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Friday, June 20, 2008

Lesson for an Instructor - Class 4

Wow this class had much to offer - especially for me.
  • Don't hesitate to tell a guest presenter when they are getting off track (or in this case hadn't yet gotten on track). Today's presenter seemed to have forgotten who is audience was. The presentation begun was not that which we had agreed to. The audience was forgiving, the instructor (me) was direct, the speaker was flexible. After a few moments of panic I suggested we move right to questions. The ensuing discussion was highly interesting and productive.
  • Torley video's are great, put are not necessarily for beginners. After class Rosalita helped me do a run through, watching the Torely vid only as an overview of the project. We followed that with a step by step voice instruction by me.
  • Room/furniture layout doesn't really matter in a virtual world. Expecting today's presentation to be held on another island, I had left the classroom meeting space free of furniture. Change of venue, the presentation would occur where we were milling about. To settle-in students began to set out chairs of different styles from their inventory, some rezzed boxes to sit on, some rotated their seats along an unexpected axis so that their avatar was cocked at an unorthodox angle to the virtual floor. All faced in different directions. Some with their backs to the speaker. We were a motley crew. Yet all cameras were fixed on our speaker, all ears were listening - as was clear from the questions. In a virtual world you do not need to sit in rows and turn your avatar to face the speaker. But my goodness it can be confusing to an on-looker.

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