We heart our first online teach-in

A lot of firsts! First of April (April Fool's Day) we were guest facilitators (strange days) for the first time with Textile Museum of Canada and it was the first time any of us had hosted an online workshop. So, we did a little prep...

Marnie and I got together last week to run it through with Leah, wearing her Textile Museum of Canada hat, although she is also part of Works-in-Progress,   We decided we needed a proper tech run through with us in our roles, and brought in the communications person from the Textile Museum, Zile.  The museum then ponied up for the pro software so we could have an hour and half meeting with multiple people. We capped it at 30 (it was a negotiation, Marnie and I thought it would be too many, but in the end about a third were active onscreen, the rest were logged on listening and communicating by chat. People were participating from Yukon, Maine, North Dakota, Toronto, London (Ontario :)) Amazing!!

Leah sent out info to all the registrars in advance and shared docs during and after the workshop. Marnie set up a second camera for her hands, Leah did the switching between screens and switched audio on and off, and managed participants and I mostly monitored the chat and provided conversation and questions. Leah controlled the spotlight and could mute people (necessary in such a large group) but everyone could speak up when they wanted, either by unmuting or chatting.  I would read comments/questions to Marnie. Marnie had physical examples to share on both cameras, and plenty of knowledge to share about materials, sewing and invited participants to share their own stories and show what they were making. 

I think we will do this again. Certainly a lovely bit of connection in these strange isolated times.