Virtual Networking at Festivals

Did a "virtual networking" event last night for the Third ACTion film festival, based in Canada. They had more ambitions plans then they could pull off, but I respect them for trying, and also showing good humor with the Zoom glitches they experienced.

There were parts that were actually pretty fun and wanted to encourage others to consider replicating with their events.

We were told beforehand that we needed to use a computer, not phone or tablet.

We were all made co-hosts. This could be problematic, but is necessary for this approach.

After being admitted we were introduced to the evenings agenda. We were sent to numbered break out rooms with one other person. We were told to decide which one was the person who stayed in the room, and which was the "traveler". We spent five minutes chatting and then the "traveler" moved to the next breakout room (with the person in the last breakout room going to breakout room #1). A lot of people had trouble figuring out how to do this, but for those of us who did it was actually a really nice way to network and have a meaningful conversation with somebody one-on-one. We were supposed to do this three times before going back to the main room. This should definitely need to be explained more clearly, perhaps with a short screencast video created beforehand unless you are sure your audience is all very familiar with Zoom.

Afterwards they tried to show trailers of the festival's films over Zoom, which didn't work very well.

The final event was more breakout rooms. But this time they were fewer in number, and name by a topic such as "filmmaker lounge", "chat with the festival director", and ones based on aging (the theme of the festival). I really enjoyed being able to drop in and out of different conversations this way.

Educating Outdoors

Thought provoking article from the New York Times with great archival photos about educating children outdoors. This was actually done successfully in previous pandemics, and there’s a lot of good data about how it reduces behavioral issues and improves learning. Not an easy transition, but convinces me it’s one worth making.

Making PowerPoints More Accesible

A useful tip from a presentation by Barry Dahl, Teaching & Learning Advocate at D2L (a learning management system):

• When looking for a PowerPoint template, type “accessible” in the search bar for accessible templates.

Why There’s No Such Thing as a Gifted Child

Living in a part of the world where “every child is above average” I found this article in The Guardian challenging the notion of “giftedness” in children to be good food for thought. Particularly liked this quote from Einstein:

Einstein, the epitome of a genius, clearly had curiosity, character and determination. He struggled against rejection in early life but was undeterred. Did he think he was a genius or even gifted? No. He once wrote: “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”