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Edtech Conferences - worth it?
Thursday, April 03, 2014Are they worth it?
1. I've always felt these conferences were of dubious value. When I pay for staff to go to them, I usually get a standard bell curve one or two staff who had a life-changing experience, and one or two staff who were bored to tears and everyone else falls in between. My personal experience echoes this observation. Kids aren't benefiting.
2. I believe teachers grow best through self-reflection, peer coaching, and good professional evaluation. I'm not sure how ed-tech conferences facilitate this. Sure, teachers can learn about tools, and they might learn about some ideas for project-based learning, but how much of that is making a difference in the learning for kids? Is the learning return worth the time and money invested?
3. I see a wide variety of presenting skills at these conferences. Although this is related to point 1, the content and delivery can be variable. The keynote speakers are often more known as keynote speakers, and less as authentic innovators of classroom learning. I've been to many edtech conferences, and all the keynote speakers are compelling, but then there is that whole "our context and your great idea" problem.
4. One of the failings of these conferences is their focus on Nouns over Verbs. The conferences attract advertising and make money by selling advertising space. Many sessions are dedicated to advertisers who do not discuss how learning can be different, but by perpetuating the horrible myth that the tool is magic and will change things! This, by the way, is a disease in educational technology, that the tool alone will fix what’s wrong with learning. It never has.
5. If the goal is to learn new things / try new things, why not try a speedgeeking session? I think about locally produced organic produce being much better for you than crap made thousands of miles away. Back to point 2, I believe teachers learn best when they are engaged with a colleague and are learning with them (see also: plc). There is less of a translation cost when you learn locally.
6. The problem is that sometimes (sometimes), a teacher goes to one of these conferences, and the stars align, and there is star-trek sound effects, and they return profoundly changed. Sometimes that happens. Maybe we need to pay more attention to preparing our teachers to attend these conferences to increase the likelihood of Eureka.
I am curious what the 2 regular readers of this blog think about the big Ed-Tech conferences. Are they worth it?
Excellent points, Bill. I have thought much the same myself.
I’ve been to the big ISTE convention in the US and found it extremely underwhelming. Too big and too focused on nouns ...correction: Nouns. The vendor room was ginormous and it seemed like 75% of the presentations were on how to use ProductX.
The most useful part of it for me were the Poster Sessions: informal non-rehearsed “presentations” that were one-on-one or small-group chats. Almost like speed geeking, but not forced. I lingered with several people who had very interesting things to share.
I came to your post because of the Learning 2 hashtag. I went to Learning 2.013 in Singapore last year, and found it different and much more useful. Can’t say that Star Trek sounds went off, but it was infinitely more stimulating, memorable and thought- and action-provoking than ISTE (or other similar). The best thing for me was that it’s not really a “tech conference.” I had numerous discussions with people about real teaching rather than “how to use ProductX.”
Full disclosure: my school is hosting Learning 2.014 in Africa & I’m chairing that process. My goal is for our conference to avoid many of the pitfalls you mention.
I think the advantage of traveling to a conference is the chance to rub shoulders with people with different perspectives and experiences. Talking with a teacher from Vietnam or Oman or Tunisia or Poland helps you think about things differently and hopefully look at your own situation & practices in a new light.
The final big challenge for me is to address your big question: how can we ensure these things make a difference in student learning? Too often we go away to a conference (or even engage in some PD locally), get inspired, learn new things ...and then return to work and get inundated with the many pressures & requirements and return to the status quo practice. The big challenge for ANY PD/learning experience is to make it persist.
Thanks for making me think more about these kinds of things.
By John Iglar on 2014 04 04
Hi Bill,
Full confession - like John I come from the perspective of someone who has been involved and is still involved in organising ed-tech conferences (http://hk.21c-learning.com)
My sense is that ed-tech conferences, like any event really, are a careful exercise in expectation calibration. I’ve often been amazed when sending teachers to conferences the varied reactions I’ll get from people. One person will come back believing the event was lightweight another will have had their thinking “transformed.” To some extent these differences are driven by different knowledge and skills going in, but largely I think it is an expectations game. For individuals that are calibrated and disposed to believe that they will learn from “the conversations” any conference really can be a positive and transformative experience. If, however you go in thinking all the learning is going to come from the presenters chances are you will be disappointed - not because learning from presenters is no longer what conferences are about - but rather because finding perfect match between what a presenter can provide and what you need is challenging.
The other dynamic at work of course is the ever prevalent balance between learning about the tool and learning about applications of the tool. Some of the best events I’ve been to for this I think are the google apps summits or the Apple events. I think in part because there is a common platform and language you can get to the conversations about learning more quickly.
Thanks for writing this post. I’m constantly reflecting on how we can change our events to better suit the needs of teachers and leaders and this kind of comment is very helpful in provoking thinking
Justin
By Justin Hardman on 2014 04 06
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Bill MacKenty, Chief Zuccini
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