I was all geared up to visiting the Music Education Expo at London’s Barbican Centre and looking forward to meeting people I had previously communicated with only online and hearing more of their ideas. However, personal commitments prevented me from leaving home. So, I decided to do a virtual Expo visit. I sat down with the March edition of Music Teacher magazine, which included details of the full programme, speaker biographies, exhibitors and sponsors. Armed with this, I visited the websites of speakers whose presentations I had hoped to attend and also looked up references to them and their topics on the wider web. I had an absorbing time, watching videos, learning about their resources and really getting a good ‘feel’ of their work. In fact, because I was able to follow links and aspects that really resonated with me, I think I probably got more from my virtual visit than I would have done from being physically present, especially as I couldn’t be in two places at the same time! Of course, I was not able to be present at the informal gatherings of teachers in the TeachMeet Lounge but I suspect (hope!) that the conversations initiated there will be continued online.

I’m sure there will be a lot of teachers who were not able to attend, for one reason or another. If you were one such, why not make your own virtual visit? If you don’t have a copy of the March ‘Music Teacher’ which, by the way, was a great edition, you’ll find all the information on the Expo site.

I’m enjoying the benefits of getting older! I no longer feel the need to worry about a professional persona and being perceived as ‘a Jill of all trades’. For some years, I’ve mantained several websites and blogs to reach different sections of the online community, though ‘Making Music Matters’ has been the one place where I have posted about the breadth of my musical interests. Now, I’ve created a new page, “Audrey’s Places” where I have linked to my other sites and I’ve signed up for Twitter. I’ve only been on it for a day but I’ve already found several really interesting sites  through it. I had studiously avoided Twitter till now because I have great difficulty with social chit-chat. This has been a big handicap to me as a blogger because I don’t feel inclined to post unless I have something I really feel a need to say. The prospect of writing 140 characters, though, is a lot less of a big deal, so I finally checked it out. I think it will be a great place to dip into ‘lots of pies’ and will be a stimulus for more frequent blogging. Hopefully, it may be a cure for my ‘split personality – watch this space!

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