Broadcast Yourself

I was excited for this live broadcasting assignment because I thought it would be interesting to engage my audience in a different way for this course over the summer.  At first I was not sure which broadcasting service I would use (I investigated Google Hangouts and Ustream), but I was thankful that I was able to use Blackboard Collaborate since I am accustomed to it from my online teaching position, and it is the main avenue for communicating with my students, parents, and colleagues.  When I initially read the assignment, I knew I wanted it to be on something fun….10 things you should do before summer’s end.  Considering school is around the corner (it will be here before we know it!), I thought it would be enjoyable to present a live broadcast about fun things to do before we had to return to our classrooms.  Since I knew how to navigate Blackboard, I thought that I would also create a PowerPoint to accompany my broadcast.  I created my PowerPoint with 10 fun things to do this summer, along with photos to complement each item.  My next step was creating my session.  I logged onto Blackboard and used my demo course as my platform.  I named it Paula Stinson’s Summer Smiles and created a start date and end date.  Because I teach online, I checked to see what other teachers were online to invite them to my session.  I emailed my link to a few of them in hopes of them attending this session, as well as publicized on my blog for class members.  Because I do not have a presence on other social networking sites, I emailed my link to some family members as well. 

On the day of my presentation, I sent reminder emails to prospective audience members.  I also made sure that my blog post was at the top of my blog, so class members would see it easily.  Unfortunately, some of my colleagues were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts.  On Thursday, August 1, at 1:00 p.m., I logged into my Collaborate session to upload my PowerPoint and made sure that everything was ready to go when my audience arrived.  After running through my presentation several times, my audience members began to arrive.  Unfortunately, only four members were in attendance (my only challenge for this assignment).  At 2:00 p.m., after welcoming them and thanking them for joining, we began our discussion on 10 things that you should do before summer’s end, especially since it was already August 1! I utilized the microphone, whiteboard, and web cam during the live broadcast.  I started the recording, and we had a wonderful time discussing things from going to the drive-ins to having a board game night to making shapes out of clouds!  It was so fun hearing everyone’s experiences about what they had done this summer and what they still planned on doing!  We even extended the list and added some things to do after school began! 

During my live broadcast, everything ran smoothly, and it was a lot of fun!  I was happy to have had the opportunity to work out any kinks that might have existed due to the summer update prior to my presentation, especially since I will be using this broadcasting service for my teaching.  It was also wonderful to speak to fellow teachers and see how their summers were going thus far.  It was also nice to have a PowerPoint to guide the discussion and make available to my participants.  It is very important to always be prepared for your presentations!  You should arrive early to be sure that your technological tools are working properly and to be sure that your resources are uploaded and ready to go before your participants arrive for a smooth and enjoyable learning experience.