I delivered my first online training* from the home office today. I gave some technical feedback to my colleagues – in this post, I’d rather say how it felt.

I’ve done webinars and short meetings before, but never one that amounted to a full-day training. There’s a whole lot of experience I didn’t have – about timing, about making things interactive, about making the content work.

We used Zoom and we were spared from being Zoom-bombed. Read this: Security tips every teacher and professor needs to know about Zoom, right now.

My audience consisted of nine consummate intellectuals, who were eager to learn. We had three breaks, including a thirty-minute lunch break – and as far as I know, I didn’t lose anyone throughout the five-and-half hours we spent in the training. Although I’d be happy to attribute this to my qualities as a presenter, I also think this speaks volumes about the commitment of my audience. Couldn’t have a better one.

My students were eager and happy to ask questions, and they were also willing to answer the questions I asked (and I was so surprised that it worked very much like in the classroom). In my country, classroom interaction hasn’t been traditionally encouraged – I think, I hope that will change right here and now.

I also felt strangely confident while explaining things. It did feel like I was in the classroom. I have always been put off by not seeing my audience – that feeling was largely gone today.

I don’t know if I did it right. But it did feel right. I felt I was learning something, too. All in all, so far this was my most intellectually and professionally active day in the lockdown.

But there was no new episode of Star Trek: Picard today, for the first time in more than two months now. I felt that, too.

* The image above is a detail of the equipment I used.