I put on two student recitals each year. A Fall Recital in November right before Thanksgiving and a Spring Recital in April just after Easter. Last night was our Spring Recital. The students range in age from 6 to 18 years old. Some kids look forward to this event and others dread it. But either way it's pretty exciting. The degree to which it was a success depends upon who you talk to. Some kids will simply remember the mistakes they made and "just die from embarrassment", while others will talk about how much fun it was.
My standards are quite different though. Like a grandparent proudly displaying the crayon art of their young grandchildren, I watch these kids with pride knowing how hard they have worked to get to this point and how difficult it is for them to walk up to the stage and play for a room full of people. I also get to talk with the families after and see how proud and (if we're to be honest) surprised they are.
They only sad part is knowing there are many other family members who couldn't be there but would like to. Some for reasons of health and others by virtue of geography. Last night I was able to solve that problem with available technology. I did a simple "live stream" via Facebook and this recital was "attended" by family members around the country and around the world. So far I've heard from family members in Russia and Poland, and another interested party in Costa Rica.
Thankfully you don't have to be smart to do this stuff. The people who develop this technology know that there are many people like me out there. This was my second attempt at this. The first time was at the Fall Recital and it was a dismal failure. Largely because I tried to overthink it. But it worked this time and the next time it will be better.
When I got home last night I had a message from an adult student. She was practicing something that we had worked on in her lesson and hit a snag. So I was able to quickly put together a short screencast demo and send it to her. Ten years ago she would have waited a week until the next lesson to ask the questions.
On Tuesday my student in Florida only got 15 minutes of his 30 minute lesson. We will convene again on Friday morning for the rest of it. This would not be practical in a brick-and-mortar environment, but online it's as easy as making a phone call. Ultimately he gets greater value for his time and money.
It's not like I sit around looking for cool things to do with technology. Instead I see problems and seek solutions. I've cooking up a few other ideas too. As they say, "Watch this space."