Gals and Gadgets

My talk "Anywhere, anytime genealogy" at SAG last Saturday turned out to be a hen's party. Around a dozen females came along to hear me talk.

I discussed a number of scenarios where one can undertake genealogy related activities such as:

• Ancestral Homes
• Cemeteries
• Conferences, lectures and seminars
• Family gatherings
• Visits to libraries, archives and other repositories
• Trains, planes and automobiles

We then proceeded to look at some techie and other toys that can be used in these situations.  We examined various types of:
Cameras Phones Printers Recording devices Scanners The Smallest device Tablets Et cetera (or the Genie's Grab Bag) I had great fun collaborating with the group and trying to answer their questions on the topic and other things such as WiFi, Webinars and Internet access plans and options. I also shared some of the things I learnt at the Rootstech Conference in Salt Lake City. One of the toys I showed was my new Bloggie video camera, I took a video of the group and promised to post it on this blog. Unfortunately, because I am not too familiar with this new toy, I accidentally deleted the movie before I uploaded it! I have made the presentation available to the participants on a website and, as a result of the discussions during the talk I have made some alterations to it. I also learnt that the SAG projector does not cope well with the amount of light in the room and that the colours I used for my site did not display too well, I will amend this before I give the presentation at another venue. As a believer in feedback I placed a post on this blog where participants could give me anonymous feedback on the session. One of the participants has emailed me saying that she was unable to post a comment and would I be able to publish some instructions. These instructions from Blogger may help: How do I leave comments on a blog? We were blessed to have genealogist and SAG Councillor, Carole Riley who shares my love of Web2.0 and techie toys in the group. Carole's contributions transformed my lecture into a true collaborative learning activity.The attendees asked lots of questions of both Carole and me. Julie from SAG who was on duty in the building commented on the laughter that was coming from our lecture room. From my perspective it was a fun learning activity. I wonder if the gender balance will be more equal lfor my next talk at SAG " Get ready to Google" on March 26th.