Tag Archives: PLN

Breakout Session Backchanneling

Leave a reply

For the past several years, the backchannel at the MACUL Conference has become an integral part of the Conference experience.  It’s the backchannel, not the background…it’s important! If you aren’t a part of the conversation, you’re missing more than you realize.  (Wasn’t it just last year that audience tweets during one of Leslie Fisher’s sessions brought aid to an ill attendee?) Coming to the Conference is no longer a passive activity…it takes work!

This year, the Conference Planners have made an extra effort to encourage presenters to take advantage of MACUL Space as an extension of their “live event.”  (MACUL Space is kickin’ it with just under 3400 members.) For everyone who requested it, there’s a Forum waiting to be put to use. Presenters have been encouraged to utilize the Forums to share handouts, resources, and links as well as to facilitate conversations with participants.

The connections you make within the Forums are also a great way of connecting with people with similar interests. (Ever hear of a PLN?)

Be sure to check out the 2011 Conference Sessions in MACUL Space and get ready to bring the backchannel to the forefront.

Looking back…and coming out of my shell

Leave a reply

I can not remember a MACUL conference flying by so quickly. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that I was so busy. I was busy live blogging, bumping into old friends, trying out products in the exhibit hall, getting ready for my presentation and then all of the social functions.

It sure was different from my first conference in 2003. That year I had a great time and learned a lot but it was a lot quieter. I went to all of the sessions, sat toward the back, and didn’t talk to anybody. I didn’t ask any questions. I think I even had dinner by myself down in Greektown. The only person I really interacted with much was the cabbie who was trying to job me with the “busted meter” routine.

I still came away with a great experience, but far different than the ones I come away with now.

Have I made a huge conversion in my life from an introvert to Mr. Social? No, not at all. Over the last six years, I have begin to understand that MACUL is not just the annual state edtech conference. MACUL is the association and all of the people that are involved in it the other 50 weeks of the year. There were 3300 others of us in Detroit this year. The amount of brain power that convened at Cobo this year is immeasurable…and that power is not hard to harness or tap.

I have gotten to know many of these people over years in my grad program at Western Michigan University. We have attended and presented at other conferences together. Macul Space has made a huge difference in my career, as have other web 2.0 tools like Facebook and Twitter. We share ideas, successes, and a laughs…mostly we share ideas.

People rave about what a great conference it is…and without a doubt it is. I have just come to learn over the years that the people that make up the organization offer even more than what we can get out of each annual gathering in March.

If this was your first conference, or if you have been going for years, get to know your fellow MACUL members. Technology is making it easier and easier for us to all connect. Your MACUL experience won’t be just a couple of days out of the building, it will be a year-round part of your career.

Attending MACUL from Afar

4 Replies

I was very disappointed when I learned earlier this week that I have pneumonia.  I was bummed because I feel bad, but even more bummed because my physician told me I could not attend the MACUL Conference!  I look forward to the conference every year.  This year, I had more responsibilites than ever before… facilitating sessions, writing/posting to the MACUL blog, helping run the SIG-EE annual meeting, manning the MACUL booth, and supporting all the presenters from my district.

So I decided to do what I can virtually. I started with Twitter.  The conference has Twitter buzzing for sure!  I started following everyone who was following MACUL.  People at the conference share tips, links, and ideas.  As people share links, I tag them in my delicious account as macul09.  If you would like to see all the links I tagged, you can see them here.

I attended Thursday’s Alan November keynote through the eyes of Ben Rimes and Kevin Clark as they used Cover it Live.  It was almost as if I was there.  When they wrote about students being creators of content, with Audacity being one of the tools mentioned, I shared some Audacity video tutorials.  Shortly afterwords, I received a nice note by email from Kent Manning, a technology coordinator from Belleville, Ontatio, Canada.  He also was not able to be at the conference and was “attending” the keynote virtually.  We have similar jobs.  He wondered if my tutorials were on iTunes (they weren’t) and told me an easy way to get them there.  We are now Twitter friends and I’ve invited him to try out Plurk.  Plurk is a Twitter-like network that allows more conversations.  Try it out if you have not yet. Steve Dembo likes it; if Steve likes it, you probably will, too.  Anyhow, this is an example of how a PLN can help you learn and grow professionally.

Later, a friend (Krista Hanna), saw that I was online and had Skype open.  She called me and I was able to listen in on two of the sessions she attended.  Awesome.  Krista and I were to co-present this morning.  Since Skype worked so well, we planned that if I was feeling up to it, that she would Skype me in for the presentation.  I don’t look too great, so I did not turn on my webcam; I didn’t want to horrify the participants and have them run out of the room!  However, I was able to pipe in with comments during the presentation. VERY COOL.

I’m also taking the opportunity to reflect on the conference, something that is difficult to do when you are rushing from place to place and networking with others.  I have some ideas for the conference planners on ways to make MACUL 2010 even better!

Plan for the Conference Online!

Leave a reply

As mentioned in Kevin’s earlier post today, the Conference Program Book is hot off the digital presses! Which means it’s time to start planning. And if you don’t have your cigar ready to go (you really should read Kevin’s earlier post), there are plenty of options for you to plan ahead online:

Start Your Own Conference Wiki
Always a popular option by the more tech savvy attendees, you could use Wikispaces, PBWiki, or Wetpaint to start your own conference wiki. Create pages for all of the sessions you’d like to attend, or just organize your thoughts online ahed of time, then come conference you have a nice online notebook ready to fill with notes, discoveries, and more. Bonus points for coordinating and collaborating with other members in your school district.

Do Your Homework
Many, if not all, of the featured speakers at the conference have their own blogs. They probably have Twitter accounts, wikis of their own, and social bookmarks that they’ve shared online. Pop the featured speakers names into Google and see what comes up. Pick out the good stuff, and subscribe to it, or bookmark it for future reference. Gold stars for people who use an RSS Reader to automatically pull in content from multiple sources about MACUL 09.

Start/Join a Discussion on the MACUL Space Forum
Alright, so I’m a little biased to this one, but there are already a few posts in the dedicated 2009 Conference discussions on the MACUL Space forum. You can use any of the three discussions to create or join a conversation about the Conference Sessions, Workshops, or Guerrilla Sessions. Might help to get an idea of where other people in the state that have simliar interests are planning on spending a lot of their time at the conference. Extra credit for starting a new topic about a presentation you’ll be giving.

Of course, there are plenty of others ways to plan and coordinate online for the upcoming conference, but downloading a PDF of the Conference Program Book is a good way to start.

Time Flies…

Leave a reply

I am sure you have heard the old adage, “Time flies when you’re having fun”. Although time has flown since I first became entranced at a MACUL conference, it seems as though it was just yesterday. Enter the time machine and take a trip back several years ago. I was skimming through the conference catalog and deciding which sessions to attend. I had begun to take an interest in podcasting in my classroom but knew nothing about the process of creating one. I wandered into a session being presented by Will Richardson and just like that; I was hooked! I actually attended 3 of his sessions during that conference time. I could not get home fast enough and order his book, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts. Nor could I set up my blog quick enough. I quickly devoured the book upon its arrival. I began to seek out more information on these topics and was soon podcasting with my students.

When I first began to create podcasts in my classroom, no one in my district had a clue on how to create them let alone make them available in iTunes. Enter my network. My network consists of people I have never met face to face. People I can only recognize by their avatar. People I may only recognize by their online name or by their blog name. Since the beginning of my technology journey my network and tech know-how has grown by leaps and bounds. My network still consists of people I have never met face to face but I can now add to the list, those I have met at conferences, spoken to via Skype, collaborated with via wikis and Google Docs, Twittered with and had coffee and great discussions in Second Life.

So take the plunge! Jump in with both feet and keep your eyes wide open! You never know where your MACUL journey will take you!