More Thoughts on Pre-recording Conference Talks

More Thoughts on Pre-recording Conference Talks

Over the weekend, I posted an article here about
pre-recording conference talks
and sent a
tweet
about the idea on Monday.
I hoped to generate discussion about recording talks to fill in gaps—positive and negative—about the concept, and I was not disappointed.
I’m particularly thankful to Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe and Andromeda Yelton along with Jason Griffey, Junior Tidal, and Edward Lim Junhao for generously sharing their thoughts.
Daniel S and Kate Deibel also commented on the Code4Lib Slack team.
I added to the previous article’s bullet points and am expanding on some of the issues here.
I’m inviting everyone mentioned to let me know if I’m mischaracterizing their thoughts, and I will correct this post if I hear from them.
(I haven’t found a good comments system to hook into this static site blog.)
Pre-recorded Talks Limit Presentation Format
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe made this point early in the feedback:
@DataG For me downside is it forces every session into being a lecture. For two decades CfPs have emphasized how will this season be engaging/not just a talking head? I was required to turn workshops into talks this year. Even tho tech can do more. Not at all best pedagogy for learning
— Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (@lisalibrarian)
April 5, 2021
Jason
described
the «flipped classroom» model that he had in mind as the NISOplus2021 program was being developed.
The flipped classroom model is one where students do the work of reading material and watching lectures, then come to the interactive time with the instructors ready with questions and comments about the material.
Rather than the instructor lecturing during class time, the class time becomes a discussion about the material.
For NISOplus, «the recording is the material the speaker and attendees are discussing» during the live Zoom meetings.
In the previous post, I described how the speaker could respond in text chat while the recording replay is beneficial.
Lisa went on to say:
@DataG Q+A is useful but isn’t an interactive session. To me, interactive = participants are co-creating the session, not watching then commenting on it.
— Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (@lisalibrarian)
April 5, 2021
She
described an example
: the SSP preconference she ran at CHS. I’m paraphrasing her tweets in this paragraph.
The preconference had a short keynote and an «Oprah-style» panel discussion (not pre-prepared talks).
This was done live; nothing was recorded.
After the panel, people worked in small groups using Zoom and a set of Google Slides to guide the group work.
The small groups reported their discussions back to all participants.
Andromeda
points out
(paraphrasing twitter-speak): «Presenters will need much more— and more specialized—skills to pull it off, and it takes a lot more work.»
And Lisa
adds
: «Just so there is no confusion … I don’t think being online makes it harder to do interactive. It’s the pre-recording. Interactive means participants co…