Yesterday at NECC was one of those yin/yang experiences, with one of my worst conference moments ever, which, as these things go, preceded probably the best conference feel good ever.
The Yin: I was on a panel with two other featured speakers that I thought was supposed to be a discussion about how Web 2.0 and School 2.0 are playing out and what it all means for the public education system. What it ended up being was about a total of 15 minutes total of actual conversation and 45 minutes of attempting to coax the audience into submitting best practices for the panel leaders’ new book about Web 2.0 tools in schools. Not to say that the ideas that many of the people submitted weren’t interesting and of value and worth listening to. But I have to say, I felt pretty used. And the total irony of the moment was that in this “Web 2.0” and “School 2.0” session that was supposed to celebrate the uses of the tools, the random notes were being taken on screen in a very un Web 2.0 tool called Microsoft Word. No transparency. No collaboration. No thought to sharing.
And no surprise.
I’m sure this is going to come across as conceit, but as much as there are many sessions about 2.0 this and 2.0 that, as much as the exhibitors are trumpeting all this great 21st Century learning stuff (all labeled “Safe for Your Students!” btw) there is still very little real “getting it,” real understanding of how these tools change everything, real appreciation for the transformation that so many folks at EduBloggerCon expressed on Saturday. Yep, everyone is on the train, but hardly anyone still knows what’s feeding the engine.
But the folks at the Blogger Cafe do. And that’s the yang. I don’t know how many of them will blog about it, (probably most) but the cafe is turning more into camp as people basically say “forget the sessions…this is SO much better.” And so we linger and talk and teach and learn and bond and I swear this is the best experience I have ever had at a conference (and I’ve been to a lot of conferences.) It’s just too much fun sticking around all of these people who share this itch and want to continually keep scratching it. (Check out Jeff’s Twitter feed to see what I mean.) The passion is palpable. In some ways it’s extended what started on Saturday, and it feels like more of a classroom of the future than most of the other models being bandied about.
The important thing for me is that even though we’re all heading out today, class is still in session. We’re just moving over to the virtual cafe where the pace slows down a bit and the laughter isn’t as loud. And just like the physical space, we drop by, hang out, speak up or listen when we’re able. And the learning continues. That’s what’s so powerful about all of this. That’s what I keep hoping more people will experience.
Technorati Tags: necc07, necc2007, learning, blogging, education
I am so sorry! Meet the potential for abuse when ethics are not the core of the curriculum. And even when they are, can we ensure students will buy into those ethics? And if so, how? Maybe I just ask too many questions…
Will…
I would have to totally agree with you about the cafe’. I found myself NOT wanting to leave yesterday afternoon to head back to the hotel. I was afraid to lose connection. Thank goodness for Twitter. I think I finally get Twitter and I love it.
I’d also be blogging about it, but continued issues with edublogger is preventing that from happening.
Tom
http://tnturner.edublogs.org
I’ve been jealously following all of you in Atlanta all week. Between Twitter, technorati, flickr, RSS, I have learned an enormous amount. I can’t hear the laughter and I’m not getting the “NECC experience,” (no Best Buy bags…) it has been amazing to watch the blogging community come together in real time f2f.
You hit upon something that I’ve been wondering about when it would come; the bandwagon. It sounds like many companies are jumping on and I’m sure we will see a real expansion in the fall of the blogosphere as Northern hemisphere schools return to classes, but I wonder how many people are really “getting it?” That is not meant to be exclusive at all. I’m happy people will be using the tools as a first step, but just using them is not enough; real, deep, systemic change is needed.
I checked out twitter today. That’s some cool stuff. Now, I need to get my friends on board. What a great feed to add to my pageflakes!!
I felt a little sorry for you and David at the session since it did seem as if Lynne and Gwen were there to do research for their book.
However, I did find some take-aways from the session from the interaction with people in the room: http://www.assortedstuff.com/?p=2068
While I haven’t spent as much time in the Blogger Cafe as I wanted to, every time I dropped by I met someone else from my aggregator and participated in at least one great discussion.
Sounds like you have the making of an unconference within the conference. Kind of like BarCamp as a reaction to FOOCamp. I’d say just keep supporting the alternative model and soon it will become the dominant model. Incorporate some subversion, as my friend James Farmer would say 😉
We were just having a conversation about making conferences better. I would love to hear details of how it was done, what you did, what that might mean to a conference organizer, etc. We have tentatively been talking about an unconference within a conference – sounds like you’ve already done that. But maybe with a bit different format.
Hi Will,
I don’t know if I have ever commented on your blog before, but I felt the need to do so now since I too attended NECC. I wish I had swung by the Blogger Cafe during the conference. I would have loved the higher level of conversation.
You are right in saying that it doesn’t seem like we are getting it. We don’t need another cool gadget. We need a school revolution if we are going to actually move to School 2.0.
I was also there for your session. I thought it was going to be totally different than what it wound up being. How could such a fantastic opportunity of having some of the great thinkers in education in the room be wasted by only allowing you guys to just give opening comments. I was looking forward to having such rich conversation during the session that we would have been forced out of the room when time was up.
Oh well….another opportunity wasted.
Will and Marcia,
I was also in Room B207 for the New Tools, New Schools session. While I can understand your disappointment with the session, you should consider that some good things came out of it. For instance, I was sitting near David Jakes watching him and a group of buddies all Skyping about the session among themselves and with some others ouon the Net. Perhaps the session didn’t do what you were expecting, but it did some things that I didn’t expect, and I, for one, am pleased.
Here’s the key for me: In a blog discussion of a few weeks ago, David Warlick asked what School 2.0 looks like. Well, it looks a lot like NECC 2007. People connected, people learning, often in unexpected corners. One of your corners was in the Blogger Cafe. One of my corners was in the session you didn’t like. Web 2.0, I think, allows for more corners where unexpected learning takes place that the teacher, or the presenter, didn’t plan for, didn’t expect, and didn’t even arrange. Cool.
Lay down parallel tracks and act like a shadow railroad. When the other road collapses, there you will be with your train and timetable. Wooooowoooo!
If this is too cryptic, then what I mean is that people have to need what you are offering before you can sell it. Unless of course you can manufacture consent. Fighting those who manufacture consent–that is another deal altogether.
And in response to Marcia, we have been on that moebius strip of school reform/revolution/2.0 and it is going to nowheresville. The institutional imperative coopts all change to its own devices. Build your own learning ecology (see, I don’t even want to call it school x.x).
Appreciate Keith’s comment. Is NECC (most of it) the school of the future?
Hi Will,
Sorry we didn’t have more time to talk at NECC!
The “2.0” label is just an empty vessel (a marketing term) that makes people feel like they are all talking about the same thing and in agreement because it’s so undefined. I wrote about that right before NECC, but that seems like a million years ago now! http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/06/21/thats-hot-web-20-and-the-empty-vessel/
Curious, I spent most of my time in the bloggers lounge and was one of those lurking around soaking in the conversations. Most of them proclaiming WEB 2.0 the savior of education. Let me asking a simple question, Is what we do about LEARNING or about the TECHNOLOGY? To Me the answer is simple IT IS ALL ABOUT THE LEARNING!!! Technology should be an invisble tool within that process.
An unconference within a conference sounds a lot like a Starbucks opening inside a Starbucks.
If the intent is to create something different; more rich, more rewarding, and more authentic, then I’d suggest planning something that doesn’t rely on the juggernaut that is the NECC conference.
Wanting to bring more erudite discussion of learning to those who want it should be the first order of business.
Here’s what you already know: Many more people attended sessions on the ‘how to?’ than the ‘why to?’moments the cafe offered.
As it stands, people will continue to walk by the proverbial cafes (no matter what they offer) when the allure of endless breadsticks awaits at a massive chain restaurant.
My question is this: If cafe dwelling is so rewarding, how do we get more people to start attending?
I have thought a lot about the “Blogger’s Cafe” and wondered (since I have gotten home) if perhaps I had made a mistake by spending a LARGE quantity of my time there — rather than in sessions……..
and what I came to realize is that the Blogger’s Cafe was my rejuvenation site. Though I did not go to many sessions, I left NECC with many new ideas, many new friends, and a little more lift to my walk.
Perhaps, as was mentioned, the cafe was a “starbucks within a starbucks” but sometimes that is not all bad. The blogger’s cafe was not just a location for “taking” and it was NOT the inner circle — but it was a watering hole which both fortified and nourished all who visited.
For me, this year’s NECC basically took place in a 12′ x 5′ amount of space. And it was worth every single penny I paid to attend.
JenWagner
Wow Jennifer,
Now I really wish I would have hung out at the blogger’s cafe. 🙁
I had the wrong idea about the spot. I thought it was a location where those who knew each other through online writings would meet there. I wasn’t sure how “outsiders without blogs” would have been received. OK…. note to self…. Blogger’s Cafe…San Antonio…be there!
Keith –
Thanks for the other point of view. I don’t think that the session was a waste of time. I just don’t think that the write-up matched the agenda. I think that my expectations would have been different if the description was worded differently. But now I see that the conversations that I was expecting at this session actually occurred at the cafe. 🙂
Will, I second the comments about the session. With so many choices, I really had to pick and choose the sessions I would attend, and when one turns out not as I had hoped it is very disappointing, as it was with your School 2.0 panel session. I was looking forward to hearing more from you and David.
Although I took some helpful leads home with me, I do wish I had spent less time in sessions and more time with other bloggers in the Cafe. I am just “getting it” myself and would have loved to have been a part of the conversations. There’s always next year – and what’s nice is that the conversations don’t stop when the final keynote is over!
Hi Marcia
See you in San Antonio —
Jennifer