Hi Alan,
My name is Clint Kennedy and I am currently enjoying my last session of the last day of the 2008 BLC conference. This is my first time attending the conference and I very much appreciate what you have done and are doing in the world of education and learning.
I do, however, have what I hope is some constructive criticism in regards to the conference and the way it is setup. Twice during the conference I heard you mention that the real benefits of the conference come from the conversations attendees will be having by coming togther in this location for this week. You and Ewan also mentioned that you believe the collective wisdom of the conference attendees is far superior to the collective wisdom of the presenters. Marc Prensky stated that “in 10 years the BLC conference will not be lecture based because people attending will not learn that way.” Pedro Noguera stated that “teaching and talking is not the same.” If we accept these statements as true, for arguments sake, why do we continue to sit in conference sessions as they are designed currently? Who is to say that we are learning optimally with the lecture model? Do we think that lecture is the way we as adults learn optimally? Why do we continue to “sit and get” as opposed to having opportunities to be active learners? The non-keynote sessions I have attended have ranged from very informative to very boring but most if not all were delivered using a teacher-centered model. Can we change the format of the conference to be more attendee centric? Could we organize the conference around components of the unconference model?
I would propose keeping the keynote speakers (they have been very thought provoking and they can and should provide theme and context), however, I would change all other sessions to unconference sessions. Support teams would be needed to organize rooms, times, resources, etc. Teams could organize and support the recording/capturing/tagging of the sessions. And November Learning could certainly help educate the conference attendees as to what to expect from an unconference before they arrive.
I am writing this to you Alan because I think our community needs you to be the one that takes the learning conference to the next level and I think you are a leader that can make this happen. I also think it would be great to be able to practice the pedagogy that we discussed so frequently during the last week. Again, I want to thank you for a wonderful conference. The people I met and exchanged ideas with were top notch. I can only imagine the time and effort that goes into this production. See you next year!
Thank you,
Clint Kennedy
Mystic, CT
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July 20, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Clint,
This same point was batted around by the team of admins from my district that attended with me. All we are really looking for is the ability to lock horns with others to find out how to really make this change process cook. We didn’t feel that there was time allotted for this during BLC. I understand that one of the reasons this conference did not “officially extend” into the evening was to encourage those conversations, but I have also attended conferences, like Educon2.0, where the dialogue was built into the conference itself. Can’t we do that here next year?
We, some of the team I went with, discussed having two conference strands: one for newcomers to the tools, and one for practitioners or “change-agents.” That might also free up some of the speakers to focus less on the tool, and more on the pedagogy.
Great post, and one that I think you were not alone in thinking.
July 21, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Clint,
These are excellent suggestions for next year.
In the meantime, you may want to explore the BLC ning at http://blcconference.ning.com where conversations are continuing and learning can be extended. (In fact, that is how I found out about your blog post – Patrick Higgins mentioned it in one of the discussions).
You may be interested to know that we held an EduBlogger Con East last Monday where Alan graciously allowed us to use one of the conference rooms at no cost to us for an “unconference.” There is a Quick link at the top of the first page of the BLC ning that connects to the wiki.
The opportunity to have multiple, rich conversations and to move beyond the lecture model of presentations is crucial to the success of an education conference for many participants.
One presentation that I went to, offered by Liz Davis and Lisa Thumann, used the last 20 minutes or so of the session for building your network and exploring the tools. Initially, they spoke about how they built their network, then they modeled it, then they included time for each participant to build their own. It was an effective use of time and a great idea. Much more interactive!
You may be interested to know about the next EduCon 2.1 http://tinyurl.com/educon21 which is a true unconference sponsored by SLA (Chris Lehmann’s school).
July 21, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Clint,
Great points here. Both at NECC and BLC the greatest take-aways were from spending time conversing with attendees and presenters alike–and reflecting on the ideas proposed. The hardest thing right now for me to do is to find time to reflect and write–dig deeply in all that was presented to me.
I’ll also add here that although some people loved Pedro’s presentation, I felt it flopped relative to the presentation styles–and emphasis on design, storytelling, messaging–that Ewan McIntosh’s presentation offered. I walked out about mid way through, and that is a shame because I think he finally got to some of the most important concepts after I left.
BLC was a relatively intimate conference–but, it has a long way to go to be the LEARNING EXPERIENCE we want to have and then model in our schools.
July 21, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I think in the days of ‘unconference” and collaborative work, lecture and presentation gets a bad name. A well prepared, thoughtful presentation does have merit both in classrooms and at conferences.
That said, what I think is lacking most is the ability for participants to respond, question and engage in these presentations. Conferences like BLC, which I attended last year, relies too heavily on informal discussions which may or may not take place. What I like about your proposal is the move to more intentional times of exploration and participation. I still think there ought to be quality presentations from folks who know there stuff. The wisdom of crowds still requires some form of leadership. The key word is balance. Both in our classrooms and in conferences. Most conferences and many classrooms are weighted too heavily toward “sit and git”. We need to seek balance without throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
August 7, 2008 at 8:02 am
great, usefull 0_0