Written by ChatGPT, Prompt/Edit by Carrie
Over the past two and a half years, our team at SteamHead has had the opportunity to participate in, present at, and even host various online events. While it was a difficult adjustment to go from in-person events to virtual ones, we were grateful for the chance to continue sharing and collaborating with others in the education, maker, and hacker communities.
Through this experience, we have learned a lot about what works well in a virtual setting, some of our top examples are:
- Big Blue Button conference software builds communities on the fly through new ways for attendees to interact with each other and speakers.
- Recorded talks coupled with live interaction boosts production quality AND speaker/attendee interaction.
- Well known but worth a reminder: word clouds, polls, and live surveys (such as Mentimeter) help to engage, and to break up long periods of speech.
- Virtual environments like Mozilla Hubs can facilitate more interaction between participants.
- Making recorded talks accessible after a conference can reach new audiences - different styles of people tune in after hours vs those that attend online conferences!
As the world reopens, we are excited to meet in person again, but we are also grateful for the new remote tools and skills we have acquired. We are looking forward to seeing what new opportunities and connections will come from this experience, and we would like to give a shoutout to all the organizers, presenters, and attendees who have made it possible.
- Hackers on Planet Earth, New York, NY - https://hope.net/
- Make: Maker Kits, Bay Area, CA - https://makezine.com/article/maker-news/plan-c-live-educational-kits/
- MetaEdu, Taiwan - https://www.metaedu.org.tw/events/pause-to-regroup-maker-education-revolution/
- Informa Connect: International Schools, Singapore - https://www.informaconnect.com.sg/conferences/
- Make: MakerCamp, BayArea, CA - https://makercamp.com/partners/make-fashion-edu/
- MakeFashion Edu Virtual Gala, Mozilla Hubs - https://steamhead.space/vme/
- Maker Music Festival, Online - https://www.makermusicfestival.com/
- Office of Educational Technology: Digital Learning Accelerator - https://tech.ed.gov/launching-a-digital-literacy-accelerator/
- Make: MakeHalloween, Bay Area, CA - https://makezine.com/article/maker-news/happy-halloween-maker-camp-spooktacular/
- Maker Ed Convening, Bay Area, CA - https://makered.org/convening-2020/
- High Tech High: Deeper Learning, San Diego, CA - https://deeper-learning.org/
- High Tech High: Deeper Learning, China - https://deeper-learning.org/dlg/