Live Feedback

During our Digital Revolution event, we used text messaging to collect live feedback from the audience and project it on a secondary screen.  The results were a mixture -- there were certainly some who used the anonymity of texting to simply play around with the technology.  But there were others who used the medium to reflect on the presentations, ask questions, and participate with the organizers in a running back-channel conversation.

Below is the unedited transcript...

Watch the Digital Revolution!

On December 9, 2010 from 7:00-9:00pm (MST), watch our live presentation, and be sure to listen for ways to participate with our live backchannel! You can watch right here, or at our channel on Justin.tv.

Update 12-10-2010: The archived recording of the event can be found here.

Watch live video from Digital Civilization on Justin.tv

Producing an Event = Producing Content

As we are counting down to our big Digital Revolution event tomorrow night, we've suddenly been energized by the live broadcasting features, discussed in our last two posts, that will enhance our live event. The realization I had about this today was that an event is not just a culminating thing or a networking opportunity; it's an opportunity to focus and create content that will endure beyond the event itself. We already knew this with respect to each of the presentations that groups were putting together (all of which have an accessible, permanent component to them). What we hadn't considered, though, was the event itself becoming enduring, valuable content as it is preserved and used by future online visitors.

Eric Collyer posted this trial video on his Justin.tv account today to demonstrate how it is that we will be able to upgrade the broadcast stream with titles and by plugging in the media directly (like the music video he inserts) rather than drawing just on the camera's poor reproduction of it.


Watch live video from ericgcollyer on Justin.tv

Wow, this thing is suddeny going to look more professional. What does that do? As we show this to the students before our dress rehearsal in the morning, I think it will motivate them to bring their A-game, since they are not doing an end-of-term academic thing; they are producing permanent content for the web.

Live Feedback

During our dry run for the digital showcase event, we ran an open poll for each presentation using Poll Everywhere.  We used an open-ended question with free response, so that everyone could give feedback.  Here is a sampling of the comments we received:

A Virtual Audience Adds Umph to Our Live Event!

In the true spirit of Digital Revolution, our big event happening in one day and 20 hours has just gotten bigger and a lot more interesting. Suddenly, we move from a potential audience of 300 (the size of the room) to a potential audience of two billion. PLUS we have added live audience polling to engage both our local, in-person audience and our virtual audience online! How sick is that!

Live Streaming Our Event
Here are some screen caps showing our dress rehearsal for the big event. Thanks to Eric Collyer, who has been experimenting with justin.tv on his blog, we are now set up and running with our own live streaming channel:

http://justin.tv/digiciv

So, if you can't be to our Digital Revolution Event in person on December 9, 2010 (or if you are reading this when it is over and want to see the archive version of the event) click on that address (or just scroll down, since I've embedded our channel below).

Live audience polling leverages our reach further, adding precious interactivity:

Connecting through Events

One of the reasons we decided to stage a major event to conclude our Digital Civilization course this semester is to give our students practice in connecting. Connecting is one of the three pillars of digital literacy (along with "consume" and "create"), and can be done in many ways. An event, however, is a very powerful way of connecting

From Electronic to In-Person Connecting
An event bridges the critical gap between electronic and in-person sorts of connecting. Someone I've invited to the event, Scott Cowley (a former student's husband whom I've followed on Twitter) once told me that his most meaningful digital connections were those that led to in-person encounters. I think that's true. There is nothing like face-to-face, in-person meetings with fellow human beings. We can do so much through electronic communications, but nothing beats flesh-and-bone people.

The Power of Open

Some of you may remember this image from a previous post on copyright:

I created this image using only open source software and artwork available in the public domain.  In fact, I didn't draw anything myself -- it was entirely a remix.  Here's how I did it:

Digital Revolution: Event Preview

For our Digital Civilization class, our culminating activity isn't the final examination; it's a public showcase, a special event for which we are now all anxiously preparing. We call it "Digital Revolution: Upgrading Education for Digital Civilization." [explained | on Facebook].

Here's a preview of each of the ten presentations that will be made that night. Have a look, then join us for the live event on December 9, 2010...