What I learnt giving my first online AI Fluency session
You can see the recording of the first session.
On the Saturday 30 August I was feeling a bit lost. I started writing a note to myself titled “What should I do next?” I felt like I needed to start a new project, but wasn’t sure what to focus on. Way back at the start of July I had the intention of creating weekly videos during July , but hadn’t managed to achieve that. I want to get good at online presenting because I think it’s an important skill in 2025. How could I make myself consistently create weekly videos?
Eventually I came up with a plan — I would do weekly online training sessions about using AI in work, which I would call “AI Fluency”, and record that. To focus my thoughts I wrote a plan of what I was going to do and asked LOS questions about it. LOS is my “Life Operating System” — a Claude project with access to a lot of information about my previous work, skills and experience. I don’t like to anthropomorphize AI too much but I must say it is nice to have a patient ear to explain my plans to. It’s also very useful. I had previously mentioned how I found it difficult to focus on just one thing paraphrasing Steve Jobs advice to focus on “just one thing”, and LOS mentioned that it thought that this project sounds like a perfect “one thing” for me.
The next day (Sunday) I set up the first session, using my dormant meetup group The Professional Development Group, and scheduled the session for the Thursday the coming week.
What did I learn doing the first session?
- It took me a long time to prepare for the session, longer than I was anticipating. I put this partly down to the fact that it was my first time doing it. I should be quicker preparing for future ones.
- It was harder to do than I had anticipated. This was a surprise to me. I have over a decade of experience giving regular presentations via The Discussion Group, and I assumed doing this one would be similar to that. But it wasn’t. There is a different vibe when giving a talk online, especially when you want the recording of the session to be good.
- It took ten minutes or so for everyone to join. I had anticipated this, but even so it kind of felt wrong, and annoying for those people who turned up on time and had to wait for it to start. I have put the start time for the next one as 18:50 and will start at exactly 19:00, and stick to that.
- I had wanted to use OBS studio to do some fancy things during my presentation, and I started the technical setup about an hour or two before the time. But I ran into an issue — Google Meet couldn’t see the OBS virtual camera. I still need to work out what the issue is there. My chosen setup did seem a bit overly complex, but that may just be lack of experience with the setup. I will use it for future sessions once I work out why Google Messages couldn’t see the OBS virtual camera.
- I spent some time messing around with the layout of my desk, chair, microphone, lighting positions again. I must have done this 100 times before but I’m glad I did it, I think the layout I came up with is a good one and I hope I won’t have to change it again. I want a setup that I can leave up all the time.
- I recorded both the presentation screen and the video of myself using Quicktime (it can do both at once). Or at least I thought I did. At the end of the call when I looked at the Quicktime windows I saw that it wasn’t recording me. The record button in Quicktime is a bit misleading. It is a red circle when you are not recording, it turned into a grey square when you are. That seems completely backwards to me — in video studios the camera with the red light on is the one that is recording. So I guess I saw the red button and assumed it was on.
- Since the live recording didn’t work, I went through the presentation the next day and recorded that.
- With the recorded video a couple of people commented on the screens reflecting in my glasses, and that it was distracting. I may try not wearing glasses next time. I don’t think I really need them as I don’t read from the screen whilst presenting, I just move from one slide to the next.
- I used Final Cut Pro to edit the recording. I used the Magnetic Mask to remove the wall behind me to overlay me on a consistent background (#eeeeee). The Magnetic Mask tool worked extremely well, but it takes FCP quite a while to process it. Best to set it going and then go for a walk.
- I say “um” quite a lot, and in places my delivery is a bit monotone. Recently I have been listening to the audiobook Don’t Say Umby Michael Chad Hoeppner. It is really good. He treats presenting as a physical act, and gives tips about how you can do physical things whilst you are presenting to improve your technique. I could experiment with those techniques in future sessions.
- The talk itself was a bit disjointed I thought. When preparing talks I should apply some of the techniques from The Art of Explanation by Ros Atkins.
- I set up a WhatsApp group for these new sessions and I should send a message to the WhatsApp group say an hour before the session to remind people to join.
- The audio volume was too low and the microphone too far from my mouth. I need to sort that out.
- Asking people to fill in the feedback form during the call worked really well — everyone did so. In physical meetups I’ve found it hard to get a quarter to respond.
- This software allows you to run OBS studio on one computer and stream to OBS studio on another, which I might do in the future: DistroAV/DistroAV: DistroAV (formerly OBS-NDI): NDI integration for OBS Studio
- If I’m uploading to LinkedIn I need to remember to add captions (and also increase the volume a bit).
Summary of main points from the feedback form
I uploaded a CSV of the 17 responses to my LOS coach and asked it to summarize the data. This was the response (highlights mine):
Key findings from your Thursday session feedback:
- Personal productivity dominates - 76% want this, making it your clear next session topic.
- Practical focus required - Multiple requests for “use cases,” “practical skills,” and “tips” rather than theory.
- Mixed experience levels - Only 35% currently use AI, so you need to balance beginner and intermediate content.
- Tool selection confusion - Several people want guidance on choosing the right AI tool for specific tasks.
- Education sector strong - Nearly a third work in education, suggesting academic examples would resonate.
- Content direction: Your next sessions should prioritize personal productivity applications with specific tool recommendations and real-world examples. The audience wants actionable guidance, not technical explanations.
- Audience validation: 17 responses from a first session indicates solid engagement. The diversity of industries (education, business, tech) suggests your content has broad appeal.
- Adjustment needed: Shift from “why AI matters” to “how to use AI effectively” - your audience is ready for practical implementation guidance.