Thursday 30 September 2010

TeachMeet - techie tools and teaching tips

Monday night was the inaugural (lib)TeachMeet Cambridge event. I wasn't sure what to expect really, because there was no schedule (the emphasis is very much on informality), but it sounded great. Basically, there are a number of talks by people sharing tips, tools and technologies, sharing experiences - both good and bad! - but in 2- or 7-minute slots at a time. So if you didn't like something, or knew right away it wasn't going to be for you, you only had a few minutes before the next great idea came along!

I found a number of the talks very interesting, particularly the ones about Prezi and the Cephalonian Method of Library Introductions. Definite food for thought from each there - Prezi is about as far removed as you can get from PowerPoint, while still being a presentation software package, while the Cephalonian Method sounds a much more enjoyable way of introducing students to the library. Who knows - maybe I'll be using it on the next batch of guinea pigs students!

The TeachMeet format itself was great - very relaxed and friendly. I could almost picture myself daring to stand up and give a talk (although on what I've no idea!). Two minutes goes by so quickly though, while the seven minute talks seemed to finish early. Maybe everyone has a natural stopping point more between 4 and 5 minutes?

Anyway - definitely interested in going to the next one!

3 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed it :-) Pictures, presentations and video are going up on the wiki over the next few days, if you want to revisit anything.

    And I'd heartily encourage you to think about speaking in the future - I'm sure there's something you do that we'd all love to hear about!

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  2. Yes - do think about speaking, it really wasn't too bad (trying to judge how much to fit into the time was definitely the hardest part.)

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  3. Thanks for posting this Diana, and I agree with the others, we'll have to get you speaking at the next one! Good point about the duration of talks, some useful feedback to think about.

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