middle school students being the presenters over a topic or technology tool and present it to teachers. Students would be utilizing higher order thinking skills such as synthesizing their ideas and experiences.
There are benefits to incorporating webinars into teacher or student education, one would just need to find the time to dedicate to the webinar, either as a presenter or an attendee.
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