I am looking forward to being involved in the K12 Online conference in any way that I can. But I want to make two quick points here. First, by no means do I predict, suggestion in any way, or even consider that the geographic, conventions-based, face-to-face conference event is a thing of the past. First of all, it’s where I earn the largest part of my income. Second, I believe that it is in our nature, as human beings, to want to get together. It goes back to our earliest cultures and the great gatherings. And I do not believe that it is culture. I believe that it is in our genes. So the problem is not that we can’t afford to send all teachers to conferences. It’s that we haven’t decided that it isn’t that important. We ned to change our minds, because it is that important.
Now, on the other side of the coin, my son went through a phase where he was making videos. They were clips that he shot with his friends, of himself in his room, captured frames from video games he was playing, images, sound, and other digital media — all rolled together in to creative productions. The thing is that I didn’t teach him how to do that. I know that his teachers didn’t teach him how to do that. He learned from his network, from the people who interact with his MySpace pages, play games with him from around the world, from his IM buddy list, and through the mobile phone that he is constantly pulling from his pocket to read and type into.
What I think that is important about the K12 Online 2006 Conference is that it will help us begin to mimic the learning experiences that our students use nearly every day. We need this experience.
I totally agree with you. I am glad that K12 Online is happening, but it certainly does not replace the exciting face to face sharing that conferences provide.
I teach some online courses with Connected University and also with PBS TeacherLine. There is definitely a place for these online courses, but it is just not the same as the personal connections made at a conference or other type of training. When I think about becoming a full time online instructor it doesn’t sound good at all.
Janice
I certainly think there’s a great deal of value in face-to-face conferences — but I’m interested and curious to see what we can do in an online environment. You’re right — we classroom teachers should have more access to conferences and to face-to-face opportunities to network both inside and outside of our daily geographies — but we don’t. This conference, hopefully, will provide another option/outlet for that networking and for the online experience that you mention.
I quite agree but I also think there’s even more potential in this event..
My classroom experiences, for myself and my students have been tremendously enriched, by the blended nature (face-to-face and online) of the learning that we do. Like you suggested in your post, I think this also has implications for education conferences.
The most powerful conference experiences are blended ones; a mix of face-to-face and online. The kind of “virtual handouts” you share at conferences like NECC and the new conference experience you’ve helped to foster with hitchhikr.com, in my opinion, are they way of the future for all conferences — not just edtech conferences. One format isn’t better than the other; the two taken together is best. 😉