As a reminder, I told you that part of the Adult Learning Theory
course I am taking is to reflect in this four part way on what we are
learning and how we are learning it. The purpose being to learn a
little about how we learn.
1. What have I learned (today, this week,
whenever)?
The culminating event for the K12Online conference When Night Falls began on November 4, 12:00
am GMT. Moderators signed up to host 1 or 2 hours of the conversation which extended over a 24 hour period across all time zones. The chat room for this event was hosted by the good folks at Tapped In. We created a resource wiki about the event for the moderators and participants. We also added a report/reflect page for the event on the conference Take Away Wiki.
The brilliant idea for the event was Darren Kuropatwa's, my co-conference organizer. I remember when he first suggested the idea thinking-- man oh man -- with everything else we are doing in relation to this conference how will we ever pull it off? But meeting after meeting we would develop another tool, another piece, another component of the event. I walked away with several lessons learned.
1. The first thing I learned was when approaching an insurmountable task- break it into smaller more manageable steps. I had heard to do that, but had never been faced with a task I felt was insurmountable like this one. It so worked! Great advice.
2. Another challenge for me with this event was the time zones. Converting between Eastern and Central (mine and the other conveners) was a cake walk-- but trying to convert into GMT and be able to talk to people about meeting times in their time zone required first knowing mine... then converting to theirs.. and sometimes converting to a third person who also would be in the meeting.
3. I also learned just how global this K12 Online worldwide conference really was! I mean sure.. I had seen the cluster visitor's map with links from all over the world and I had seen the wide range of presenter's countries of origin- but it didn't hit me what that really meant until I conversed with participants and moderators in a Skypecast, listening to the varied accents and dialects. In many of the sessions I attended I was the only person from the US! I remember one moderator asking me to repeat something several times because they couldn't make out the accent. That was the first time I had ever been on that end of that request.
4. I also learned that there are many risk-takers out there, willing to try new things and learn while doing. Without exception- everyone of the moderators in the sessions I attended had never held a Skypecast before and here they were moderating one. I was in awe.
2. How did I learn it?
I learned all these things through experience. The entire conference was volunteer. Everything we did was from a self-directed learning perspective. A challenge would surface and we would figure out a solution. We didn't know how to do something, we would start researching and learn. We learned a great deal on the fly and out of a desire to learn that was from deep inside. Nothing about the When Night Falls event was a "have to"... it was all a "want to". Much of what I learned was incidental and very little was planned or designed.
3. Could I have learned it
better/differently?
No. The type of learning that occurred was powerful and engaging. I am a changed person because of the experience.
4. How could I use what I've learned to benefit
someone else.
I have been asked by several people to write a "How To" book/chapter/paper on what steps are involved in holding a worldwide event like this, as many are interested in offering their own online conferences. We also created several public wikis, blog posts, and threaded discussion forums related to this event that will help others discover what I did.
The most interesting aspect to this K12 Online Conference has been that I have felt much more connected and plugged in than I ever have at any f2f conference I have attended. I have met more people, made more friends, and experienced more diversity than ever before. This is rather odd considering it all took place online. I think that fact alone creates profound implications wjem designing professional development opportunities for teachers in the future.
When you use a lot of technology to push the envelope and hang with others who do as well-- it is pretty amazing when you find yourself in awe of the tools. Darren, Wes, Dean and I continually use tools to collaborate since we all live so far away from each other. Wednesday night at NECC wasn't going to be any different than other countless K12Online virtual meetings we have had except that three of us would be together and Darren would be online- or so we thought.
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