At a recent national conference about new technologies, education and the way forward - sponsored by government - the conference convenor began the event by telling people there was wireless internet access with some power points to plug laptops into at the side of the room, but she would prefer it if people didn’t ‘check their email’ during the conference, but paid attention to the presenters, as they had useful things to say.
I was struck by this at the time because it completely misunderstands the way mobile technologies are currently being used at conferences - as a way of disseminating knowledge and communicating with a community of people that care about the same things: your professional learning network. That someone with that kind of thinking about technology was running that kind of conference did not bode well…
So what happens - can’t attend a conference? someone might be live blogging. Someone else might be tweeting. Others might be taking photos and uploading them on flicker. So people perusing their mobile phones, PDAs and laptops may in fact be the most attentive audience members in the room. They are listening, summarising and posting to the web for others to read.
It’s not the same as being there, but there is a usefulness in a savvy person posting the core messages of the presenter. Watching the tweets go by in a browser-based live updater is a bit like scanning the headlines in the newspaper: you get a good sense of what’s going on, without the detailed explanation, but you also can get added commentary from the audience members and that community that cares.
Live blogging and tweeting has caused some discomfort at some conferences where the idea of someone doing something while a presenter presents is considered rude by some.That is, not paying full attention. But they are: that’s the irony. Those that are sitting in rows, stony-faced staring back at the presenter are not necessarily engaged: they just have their eyes open.
There’s a couple of good discussions on this topic: at Graham Wegner’s and at KerryJ’s blogs.
Although I haven’t presented at a conference where live blogging or tweeting was wide spread, I can only imagine that it will improve my presentation skills. Not just the 20 or 30 - people in the room are going to hear what I say - potentially hundreds or thousands more will find out about what I think. And if I’m bad: I can imagine that the tweets may not be complimentary.
It is good then to see that the National Library Innovative Ideas Forum 2009 to be held in March is “encouraging” blogging and tweeting, and tellingly says ‘Bring your laptop and participate’. So the laptop is now seen as method to engage, rather than the use of it in session suggesting disengagement. Yay. Along with a pod of mobiles and PDAs I guess we’ll see a whole lot of blogging going on.
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The Webstock conference last week had a similar situation. I suggest you look up the #Webstock or #Webstock09 tags on Twitter.
Except the presenters didn’t mind and there were some great conversations happening in parallel to the presentations.
Hi Jen,
I guess we live in a period of transition. It’s great to see other conferences encouraging the use of live blogging, microblogging etc and promoting hashtags etc for their events but you are right - its almost bizarre for it to happen at a national conference of new technologies, education, and the way forward! The conversations generated through live blogs, twitter etc can be fantastic not just for those who can’t attend, but the attendees as well. Some great ideas emerge through this informal back channel that can really enhance the presentations (if the presenters are up to it). At a recent panel discussion I was on I jokingly threatened to tweet about the audience while I was on the panel but I was told it would not be a good idea - pity.
An article that might be of interest
http://www.smh.com.au/world/politicians-twitter-throughout-address-to-congress-like-bored-schoolchildren-20090225-8i06.html
It’s interesting isn’t it; watching the change in Morals. “Those new fangled computers/phones. What’s wrong with pen and paper?”
The media, and the tools which produce it, really is the message, especially if only we wouldn’t apply the old (broadcast) rules to new (interactive) media. As McCluhan said, the media is the message. And each has it’s own rules. TV is so different, from radio, from newspapers, etc. And new media? “Oh, just use the old rules.”
But please, dear reporter, would you mind, if you are going to report from your personal broadcast station on a “recent conference, sponsored by government”, telling us exactly which one. If you’re not going to abide by the old media rules, then try playing by the ones of the new media, and just pointing us at the appropriate channel, feed or whatever you want to call it.
“People perusing their mobile phones, PDAs and laptops may in fact be the most attentive audience members in the room” is an inanity. These are just people (in many cases) infatuated with something electronic, which can be published immediately, rather than pen and paper, which takes time AND THOUGHT to edit. Given time, they’ll get over it.
I think it’s likely, the nervous nellies, like you (and me) will get together and start (joint) producing some interesting programmes, cause they know that together, its simply much easier to get one well constructed, and entertaining message across, than taking the risk on boring people with pfaff as often happens at conferences.
Thanks for the note on Warwick’s innovative Ideas conference ( I see his hand written all over the agenda). But geez, wouldn’t you hope, just for once, that our conference organisers would try and include the people who couldn’t attend by using this new media? E.g Just stream and offer an online forum?
Still, it’s a bit rude to suggest this, isn’t it? It might force all those twits and bloggers to actually communicate, rather than inform.
Hi Simon
Thanks for your comments.
I don’t really feel like I have to abide by any particular rules apart from a personal one where I don’t really want to publicly slag off a group of well intentioned and hardworking people who had put together a conference with some interesting (and some not so) speakers - just for the sake of me making a particular point.
I think the use of new media technologies for conferencing makes some people nervous - what if the technology doesn’t work? aren’t we trying to network f2f, what if no-one logs on etc. These are concerns that can be addressed but in environments where bystanders and commentators are ready to take the cheap shot, and be hypercritical then organisers are sometimes reluctant to take risks and have a go. I get that. And often they don’t see the advantage of taking that risk.
I think it’s important to be supportive where change is happening - however naive that may seem - and support organisations like the NLA that are trialling the use of these technologies to enhance their conference, or where government makes attempts - as it is - to use blogs (the digital economy blog) and forums (Australian youth forum).
Simon, regardless of the form of communication, be it twitter or after putting your hand up at the end of a presentation, describing another person’s ideas as “an inanity” is a definite conversation stopper.
To follow this up with a gross generalisation about all the people engaged in live commentary diggs you further into a deep hole.
Whoa; easy there John. I think Simon’s points are worthy of some consideration, rather than dismissal.
Instead of inanity, what if Simon had said that suggesting that “people perusing their mobile phones, PDAs and laptops may in fact be the most attentive audience members in the room” was a bit of a shallow analysis of the situation? Methinks that sometimes we ascribe too much emotion to certain words.
It’s an interesting conundrum - in our role as educators, we’ve all grappled with our student’s use of personal mobile computing devices in our classrooms. Many schools have responded to the challenge by banning the use of mobile phones and mp3 players in their classrooms. I understand that in making this argument I may be aligning myself with a group of people that some may describe as “digital immigrants”. However, Prensky’s definitions were always too black and white for me and totally overlooked the point that the beginnings of today’s “Web 2.0 world” were built by the so-called immigrants.
I think Simon’s point about tweeting was well made. Surely it behoves the participants of a face-to-face conference to fully participate in the presentations as they take place. OK, so maybe it is possible to take notes or scribble comments in a blog, instead of with pen and paper. But, to what end? Are they, in reality, making a comment on the quality of the presentation rather than making good use of “new” technologies? What I wish for in a conference presentation is to be exposed to a new reality, to be transported to a new way of thinking about something - so much so that I even forget to take any notes. Unfortunately, these experiences at conferences are few and far between.
Jenny also makes this point when she says that the widespread use of live blogging or tweeting might cause her to think more about her presentation skills. Although, I’d like to think that all presenters have a responsibility to take their participants on an interesting and engaging journey (just like all teachers) - we shouldn’t need the “threat” of realtime criticism to do this.
Simon’s quoting of Marshall McLuhan was also spot on. By all means, we should explore these new collaborative tools and examine their role in education and training. But, at the same time, we should also be carefully thinking about the negative aspects of these technologies, as well as the positive. We should be looking at what we lose as well as what we gain from them.
I don’t think we’ve cracked the “online” conference experience just yet either. I participated in a web-based realtime conference a little while ago where, at the beginning of the session, the presenter announced that it had been so well subscribed that they were turning off the realtime response components and answering any questions at a later time via a web forum. Instantly, the conference was turned into a live “replay” that I could have downloaded and played at my convenience.
Having conversations about the issues is the most important part. Let’s value the contributions of everyone, even those who take alternative positions.
Garth,
Methinks we can’t control how much emotion people ascribe to words so it is a good idea to use them cautiously.
I agree with Simon’s skepticism about twittering in conferences. But horses for courses. If a speaker poses some ideas that the audience can respond to in twitter size bites then the responses could be very interesting. But
There are many circumstances where they are inadequate and likely to be superficial. So let a thousand flowers bloom - and users will vote with their feet - or fingertips.
Hi Jen,
I’ve been looking into creating an internal online forum for identified groups of people in my organisation to facilitate better communications across silos. One of the resources I’ve come across to support this is Howard Rheingold’s Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory (http://socialmediaclassroom.com), which looks very interesting indeed.
However, of more interest to this topic is Howard’s exploration of “Attention” in two videos on his website. See his “Attention 101” (http://blip.tv/file/691678) and “Attention 102” (http://blip.tv/file/730117)videos on blip.tv. It’s an exploration of how Howard is looking at what he calls “attention literacy in the classroom” and his interactions with his students at the University of California, Berkeley as they make use of a range of online social networking applications during his classes.
It’s quite a fascinating look at the “new” classroom environment.
I did attend the innovative ideas forum and there were some good presentations. I understand that blogging and tweeting did occur but it was a totally separate event. The physical audience was not included in that backchannel conversation and the presenters never mentioned any comments or responded to them. So two different experiences were had: one set included the interaction and discussion and one did not. To my mind the backchannel should be influencing and flavouring the event and the presentations, but the physical event took a standard presentation approach: lecturn, powerpoint, and screen shots/vids, and was even in a lecture theatre. There were probably 200 people there interested in innovation and libraries, but the only opinions heard in the event itself were those of the presenters and a few hardy souls who were prepared to ask a question in front of two hundred people. The next stage has to be integrating the wider community of participants available when you exploit technology with the physical event, and ensure that it becomes participatory rather than a passive experience.
Oh puhlease fellow commenters - when are we going to get past the sage on the stage/ sit down, shut up and learn mentality?
Twittering, blogging, what have you during a presentation is no more rude or an indication of disengagement than taking notes - be it via computer, pen and paper or chiseling into a clay tablet. Active reflection is the way some of us process information. Sorry FJ - people aren’t going to “get over it” and aren’t doing it because they’re enamored with tools. They do it because they have a network with whom they connect so regularly it is the norm for them. The backchannel ain’t a fad - it’s reality.
Consider getting over the worship of the sainted printed word carefully edited and presented by a central authority. Plenty of garbage has been produced that way.
Multitasking is a genuine skill. I love being able to communicate new ideas, concepts, interesting views during presentations. I also think that I can follow a presentation and answer email. My daughters certainly can so why can’t I?
See also Mike Seyfang’s post on this issue at
http://mseyfang.edublogs.org/2009/07/17/is-twittering-at-conferencesevents-a-good-thing/
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