The NESA conference begins this weekend, and my initial frustration was the overpriced charge for ONE single computer to log-in for a presentation; “no wifi available”. I really wanted to stretch out and have collaborative brainstorming, but now I’m responsible for projecting it instead of letting it happen interactively.

While I validate the research that advocates a loss of efficiency with multi-tasking, I find the opportunity to reflect with colleagues through my fingertips invaluable during PD or presentations and less disruptive than side-bar conversations. Most fun PD session I had included a concurrent msn chat to bring in a colleague who was out of the office. Can’t get them to see the value of twitter just yet.

How do we get conference hotels to unilaterally realize that 21st Century educators will no longer fill their rooms and spaces until they allow free flowing, uninterrupted access (avoiding separate log-ins for room vs. conference space)to both presenters and participants?

How do we get educators comfortable with students chatting and reflecting on their learning as they encounter it without fearing the loss of control? I think by making sure they experience it in their PD!

I too don’t like learning alone and my PLN keeps me whelmed by all there is to learn about learning. But what I like even less is the way I fall victim to using traditional structures which inhibit learning in our current world of short circuitry and small chunks.

Thanks for the continued inspiration (and reply to my post – still flying under the radar where possible).

Come back to our normal classroom teaching, Jeff raises a very intersting point here: How our students do their learning by listening to teacher’s persentation(the content) and interact with the peers and the teacher at the same time? Of course, it has been always one of the best mode of teaching and learning in F2F classroom environment. I am thinking, in what subject, under what topic, at what grade or level, the learners are motivated to learn the given content more engagingly and enthusiasticly via this way of ” I am leaning socially”?

Maybe it is more suitable to High school or college study?

Appreciate Jeff’s sharing a lot!

I think you make a valid point. The conference itself was about meeting people and I enjoy that about conferences. It’s just as you state when you got to a “traditional” presentation where you are expected to sit and get, not talk, and just listen that I find myself non-motivated to learn.

I start every one of my presentations with saying “I want this to be a discussion…please interrupt me, talk with someone close to you, etc.” I feel I give my audience the OK to talk in the moment.

While during other presentations (not that I went to many this time) I’ve actually been given that teacher look for talking with the person next to me.

Within a connected network we’re allowed to give our thoughts in silence and we can do so in the same session. At the opening keynote for the conference 6 of us who were at the keynote took part in a backchannel chat. Physically we were all in the same room but the technology allowed us to learn from each other in the moment without disrupting the keynote speaker. We were able to expand on his thoughts, to bounce ideas, and jot down meaningful notes…all saved for the collective body to review later. Connecting with a network doesn’t always mean going outside the walls of your own classroom. But do we find ways to even allow those within our physical proximity to connect and learn when and how they want to?

But I also suspect that we are becoming accustomed to working within a great brain their our own. We have become accustomed to having quiet conversations within our networks, to ask questions and get answers back from people we respect, and to contribute knowledge and insights to a larger community — and not just for the sake of helping others, but for the value-added that will happen from the perspectives of others — what will come back.

and I think that’s exactly what it is for me. It’s not that I can’t learn something in a session without being connected it is more I can’t expand on my own thinking in the “greater brain”. I’m use to being able to ask questions, get feedback, bounce ideas in the moment when it’s relevant to me as a learner. When I’m not able to do that I ‘shut down’. I can still learn, but I’m not meeting what I know to be my ‘learning potential’.

If only Internet access was ubiquitous even in a beautiful resort town on Borneo.