Live Stream

Today, this #maternityteacher made a joyful discovery.  Please keep in mind during this anecdotal blog that despite my incessant Tweeting and blogging, watching me try to navigate social media and many forms of technology is a little like watching your grandmother trying to use a computer mouse for the first time.  ("Right click, Nanny.  Click.  On the right.  With your ring finger.  Right click.")

Imagine me, if you will, doing a mix between ballet, dry ice-skating and aerobics in my living room at 11am this morning, in my pyjamas, to a soundtrack of Paolo Nutini, with a baby attached to me in a sling.  Why would I do such a thing, you might be wondering.  Well, the baby had just had a significant poop explosion whilst seated in the bouncer - that genius piece of equipment that allows me to get on with blogging and Tweeting and researching during the day - and it was now out of action.  Baby refuses to sleep during the day without some form of intense lunging involved, so it was rather resentfully that I swapped my morning coffee with accompanying bouncer for a sling fit work out.

Eventually, exhausted, I sat down to Twitter only to find that the whole world apart from me was talking about ResearchEd. "Oh gawd!" I thought, with severe feelings of FOMO, "The whole world is progressing apart from me.  Interesting learning discussions are happening and I'm sweaty and still in my pyjamas at 11am and the baby has begun to dribble in my cleavage!  Maternity leave sucks!"

But oh how wrong I was.  When I clicked on the @ResearchED1 handle, I saw this magical Tweet:

"What is a 'Livestreamed'?" you may be wondering.  Well, #maternityteachers, I asked myself the same question, and curious beyond measure about what kind of Narnia this digital wardrobe door might lead me to, I clicked on the link and was greeted by this:

This is @daisychristo talking, in real time, about the Ark Academy's research into comparative moderation, and here I was, with a baby, in my living room, with dirty hair and sleep-face, listening as if I were in the Theatre of the Capital City Academy with all the other gazillion CPD-ing teachers. Amazing!

I obviously then had a fantastic morning with the live stream playing on my laptop in the background, a bit like Wimbledon or the Olympics whilst I went about breastfeeding, burping, playing, tummy time, laundry, Tweeting, Googling, drinking cups of tea and performing baby massage on a very disgruntled and windy baby.  "Being on maternity leave is fantastic!" I thought, "You can come in late to presentations without offending anyone; I don't have any marking or planning to do that's keeping me from concentrating on what @PhillippaCcuree is saying, and I'm not sickened by the idea of anything to do with education on a Saturday because I've lost track of what day it is today!  Plus, I have time to really think about lots of big ideas and put them into action.  How, for example, could research bodies mobilise the teachers on maternity leave out there who are not drowning under the weight of their teaching load to contribute to their projects?"

Life got even better at 2:05pm when this chap turned up:

What Teach First ambassador doesn't love a bit of Brett quoting familiar statistics?  Way to reconnect with the mission!

The best thing about Live Stream, I discovered, was that it doesn't just exist for ResearchEd; this chap Leon Cych at least, films loads of education-related events and Teach Meets so that they can be accessed from any remote location with Wifi.  Can you think of anything more compatible with the #maternityteacher lifestyle?

So, here's what I think we should all do:

• Explore further opportunities for live streaming.  If there is a conference you want to attend, but can't, what infrastructure do the facilitators have for creating a live streaming link?
• Learn how to do live streaming with @periscopetv - apparently you can do this with your own smartphone!
• We should all make friends with Leon Cych (@eyebeams) and ask him to partner with The #maternityteacher Project to make all of our live streaming dreams come true.
• If you attend an event through live streaming, you've attended that CPD event! (You just didn't get lunch).  Make sure you include it in your CPD record or on your CV so that you can use it to impress your Principal on your return to work.
• Use social media to record and maximise upon your attendance: blog about your reflections; network through Twitter; follow up on introductions and ideas.

Even better, I have just discovered that ResearchEd is family-friendly, so you have two options for their next event in Washington (!?): get a ticket and put your baby on a plane, or grab a cup of tea and a muslin and access through live streaming!