User:MartinPoulter/Reflective log of training

This is a record of lessons learned from my various experiences with training events, whether helping out another trainer, leading the training, or giving a presentation as part of a training workshop.

I've made myself balance out the positive and negative points. This is so that I don't beat myself up with a long list of negatives. It also means that when an event goes delightfully well, I'm still asking myself how I can do better in future.

Cancer Research UK (helping)

+ Moved about the room, identified where people were having problems, and helped people individually
+ Stayed in touch after the event by email, and responded promptly to requests for advice
- Turned up a bit late and got locked out, missing the initial introductions.
- Should have been more assertive when offering help.

Bristol Wiki Academy II (presenting and training)

+ Took the room through the training steps despite a succession of venue problems and technical issues.
- Didn't monitor what edits people were making.

Institute of Physics (training and presenting)

+ Managed to lead a full day workshop and come across as very professional, and evaluation reflected this
+ Answered questions right throughout the day.
- Didn't make sure that everyone in the room made edits. One attendee prepared a draft in a text editor, but I didn't make sure that he had pasted it in to Wikipedia by the time he left, and I don't think he got around to it later. Since this experience it's been an explicit goal whenever I train that everyone in the room should make at least one actual improvement to Wikipedia.
- Could have been more welcoming and friendly the moment I entered the room, rather than going directly to set up.

Medical Research Council, London (presenting and helping)

+ Feel as though I managed to impress people. One of the audience who attended the initial presentation was visiting from another organisation, who followed up with a meeting and have since funded a major partnership with WMUK.
- One particular slide I hadn't prepared properly, and it showed.

Bristol Girl Geeks (one-to-one training)

+ Asked everybody what help they needed and concentrated on the people who were least experienced.
- A messy start when I vacillated about whether or not to do a slide presentation.

Oxford Free Speech project (training)

+ Got everyone in the room involved, both on-wiki and in terms of asking questions. Very active session (thanks to a very bright, young audience)
- Didn't acknowledge individuals. E.g. Someone left a message on my Talk page, but at the time I didn't find out which person in the room it was and thank them directly.

Science Learning Centre South West (Ran workshop solo)

+ Generally felt that people were involved and interested through the half-day, and everybody made edits.
+ Tailored the presentation to focus on ways they could use Wikipedia in their work.
+ Managed to keep a dozen trainees involved without assistance, although one trainee was very technical and able to help with a technical issue.
+ Almost all of the session involved hands-on experience, and I made this clear at the outset.
- Somehow managed to entirely miss the door to the venue, and so went into a completely wrong part of the building! This in turn meant I had very little time between arriving and beginning the workshop
- Missed a couple of crucial parts of the syllabus: didn't go into detail about how to ask for help, and showed article Talk pages but didn't go into much detail about using them to suggest article improvement.
- Threw out some open questions, but should have been more assertive in getting people to respond.
- Left printing to last minute, and of course this was when rare problems with printers flared up, so I turned up without any printed matter. It only registered at the end of the session that that meant there were no evaluation forms.