I’ve been trying to work on streaming video for our teachers. All I’ve managed to do so far is bring down the network for three hours (long story).
When I noticed on Twitter that Will Richardson was going to be live streaming on Ustream.tv with David Jakes and Steve Dembo from Chicago, I decided to log in. I had tried earlier on one of Will’s first attempts, and couldn’t get the chat to enable. Last night, I logged in early and waited.
As I was washing dishes and folding clothes, I suddenly heard voices coming from my computer: "Live from Chicago!" or something like that…..hey, I was in. Will turned to the chat and noticed my "Hey."
"There’s scmorgan, whoever that is," he said. Me! Yeah, pretty cool.
But. And this was a big but for me. I quickly became frustrated. I loved listening to the guys discuss digital books and the future of books in general. At the same time, though, the folks in the chat were discussing 1:1 laptops, and I wanted to keep up with that conversation, too. Plus, by the time 25 people or so were in the chat mode, some long-time friends just saying hello and giving each other a hard time, I found it too difficult to participate. Oh, I could sit back and watch it all happening, but I couldn’t engage on any real level.
That’s not to say this was a failure. Wow, it’s exciting. And getting to see these folks live and "in person" was very cool. As this technology progresses and we all figure out ways to use it, I’m betting on lots of great sessions for our students, too.