Well, I learned a lot yesterday, mostly from just talking with people. I also know that I missed some opportunities to learn, such as when my friend, Dick MacFall invited me to come into a session at the end of the day, being presented by students from Durham Public Schools, and I was so tired at the end of the day, that I completely forgot — missing what I suspect was a golden opportunity. Maybe NCAECT Ustreamed the session.
What really nags at me now is what I learned about presenting about Personal Learning Networks. You can’t explain it in 45 minutes. I felt that there was so much that was left unsaid, unshown, without discussion. I felt so good about the workshop on Wednesday, and so disappointed after yesterdays concurrent session.
It’s a struggle. An hour is barely enough time to cover something in a way that clearly defines the concept, project, experience, etc. At the same time, an hour is too long to ask adults to sit still and listen — especially adults who are accustomed to being on their feet. I’ve attended conferences that enjoyed 45 minute sessions and I left each session with energy to spend, and the day with much more excitement than when I attend hour-long sessions. So I don’t know what the answer is.
Ummm! Yes I do. What if we could continue the session after it is over. What if, after the session, the conversation began. I think we’re on the way there. I’m seeing a good bit of blogging going on here and twitter is coming up in just about every session. The backchannel is alive and well, and there is much land in the Twitterverse available to be claimed.
Today, Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and I will facilitate an extended session that we’re calling an EduBloggerCon. We’ll start with a definition, and then ask attendees to work in groups to suggest questions regarding the new web, new schools, new definitions of teacher, student, curriculum, being educated, and then we compile a list of those questions. Then We’ll open it up to suggested answer from the audience and conversation. Sheryl and I will insert our two cents worth after all other ideas are exhausted.
I’m hoping that NCAECT will Ustream the session. If they aren’t, then I’ll try to do it. I’m also going to be running my chat program for backchanneling, and considering publishing my Skype login, asking folks from out side to Skype in their comments. This might be an overload, but we’ll see.
I will likely post here the links and instructions for participating, and also in my online handouts blog. So stay tuned. Also, I’ll Twitter out any announcements. If you’re not following me on Twitter, then click here.
I was in the Personal Learning session yesterday.
You are right, 45 minutes is not enough; I was intrigued by Netvibes as an introduction to rss and blogs as it looks like a “personal electronic newspaper” as I remember you put it (I’ve been using bloglines for so long). Maybe a wiki would work, but I am thinking of figuring out how to get a group of teachers with a shared goal and have them build a netvibes “newspaper” as a way to start them with a personal learning network.
So, you didn’t tell me how to do the above. We only had 45 minutes afterall.
But you did get me interested and excited. I bet I can dig around in my PLN and figure out how to get multiple users sharing a netvibes page…
That was a valuable 45 minutes to me.
My co-presenter and I had a similar thought at METC this year. We presented on web 2.0 for beginners, and then wanted to do a little “after session” with our laptops to help people start getting readers set up, etc. BUT the wifi, as you may remember, would not allow us to do that. I have already talked to the conference coordinators about ending each day next year with a sort of hands on byol hour where presenters just spend some time showing people how to get connected after the sessions. I hope she considers it, because I think you are so right…that is when the conversation could really begin.