How Krisp.ai Saved My Online Workshop

Within 10 minutes of starting my online workshop last week, the contractors (or owners, who knows) in the unit below mine (who also decided to violate the law by hammering and making noise on Sundays), decided to start hammering away at their ceiling for goodness knows what reason.

That means that my entire house is filled with their noise.

Since this has been occurring on and off over the past few weeks, I searched for a solution a few days before my online workshop was to start.

And I found it.

Krisp.

I can’t quite remember what my search terms were, but I stumbled upon this application and, after looking through their information, it seemed a little too good to be true.

Nevertheless, they have a free account option that doesn’t expire.

So, I thought I’d give it a whirl. After a simple set up, which they guide their users through, I tried it out and made some ambient noise while speaking into my microphone, like snapping my fingers close by, playing music in the background, etc.

And Krisp filtered it all out. All I could here in my recording was my voice.

Astounding.

But could it actually filter out construction noise? What if it was close by?

I didn’t know for sure while the noise was happening, because I can’t hear the output of my microphone directly.

So, when the workshop ended, I feared the worst, but I went ahead and played the recording anyway.

There was no background noise, except for a short period of time when the noise was loudest and occurring literally under my feet.

Through the microphone, it sounded faint. If you weren’t listening for it, you’d think someone was merely lightly tapping the microphone while it was recording, and not for very long.

Since the vibrations through the floor were so loud and strong, it likely vibrated through the table and “tapped” on the microphone.

Other than that, no discernible background noise whatsoever.

I was impressed.

You can be sure that I immediately went and told other people I knew who were regularly conducting online meetings and workshops.

The free account gives you 4 hours of “filtering” per week, which is currently enough for me.

If you want to upgrade to an unlimited use account, it’s a mere $5 a month. Honestly, it’s a steal.

So, if you have to be online constantly but can’t quite get a quiet place, this might be an excellent solution for you. Go check it out.

I Successfully Conducted my First Online Workshop on Conducting Workshops

On 16 July 2021, I successfully conducted a mini-workshop online.

This was for a group of individuals, all experts in their own fields, who wanted to learn how they can conduct their own workshops.

As they weren’t educators themselves, they weren’t sure about how to go about it “properly” - where to start, what to say, what to do.

And I quickly assured them that there wasn’t one “proper” way to do it. It all depends on where they are starting from and what they are trying to accomplish.

Because they already have valuable experience and knowledge, getting them to come up with something to run a workshop on wasn’t difficult.

Once we got the topic and sub-topics settled, I taught them the 3 most important parts of running a workshop:

1) Preparation

2) Opening

3) Closing

I firmly believe that the best way to alleviate anxiety and feel confident is to be as prepared as possible, making the correct types of preparation.

To help the participants of the mini-workshop, I prepared a set of templates and scripts for them for each of the 3 parts.

We briefly talked about the Delivery of the content, during which I told them that they don’t need to feel like they have to speak like a world-class speaker because:

a) They are not giving a speech.

b) In teaching, well-prepared content is way more important than delivery skills.

We rounded off the session with Questions, and they asked some really interesting ones, like “How do I engage a bored participant?” and “How should I structure a workshop to sell my services?”

We took about 30 minutes to go through all the questions before we ended.

Based on their feedback, they learned a lot of useful tips and were particularly grateful for the templates and scripts.

I intend to run at least one more round of this mini-workshop - I just need to set a date and get it going!

Are You Ready to Start Teaching Your Workshop Without Worry?

When I first started teaching 15 years ago, I had no idea what in the world I was doing.

 Yeah, I sat in on an experienced senior’s workshops a couple of times, I had written my lessons out, and planned my slides.

 As best as I knew how.

 But I still felt totally out of my element the first time I did it.

 I didn’t know what to do, where to place my hands, when to move on to the next slide, or how to get my students to start or end their experiments.

 I even nearly forgot to start off with the customary “Good Morning, class.”

 It wasn’t a great experience, and I didn’t have much fun.

 By its end, I was a ball of nerves and wondering if I’d made the right career decision.

 Fast forward to today, I have my workshops designed the way I will run them.

 I know where everything is and needs to be.

 And I have my timings down to a tee.

 Of course, there will always be some factors outside of my control, and some unknowns.

 But everything I can control, I do.

 Everything I can find out, I do.

 And I have made contingency plans for the unlikeliest of unforeseen circumstances.

 Thankfully, I’ve almost never had to use them.

 I often wished that I had learned then what I know now.

 I wouldn’t have struggled as much, and I would have become much more effective earlier.

 Not to mention that I wouldn’t lose so much energy being worried and nervous.

 And this is why I designed a mini-workshop - Start Teaching Your Workshop Without Worry - to help new and aspiring educators / trainers, both to address their most pressing concerns, and to start at a higher level than I did when I first started out.

 I’ve found that, by focusing on a few basic principles and key areas, anyone can get a huge headstart:

 So, in this mini-workshop, we will go through together, in 90 minutes:

1) The 3 Most Important Parts of your Workshop – just follow the steps I lay out for you.

 No more worries about what to do next or how to start!

2) What to do, When to do it, and How to do it

 So you look Calm, Cool, and Collected in front of your learners.

3) How to be FULLY Prepared – using the scripts and templates I’ve prepared for you.

 By the end of the mini-workshop, you’re going to feel a confidence you’ve not had before about teaching your own workshop.

And all those worries? They’re going to melt away because you’ll be armed with what you need to run it well.

 Now, all you have to do is click here: www.tinyurl.com/teachwww

 See you on the inside!

I'm Transitioning From the Student to the Adult Learner Market and It's Not Easy

My entire career life has been in the student market - ages 10 - 19 or so - for the past 15 years. My contacts, naturally, have overwhelmingly been people who work in and around this market.

Yes, I’ve had opportunities and experiences in the adult learner market, but this is a very recent development, starting around 2018 or so.

And then, of course, the pandemic hit and everything went nose first into the ground.

Even a number of the contacts I’d made prior to the pandemic aren’t in business anymore, or have gone to a different industry or job. Essentially, I have to build everything up again, and I’m have the hardest time with Zoom meetings, a format that I loathe.

For those who are quick to adapt and find the new formats intuitive or, perhaps, even better than the formats they are replacing, you’re in a great place. I wish it were easier for me.

There is, of course, the possibility of staying on in the student market by bringing my programmes online. The immense problem is that, because of the nature of the programmes I’ve developed for students, they were designed for in-person sessions and a lot of it cannot be translated online.

Yes, there are alternatives - online labs, simulations, etc. - but even seasoned educators generally agree that they are temporary substitutes for the situation we are in, not adequate replacements. There are intangible benefits to in-person learning that can never be replaced by online learning.

I recognise that they are useful in the current situation and they definitely hold a place in education. That said, because my programmes aren’t curricular, I always intended for them to be as immersive and experiential as possible.

Unfortunately, this means that they can’t quite be translated to an online version without losing a lot of their intended effects.

There is the possibility of creating a new programme aimed directly to be done online, as I’ve done with some of my other programmes (for the adult learner market), but this will take time. Also, those programmes aren’t intensely-hands-on science-based programmes, so it’s not difficult to do so.

Furthermore, because I’ve spent at least 3 months creating the original programmes without recouping the resources I’ve put into it, I don’t feel inclined to create any more new programmes.

The schools seem to think that 20 hours of in-person training should translate into 20 hours of online training, as if they are the same thing. This is something I find strange because they had to translate their curriculum online last year and, surely, they must realise that you can’t translate things minute for minute.

The logical thing to do, therefore, is to move away from the student market and into the adult learner market.

So here is where it circles back to the beginning of this blog post.

I need to connect with people in the adult learner market and ramp this up quickly.

I’m finding some good leads in Clubhouse, in educator circles. I’m also looking at investing in certain online tools to simplify my processes.

It’s not easy, and it’s not going to get easier.

It’s a large transition and it’s going to require a lot of work to get right.

I’ve been disheartened for a month. It’s time to get over the slump.

It’s time to get cracking!