From the May issue of T.H.E. Journal . . .
Read the feature story Online Communities of Practice: What Works? (THE, May 2012)
'You are being rude if I'm doing all the talking'
by John Norton | May 10, 2012 | Change, Connected Coaching, Expert Voices, Powerful Learning Practice | 2 comments
John,
Thanks for posting the recent piece from T.H.E. Journal that shares some of the highlights from a panel presentation I was in at FETC.
I decided to comment to share with you that what I meant was *I* would be rude – but really, after reading how you interpreted it, you got me thinking. In online community, we should all be contributing and it’s not only polite but an act of support and collaboration to give the presenter feedback and create back channel conversation.
Thanks for that ah-ha moment.
Funny – I immediately read it as “audience rude.” That may be because I’ve sat through many hundreds of hours of live online sessions. At times I’ve seen how hungry savvy, connected presenters are for feedback in the chat boxes. And that’s certainly the case in physical spaces where people have the option to back-channel while presentations are going on. If you understand what’s going on there, you the presenter should be pleased that you’re stirring up some good side chat (and look forward to reading it the first chance you get).
There are certainly speakers/presenters who still get ruffled when people are creating parallel conversations in the webinar space or right in front of them in the physical audience. Some never get used to the busy stream of chat going in spaces like Elluminate Live while they change powerpoint slides. They must have previously been under the impression they were riveting? 🙂 Welcome to the smart mob!