SO... after all the hype, how did Workforce Innovations 2012 actually go? Well, I gave you a happy hint yesterday, but before the sunshine there was definitely some rain. (The kind of hint I was really looking for was a video of a bomb exploding and then a flower growing up from the ruins, but go figure, there aren't any videos like that already out there.)
Last year, my first group was small (< 1 dozen) and my second group was large (>2 dozen), and they were good and not-so-good, respectively. So, knowing that and seeing group numbers of 8 and 27, I was expecting something similar. Maybe it was the group, maybe it was the Twitter thing, but I was totally wrong!
My first group, as I knew to expect, was only 8 students - all boys, as it happened to turn out. And they. were. TIRED. Wow. I know it was early and all, but come on - doesn't your day normally start at 7:30? Shouldn't a field trip to a college campus on a school day be exciting enough to keep you awake? Apparently not. While these guys did have phones and they did have Twitter, that whole thing just fizzled. So, good thing I was prepared with my regular schtick. A couple of the students were getting into it, but overall the event felt very... awkward. I can think of a host of reasons why. I still wouldn't call it a failure, but it was not one of my finest activities. By the end of it, though, some of them were warming up to me and finally one kid posted something on our Twitter page. And through that, he won the distinction of "Best Tweet" for his group and took with him a coveted pair of CIS swag sunglasses. (I'm sure all 7 other kids were insanely jealous and regretful that they didn't show a little more enthusiasm! I mean, why wouldn't they be?)
So next comes the awkward 10 minutes when students from the other 5 activities that have Optics/Imaging as their second activity slowly converge here in CIS. I decided to take this time to start introducing the students who were there early to the whole Twitter concept - explaining that it was my first time ever trying it, that if it went well they would have been part of a groundbreaking experiment bound to change the way presentations are done, and - most importantly - how miserably it failed with the last group, and they had to prove that their second group was better. Ah, what greater fuel is there than a little friendly competition? Maybe it was that, maybe it was the greater number of students overall (29 this time), maybe it was the prizes I promised to the best tweets, maybe it was my own pure awesomeness - but this time, it totally worked!
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| Yeah this seems cool! |
While I still presented my usual "About Me" and the like, the kids were already getting into the whole Twitter thing. From time to time I would pause and read aloud some of the things they were tweeting, which were being projected on the side wall. Slowly, things were coming together and the audience was realizing in what ways they could make use of Twitter.
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| Tweeting a picture of Twitter... how meta. |
I always start my explanation about what Imaging Science is by asking the audience what they THINK it is; this time around, I encouraged them to tweet their answers, and while I went on to explain it to also tweet where they see Imaging Science in their daily lives. I also challenged them to tweet their best definition of Imaging Science, and the best one would get a prize at the end. Again I interspersed my prepared parts of the presentation with the tweets and spontaneous questions and thoughts that would come up, which definitely affected how engaged the kids were and kept them on their toes.
Things really got good when we started using the thermal camera. Not only is this the most fun and interactive part of the whole thing anyways, but now more than just the one person in front of the camera at a time could have fun with it. Students were taking pictures of each other in front of the camera and posting them on Twitter, sometimes giving them captions.
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| Oscar Herrera
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| amanda herko
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In the end, the reaction from the students was that they thought Twitter was a great addition and it really upped the fun factor for them. Overall in my opinion, the whole Twitter experiment turned out great not only for the audience but also for us at CIS, since we now have a fun record of the presentation and what a great time the students had at it. Our Twitter page was given a relevancy it has not yet been able to attain, and it kept the audience more engaged - we were even able to continue interacting with them on Twitter after they had left. I think there is a lot of potential here to greatly improve the way presentations are done, especially with large groups.
Despite the rough start, I am convinced that using Twitter can be a very useful approach. There are a few things I could change though to make things run a little more smoothly. Foremost, there should be a moderator: in this situation a co-presenter; or in the classroom, a teaching assistant. This person can then read all of the incoming tweets and pick out the best ones to be read aloud. The main presenter can then defer to the moderator every couple of minutes to share the best tweets - important questions, interesting comments, etc. That way, the presentation as a whole isn't interrupted by having to wait for the main presenter to catch up with what's been happening on Twitter. Also, during the presentation the moderator can respond via Twitter in real-time with things that perhaps the main presenter did not get to, and/or can supplement the main presenter's answer/presentation with relevant links to more information. The other main thing I would change is I would encourage more use of hashtags - who knows, maybe we could make #imsci a trending topic (I'm trying to, at least).
Well I think this post is more than long enough... If you want to know more, use the Comments and ask away! Oh, and you can check out all of yesterday's tweets at https://twitter.com/#!/RITimagingsci/favorites. My favorites include "lesson of the day : Thermal Camera always wins!!", and, of course, "@RITimagingsci way better than hospitality #bethany<3" (it's real, go and see for yourself).
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