Back on July 10, I posted about the Alan November sponsored Building Learning Communities conference that ended yesterday in Boston. I was lamenting how much I wanted to go, and how expensive this conference is, and that it would be impossible for me to go. Woe is me was the theme of that post. But I report today that I indeed did get to attend this conference, though it was a “virtual visit.” What do you mean, virtual, you might ask. Well it appears the big bloggers of the blogosphere were already planning to make this an even better conference than the NECC 2007 conference. I did attend that one, and the big idea I walked away with this year was the POWER of tagging blog posts, pictures, links, or anything. There were so many attendees live blogging, tweeting, and even skypecasting sessions, that I was blown away! I was amazed each evening back at my hotel room at how I could log into my Bloglines and relive the days’ events, and even glean information from sessions I missed. Skypecasting was sort of introduced at NECC, and there is argument that it really is not even a term with a definition. But let me try to describe it. Someone begins a Skype chat while sitting in a session. Anyone with skype can join in, and all you need to know is who to “dial” or “look up” in your Skype, and request to join. This can be done in either direction, either from the originator of the skype chat or you. Generally the participants chat back and forth over the main points that the presenter makes.
So at the BLC conference, this was the biggest thing going on at each session. David Jakes, author of “The Strength of Weak Ties,” posted on his blog just before going to BLC in Boston that he planned to Skypecast many of the sessions he attended, and anyone interested in joining in could chat in. He provided his skype name and a rough agenda of what sessions he was attending.
So I took him up on his offer, and skyped to join into the chats going on. At different times there were as many as a dozen folks, some right there in the same room and some (like me) from all over the world trying to be a part of this wonderful conference. I met and made friends with some absolutely amazing people, like David Jakes (an instructional technology director from Illinois), Barbara Barreda (a K-8 parochial school principal from Los Angeles), and Ewan McIntosh (a consultant from New Zealand who says he specializes in being a teacher and a social media specialist!). [Correction July 22, 2007: Ewan McIntosh let me know he is from Scotland.]
What did take from my virtual attendance at BLC?
• Today’s students have the power of creativity in them
• My favorite session—without a doubt the Marco Torres one
• The tools more now than ever are available to tap into learning that is authentic
• Conversations and networking can quadruple the effect of presentations & professional development
• There are also several posts in my TechnoTuesday Blog about what I have learned, and I encourage readers to see that blog too!
I was absolutely amazed at Ewan McIntosh. I was involved in a group skyechat going on for the Mitch Resnick/Angela McFarlane Keynote, and before McFarlane, the second speaker, left the stage, Ewan had already posted a summary of both in his blog, posted pictures in Flickr, had participated in the skypechat, AND opened up an image editor to make nifty pictures for his blog posting about the conference! Ewan, who also presented, even blogged while presenting! Later on, I was involved in another session, and the presenters, Chris Lehman and Christian Long, were not only presenting, but in the Skypechat that was going on during their presentation! They were contributing to that secondary conversation, and even incorporating the commentary by answering questions or addressing points from the Skypechat. This conference has truly changed the way those who participated enjoyed the presentations. It’s one experience I will never forget.
Here’s how Ewan summed up the conference for Alan November:
The obvious remarkable factor is that this was not a ‘Boston conference’ as it had been in previous years. Through people making messages on the web and through their mobile phones on Twitter, to the scores joining in on seminars through Skype with their questions, arguments and counterpoints, from the comments on blog posts written in almost real time to the rhythm of the conference, to the many comments that will continue to discuss its contents in the weeks and months to come, this conference has been one for the (relative) masses.
I know this is a long post, and I apologize. But if there’s one thing I want readers to take away from this, it’s how to track conferences that you cannot possibly attend. Go to David Warlick’s Hitchhikr site, and subscribe to the RSS feed from the conferences you are interested. Its been almost three weeks since NECC, and there are still many blog posting coming out related to that one. BLC has a Hitchhkr feed too, and there are well over 1000 posts about that conference too. It’s great professional development that you get to pick and choose from. I also want to take this opportunity to publicly thank David Jakes again, for he made it possible for me to find a way to experience a great conference. Now if I could only find a way to document the hours of time spent reading, skypechatting, and posting reflective comments on blogs for renewal credits!
Written by Cathy Nelson
Funny moment – real/virtual combo. How do we introduce global perspective? Demonstrated using host country in search (example — host:tr to limit to Turkey).
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