Web Conference Experience

I attended my first mandatory web conference this evening. I am, in a word, disappointed. I entered the room twenty minutes early because of the large numbers of people participating. I saw that there were 99 people at one point, which is entirely too many for a productive conference. I am beginning to feel that I need to find a Masters' program that has fewer participants. This one has become entirely too unwieldy for quality assurance.

I sat back from my keyboard and watched the screen flash back ad forth from full text to webcam views, and back again. The text flashed by too quickly to really read, but from what I could ascertain, I was being reprimanded for my unprofessional conduct. I typed a few questions, but even that seemed wrong. The conference abruptly ended, and while I feel somewhat guilty for somehow not doing it correctly, I don't feel entirely responsible. I didn't clog up the board with any "Hey girl!" greetings and I didn't "e-play" with any icons. I attended in good faith and wasted some of the last hours of spring break that I should have spent with my children.


I am concerned that a technology course is so plagued with confusion and conflict. I have felt belittled by several of the communiques and am still baffled by some of the directions. Some of my colleagues followed the syllabus directions to the letter and then we all received a generic hand slap for not following directions. If this is a course that is still being designed, I would appreciate more assistance and fewer reprimands. It has never been my intention to annoy anyone, and I am sincerely giving this course 100% of my effort, to the detriment of my position at school and my family.


I sincerely want to meet the objectives of the course, but more than anything I just want it to be over. This is disappointing when so much time and money has gone into it. We have learned a great deal about the culture of a campus, and while this is not necessarily a goal of this particular course, I have learned a great deal about the culture of Lamar University.