Hey wonderful partner orgs!
This year, we’re looking anew at the possibility of video-based info sessions, mostly as a stopgap for those info sessions which were cancelled as a result of bad weather.
Doing a video-based info session is significantly more challenging, just because it’s a lot harder to pay attention to and get excited about and form relationships with a person who’s not physically in the room with you. I totally get that – and to that end, we have some best practices that will help you make these info sessions a success for your students – which I define as getting them excited about Yleana!!!
Let’s make this an opportunity for kids to experience and adhere to the norms of a video call. As technology evolves and more and more folks are conducting meetings online, certain protocols are becoming expected – and if we leave our kids out of those expectations, it’s another way that they are left behind and out of the loop as tech expectations continue to shape our work culture! We want our kids to be ready for those tech expectations!
- Beforehand, talk about the setting of a video-based meeting and what is expected of participants – and how this happens in Fortune 500 companies (the ones where you make $500,000 a year!)
- Brief them on what is appropriate during a meeting
- No phones/other distractions
- Taking notes where necessary
- Not talking while the speaker is talking <- no side conversations
- Asking questions and participating
- Can be seen on the screen, both when speaking and when not speaking
- The person who is presenting/speaking should be treated as if she is actually in the room – the same level of respect and attention should be given
- Info session size needs to be smaller so the kids can concentrate and recognize that the onus is on them to pay attention
- Limit online info sessions to 8 kids, or however many can comfortably fit around the screen/laptop in a single row
- An adult should be there to:
- remind and enforce norms
- reinforce good behavior
- cue up and play the Yleana video at the appropriate time
- pass out brochures at the appropriate time
I recognize that this means that we may have to give more info sessions than we otherwise would need to, but I think that they can therefore be shorter and we’ll get a lot more out of them!
Please:
- cue up the Yleana video (short form) and have it ready to play after I’ve done a quick intro
- have the right number of brochures counted out and ready to distribute as soon as the video has finished – make sure you’ve let Emily know beforehand how many you’ll need!
Thank you! With 100% Yleana love,
Alyssa