Conferences - what can be improved?
Posted in Blackboard, Conferences, E-learning, EdTechPosted on November 11th, 2007 by Padraig
As you probably know, I have attended two Blackboard conferences in Dubai in the past few months. I presented a number of topics and participated in other sessions. It is quite common that over the course of a conference day of say 6 sessions, that there are only one or two that really are either useful or thought provoking. How common is it to regret choosing a particular session and saying that I should have attended the other one?! On my long and lonely drive back to Abu Dhabi, I was wondering how things could be improved for us conference delegates!. Obviously one improvement is having the conference in Abu Dhabi (which would brighten up the day quite considerably).
Here are some questions that are currently in my head.
- How can we improve the hit rate of useful sessions at a conference?
- Leaving with just new information after a days work seems to be quite pedagogically un-rich. Can anything be done to improve the types of interactions/collaboration that happens at conferences?
- Is there a place for a ‘blended conference’?
- How could Web 2.0 add value to what can be learned at conferences?
I know, too many questions but what the heck!
November 18th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
This might be better pursued in the forum….but here are my comments….
A defininition of “unconference” can be found in Wikipedia: “An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance. To date, the term is primarily in use in the geek community. Unconference processes like Open Space Technology, however, have been around for over 20 years in other contexts, for example in Future studies as Future workshops. There are also parallels with science-fiction fandom, in which a low-key convention with less structure, not focusing on professionals and guests of honor, is called a Relaxacon.
Open Space Technology is an energizing and emergent way to organize an agenda for a conference. Those coming to the event can post on a wiki ahead of time topics they want to present about or hope others will present about. The wiki can also be used to share who is coming because it is the attendees who have a passion to share that contribute to the event and will make it great.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference)
It might be useful to look at waht other organizations are doing in this area and see if we can adopt a similar format or approach.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I found my experiences at an online conference rather enlightening.
Firstly, you virtually attended so the drive was taken out of the equation. Why should we have to be confined to the limits and hassles of physicality when we already have the tools to make this obsolete.
Secondly, the whole thing got recorded and so was available for playback at any time. This also meant that any sessions that you didn’t get to be in, were there for you later.
However, most importantly was the use of the back channel http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2007/11/back-channel-use.html
This was an excellent facility for the participants to guide the speakers direction as well as an extra source of resources by participants dropping in references/ URLs, etc.
With regard to the CLTI2007 conference, jfitzgerald’s observations about a wiki were also borne out http://www.complexive.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page. Here topics were proposed for facilitated discussions as well as springboarding from the presentations that had just been given.
There was also a forum to discuss the topics raised in the conference.
All in all, I much preferred this type of experience to having to fight my way to Dubai and pay the earth to stay in a hotel. Only to go home exhausted with very little to show for it!