Steve Dembo posted his latest podcast yesterday. With most educators on break now and taking some time off from edutech stuff, I am on the edge of my seat looking and waiting for new education programs. Steve’s latest is well worth the wait. In his easy style, yet thought-provoking way of speaking (from way outside the box), Dembo has posed some suggestions and asked some important questions.
Essentially, his supposition is that when we attend conferences, we find ourself in rooms with a speaker who has arranged content to be delivered using presentation, and in the case of our conferences (tech & education), multimedia of one ilk or another. Admittedly, its the same kind of thing we’re trying to get away from in the classroom.
At the same time, we are sharing the room with other educators, who in many cases know as much, if not more, about the presented topics, and certainly could add value from their varied experiences.
You can listen to the podcast at:
OK, here’s my 2¢ worth, and this comes from my perspective as someone who spends a great deal of time presenting at conferences, and, a fact much relevance here, makes much of his living presenting at conferences.
I believe that of all the factors related to this problem, including technology, infrastructure, content, presentation skills, etc., time is the one that is most critical to success. This is certainly no different in our classrooms. I typically have an hour for my presentations, though it can range from 45 to 90 minutes.
Sometimes I do scripted presentations that are carefully planned and assembled, almost choreographed. You might even call them performances, with cognitive and behavioral objectives. Other times, the presentation is more open, with a lot of discussion and sharing of ideas. I present a surprising statistic or an off-edge opinion, and ask people to share their reactions within the context of their job practices and goals. We build ideas in collaboration and it is extremely useful and a lot of fun, and I’m told that I’m pretty good at this sort of facilitation.
However, at the end of the session, if you ask me which hour is more satisfying in terms of what I have accomplished with the audience, its the performance, hands down. Give me a day, I’m going to get more done by facilitating learning by sharing, what I believe Steve is talking about.
However, given an hour or two, I’m going to be able to accomplish much more by presenting ideas and techniques to the audience in a well prepared, rehearsed, multimedia performance. Now it is possible and advisable to integrate into the performance, elements of interactivity, but only where they will result in conclusions that integrate into the performance.
I agree with Steve, 100%, that there is talent, skill, and perspective in the presentation room that is being wasted in the standard dog and pony show. However, technologies are emerging that can help us to tap into those opportunities. The question that I ask is what is the best use of that hour, and what is the best use of the digital information infrastructure that extends past that hour and that presentation room. In which arena should the audience be listening and watching, and in which should they be collaborating.
I suspect that there is no hard rule here. I think that Steve is correct when it comes to the podcasting. I’d planned to record my podcasting presentation at NECC, but with the tech difficulties we had, I didn’t get around to wiring myself up for it. I have to say that I would not want a keynote podcasted. My client is paying for the performance, and I want to continue to be paid for it. I’d decided, that if anyone asked if they could record my spotlight session at NECC, I’d agree if they released any 5 minutes of it as part of a podcast. But no more than 5 minutes. Alas, no one asked.
I agree with Steve that there is a vast un-tapped resource in the presentation room. It think that we need to start refining just how we can drill it out and spread it.
I am trying to take advantage of these emerging technologies with my presentations. For NECC, all of my online handouts were wiki pages, and I invited the audience to adapt and add to the handouts. For the podcasting session, I got additions from Steve, and from veteran podcasters Jeff Moore, Bud Hunt, and Eric Jefcoat. I also included a page with a built-in RSS aggregator that captures and lists any Technorati-aware blog that mentions certain keywords associated with the presentation. Harnessing the post presentation conversation. There are currently 14 posts listed, including some from before the session.
I don’t know which way is best. It’s probably a combination of the two. One thing that I do know is that the presentation point, its time and place, must be a springboard to bigger things. And understanding that, I suspect that WiFi in the presentation room, has become as essential as the LCD projector. It’s about sharing, and extending the sharing.
2¢ worth.
PS: Mike Lawerence, Executive Director of California’s CUE, says that conferences are people aggregators. I would tend to agree, especially when considering Steve’s ideas about sharing the wealth of talent.
David,
As someone who sits through LOTS of presentations I am VERY glad that most of them are NOT facilitated sharing from the audience. At a conference I am looking for some inspiration, something that makes me really think or something I can take back and use. A session with people like me sharing-who undoubtlyly have some great stuff to share-might end up being a waste of my time. It is too hard to predict what will happen in that session. The audience comes unprepared and has not thought about the other participants and an hour is too short.
So, I agree with you. There are times and places for all different kinds of learning. At conferences the participants are engaged if the presenter is well prepared and has something to say. There are many times that this does not happen and the participants think about other things or leave, but often enough the ideas that are shared begin bouncing around their brains and bouncing off of ideas from other sessions and ideas they came with and maybe, just maybe, create some new thoughts or actions!
Janice Friesen
janicef@jfriesen.net
David,
One more thought. I just listened to Steve Dembo’s podcast and I disagree with him. I don’t have time to look at conference presentations ahead of time. Also, I am not thinking in conference mode ahead of time. There is something about the atmosphere and being face to face that adds something mysterious to a conference. I don’t thing you can capture that in a video, podcast, or by thinking ahead.
Janice
Janice: You’re absolutely dead on about “conference mode” and checking things out ahead of time, I do know what you mean. However just to clearify, I wouldn’t take away the spark that occurs during the face to face interactions for anything in the world. I wholeheartedly agree that something electric occurs when people interact personally and let the ideas “begin bouncing around their brains”. I’m not trying to find ways to remove the face time, but to make the face time more productive, dynamic, more electric. To let the content of the workshop be the beginning of the discussion, not the end of it.
For the record, by the way, I didn’t ask if I could record your spotlight session because I figured you were recording it yourself! I do like hte 5 minute rule quite a bit. I really enjoy when sessions are broadcast in their entirety, but I do understand that you make a living from these workshops. 5 minutes is more than ample to share a key idea or concept.
Great to hear your thoughts on the topic. Given me some new things to think about.
Steve
Janice & Steve,
I think that the bottom line is that the information inftrastructure has taken some giant leaps in the past couple of years, and mostly in the last few months. With blogs, podcasting, video blogging and especially the way that RSS ties these things together, there is much more that we can do to provide for professional development for professional educators. I live for conferences. I get so much energy from them. Human being demand face-to-face interactions, and human beings love entertainment. But I believe that there is much that we could do today to expand the benefits and even the energy of conferences beyond the place and time of the event. This is what I’d like NECC or some other conference to try to invent and model in the coming months.
— dave —
Steve and Dave,
I have attended the TRLD conference and they tried something interesting with a little success last time and I am curious what you would think about it. At the end of the preconference day they took several of the topics that were talked about and labeled tables of ten with these topics. Then people could sign up to participate in a discussion on the topic. Coffee and cookies were served, so it was a relaxed environment for people who were interested in a particular topic to discuss it further with others who may not have been presenting, but have something to share.
In this case it was after preconference and some of us had not attended the preconference, so we did not have the same basis for the discussion. For me it was the beginning of the conference, but I think that it would make more sense as an end of the day activity. Also in this case most of the presenters were not involved, but it would make sense to have a presenter at the table of the topic they presented on. This could be an ongoing discussion where people who were really interested could stay as long as they wanted (not limited to an hour). I know that this kind of discussion can occur on blogs and podcasts (as is happening here), but I am thinking of this as a way to include some different ways to tap all of those talented non-presenters and people with thoughts and questions.
What do you think?
Janice
(Disclaimer: I haven’t listened to Steve’s podcast yet. I’m comming in here lacking some details, but the topic caught my eye.)
What we need is a completely different kind of conference. Let NECC (and most of the others) be the way they are. I’m looking for a different type of experience. Dave Winer has a post from a little over a year ago talking about the “unconference” format…a different way to structure the learning for everybody involved. A few popular technology conferences have implemented parts of the concept successfully. More here. http://www.bloggercon.org/2004/04/21#a1310
I recently attended a regional conference/workshop that followed this format…it was the most unbelieveable experience…very, very different…very, very engaging. Let’s build of Dave Weinberger’s “knowledge is conversation”. The reason I’ve given up on most conferences is the same frustration (I presume) that’s expressed by Steve. Sure, there are a few exceptional speakers and situations that break the mold…but there are too many that are simply painful to sit through. I typically find that 4 of 5 breakout sessions aren’t worth the time. Given the chance to talk/share/converse, even the bad ones could be improved…and I’m not talking about “please, feel free to ask questions…I want this to be a dialog” disclaimers that happen just about as often as “please turn off your cell phones”.
It requires a deliberate attempt on the part of conference organizers to structure the conference different. Cap the registration somewhere in the low hundreds, 2 days, single track, structure time for breakout discussions, and please, please provide connectivity. :O) Let the people have a conversation amongst themselves and hopefully with others via the net.
Steve,
The idea of recording all sessions at NECC is something that has been done before. I have CD’s from 2 years ago that has all of the concurrent sessions. Those were done by an audio company and the CD’s were a tad expensive. They have done it in the past. It shouldn’t be a stretch to do it again and make it available as podcasts.
Just listening to Steve Teach42 and thought I would add some thoughts to this discussion. I just attended a conference where every session was taped on audio and DVD. The costs were fairly cheap to buy the sessions. CD audio was $10 a session and DVD was $15 a session. I am sure all the money made from the sale of cd and dvd was to cover the cost of taping the sessions. It really gives a professional swing to the conference and it also attracts people to the conference the following year as copies get thrown around amongst peer groups and colleagues. Why can’t conferences as large as NECC have something like this?