With as many education conferences that I have attended, and continue to attend, I am getting to be quite the expert at least in the ability to compare and contrast the various major education conferences. I hope I am not one of the five blind men describing an elephant, but I did seek out opinions from other experienced conference attendees and presenters finding them in agreement.
Unfortunately for educators, most of these conferences are the same old, same old with little focus for the future with the exception of vendor-driven bells and whistles presentations. These however are not the essential things that will transform, and move education forward.
In no way am I implying that Conference planners are not dedicated, hard-working, well-meaning individuals. Putting on an Education conference is hard work and all consuming for many. The result should not be having someone trash it on a blog post. As educators, however, we must recognize formative assessment in the form of feedback and adjust our lesson (conference) accordingly.
As an English teacher, I am quite aware that the order in which essays fall in a pile can affect the subjective assessments of a paper. If an exceptional piece is read first, followed by a mediocre essay, the second piece might appear even less acceptable than if it came after a paper that was poorly written, in which case it would appear of higher quality. I offer this analogy because I came to Florida Educational Technology Conference 2013 almost directly from EDUCON2.5. EDUCON: Shift Happens
It is in the spirit of constructive criticism that I now proceed, but this criticism is not FETC13 specific. FETC was the catalyst that generated this reflection. It applies to many if not too many of our national and statewide Education Conferences.
Conferences are expensive propositions. The venue and accommodations for the conferences require huge amounts of money. To offset the expense to schools and attendees most organizations recruit vendors to hawk their wares, charging great amounts of money for space and access. For this sum of money, business needs and requires some say in what goes on at the conference. They need their reps and executives to have a say in the content of the conference. They need to do presentations and they want their people doing keynotes. They need to push the bells and whistles of their products regardless of pedagogy or methodology. Most are well intentioned and certainly experts in the application of their product as they see its application in the classroom. These workshops make up a good number of presentations. These are needed presentations, but they should not be the Conference focus. Educators presenting to educators is always my preferred presentation.
The really hard questions are: How can any Education conference today expect to succeed on presentations of tools and technology without real conversations on the Why’s and wherefores? What should the ratio of iPad-driven presentations vs. the need for collaboration in education conversations. Where do we deal with the big ideas? Where was the workshop on how we deal with the Teaching learning in an environment of standardized testing? Why can’t I find substantive conversations directed by educators about the difference between Assessment and Testing?
The Connected Educator was a focus in the month of August by the Department of Education. There were few conversations about connectedness, although my friend Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach did do one presentation. Why was there no place to connect educators available throughout the conference? “How to connect and here is the place to do it” should have a place at every education conference.
Relevance is a topic I often write about. I have also stated that to be really relevant, educators need to be connected. I think I can now say that about Education Conferences. To be relevant conferences need to be connected. The folks at FETC were thrilled to be trending on Twitter. I was of the opinion that was something that needed to be explained to too many in attendance including the planners. It seemed that the Twitter trending was based on the retweeting of a few heavily connected tweeters in the conference. Original tweets generated from the conference were few. It is that very connectedness of educators, which makes them relevant, that causes that grating sound in my head with every presentation that is a year behind the conversations of connected educators.
If Education conferences are going to be relevant, planners need to plan for it. They need to be in on connected conversations if they want to direct relevant conversations at their conferences. They need to revamp, or abandon methods of assessing RFP’s to get better educator-directed, relevant presentations and workshops. They need to incorporate more conversations as in the Edcamp model of professional development. They need to focus the conversations on the big ideas of education with less focus on the tools and toys, as much fun as they can be.
Of course this piece is based solely on my opinion. I would love comments from others who are conference attendees. What are the things that you would have addressed? How can education conferences maintain relevance? I hope to continue to be invited to these conferences, even after this post.
My Island View 
I wonder if you could explain more about “TRENDING” – it was mentioned last week also at EDUCON — yet, it was not trending on my twitter feed. And I wonder if trending is like the “filter bubble”……it becomes what has become important to you — but NOT a true representation to what people really are attributing it to.
Smiles, I know this is NOT what your blog post is about — but I wondered if you knew more about this? If so, thank you for sharing.
Now — to your post at hand —
I agree 100% that conferences are just not seeming to be in tune — especially with collaboration and connection opportunities. And I agree that there is a back-story of the framework of the conference that many of us just do not understand. But I also wonder then, why we keep promoting them — attending them — with it staying “same old thing.” What can we really do to change them ?? From being so much about hype & devices & buzz words — and turn into topics that are truly much more relevant to our classroom?
I personally don’t have an answer for this — I wish I did. With the expectation of attending 5 BIG conferences in the next 5 months — it is not the conference I am looking forward to — as much as the friends & conversations I will have while using the conference for our “meeting ground.”
So I feel I continue to fuel the flame of “same old conference”.
Thank you for your post — it has my mind whirling.
Jennifer
Jennifer- Trending is when a specific topic or Hashtag on Twitter is gathering the greatest amount of tweets in the Twitterstream. It includes the total of original tweets and retweets.
Tom, as an Australian educator, I sometimes have to travel great distances to conferences… within and without Australia. My great hope has been that conferences might allow for remote participation and collaboration and so remove this tyranny of distance. I’ve seen this rarely.
Last week I watched, with great excitement, a live feed from a session at Educon. I was even tweeting with a couple of people in the room, all the while on my lounge in Canberra. That was wonderful… until the nature of the presentation demanded my presence in the room. I guess I had not paid to be there, so this is fair… but you know, I would have paid the be there if I’d been given that opportunity and if the presenter was prepared for that.
I travelled to a conference in Boston last July, which I loved, but there were times when I was struck by the irony of presenters discussing, from the front of the room, removing teachers from the front of the room. I was also amused by the call to allow children to learn differently at different paces while having to do the same thing at the same pace as everyone else in the session.
My tone is reflective rather than critical. More and more I believe educators presenting at conferences need o think a little more about ‘walking their talk’. I know if I taught the way I am sometimes taught, my students would not enjoy coming to my lessons.
So, thank you for this post. Even if controversial, it’s important.
I attended my first Ed tech conference last year at FETC. I absolutely loved it. It completely ignited my passion for all things Ed tech. Until that point I was very much against twitter because I saw it only for its social media aspects. I discovered that I could follow other educators and build a PLN. After that conference I became a twitter fanatic and try to get all the other teachers at my school to join. That conference exposed me to new apps, Web 2.0 sites, and products that really improved instruction in my classroom. I have only been to two Ed tech conferences, but have really enjoyed both of them and have learned a lot. I enjoyed the exhibit halls but I always felt bad because I knew I couldn’t afford many of the products. As a 4th grade teacher I don’t have much influence on district wide software or network products. Honestly I enjoyed getting lots of free stuff and getting my picture taken with Moby from BrainPop. From all the sessions I attended the ones that were led by classroom teachers were the best. Most were able to share not only software and apps but also real lesson plans and strategies that they had used. The teacher wasn’t trying to sell me anything, but wanted to share what they had learned from their experience. Maybe these sessions should be led only by teachers. Great post and I hope this adds to the conversation
Thought provoking conversation going here which is every educators dream. To pose a question or make a comment that will generate these types of responses. So allow me to weigh in.
In response to your post about conferences. Maybe it is time to take one off and then come back. I say this with the thought that each year, each month, and even each day things get better or more advanced especially in the realm of technology. But how much can one take in or even find useful without time to truly implement that new device, app, program or pedagogy? It is possibly just to much to ask to attend conference after conference and continue to walk away without the feeling of nothing really gained. I to attended FETC 2013 this being my second time but with a five year span In between and found many useful things despite the fact that I to felt like you at times but I know that the majority of attendees are newbies to the integration of technology into the classroom and for them these conferences are game changers. So what if it is possibly a year behind in relevance for some. Those people are out front of the majority and will always be. For them they should be seeking the new ways not questioning the old. Get connected and make your way to the ones you seek and leave the old ways to those who need to catch up to you. My hope is that this comes off as more reflective than critical as well.
I feel at times what you have describe in post for myself. So this is my solution. I responded. That is my next step. I have been to the conferences. I have both learned and used new apps, technologies, and pedogogy. But I have not yet gotten connected. I have not yet gotten into the open discussion. Until know. So thank you for your post and the opportunity to add my response. I to am seeking the next level and this is my first step.
[…] I read with interest Tom Whitby’s reflections on the value of education conferences in his blog My Island View […]
[…] I offer this analogy because I came to Florida Educational Technology Conference 2013 almost directly from EDUCON2.5. EDUCON: Shift Happens. It is in the spirit of constructive criticism that I now proceed, but this criticism … […]
[…] I offer this analogy because I came to Florida Educational Technology Conference 2013 almost directly from EDUCON2.5. EDUCON: Shift Happens. It is in the spirit of constructive criticism that I now proceed, but this criticism … […]
[…] I offer this analogy because I came to Florida Educational Technology Conference 2013 almost directly from EDUCON2.5. EDUCON: Shift Happens. It is in the spirit of constructive criticism that I now proceed, but this criticism … […]
Some of us are trying, Tom! http://wp.me/p2IVNt-as
Reblogged this on mpnENGAGED and commented:
Agreed, Tom! Some of us are trying! http://wp.me/p2IVNt-as
[…] With as many education conferences that I have attended, and continue to attend, I am getting to be quite the expert at least in the ability to compare and contrast the various major education conf… […]
[…] Source: Tom Whitby’s blog, “My Island View“ FETC 2013 et al […]
I agree with your assessment of the state of education conferences (in general).
After the first day at FETC this year, I spoke with a few colleagues about this issue. I found the conference topics slightly outdated and the ideas, not so challenging. The relevance of certain topics seem to be correlated with the session speaker application deadline. Having to submit a proposal for a topic one year in advance of a conference certainly can inhibit “relevance”. To your point about bolder ideas, I think that just like our schools, and people in them, there are certain philosophies that govern how we approach education. Some educators, I find need small ideas to make meaningful change. Some (like myself) prefer transformable paradigm shifts (e.g. Katie Salen’s keynote). However–like you mentioned–connection to all types of ideas, advances us all.
I do hope there is room for a balance at every conference, opposed to having to decide to attend either a conference with bigger ideas (like EDUCon) or smaller, pragmatic ones (FETC).
I understand that conferences want (& need) to make money…but when I imagine how powerful a truly social media open conference could be, it’s awesome. I enjoyed following along with WISE 2012 which was as open as I’ve seen a conference. If all conferences were going that way, we could get many more teachers connected and involved in the same discussions that we’re having in blogs and on Twitter.
Thank you for the reflection Tom!