As I sit in the airport to return home I finally have a chance to think about the past few days. I was very excited to attend NECC08 this year, to meet many face to face, and also to attend EduBloggerCon which I have been hearing so much about, especially after last year in Atlanta.
I would like to thank Steve Hargadon for working with ISTE to arrange both the space for EduBloggerCon on Saturday and the Bloggers Cafe during the conference. If not for your efforts neither would have been possible or available to all of us.
I thought the conversations on Saturday offered a variety of topics for many to participate in. Not having attended the Saturday event last year I had no prior knowledge or frame of reference in terms of what to expect, I still felt an excitement to be part of conversations with people whose thoughts and opinions I respect, being together to speak with one another and share ideas. Even though I didn’t know what I was missing this year, I felt an underlying current of unspoken dissatisfaction and I believe it was a deterrent to the day. I wish the day had played out differently, and that we had felt comfortable enough to discuss the underlying discontent. We talk of being a community, are we really? Wikipedia defines community here.
If we cannot discuss issues we feel are truly important, at the one time of year when we have the largest cross section of our community together, face to face, from different areas of the world, then when can we? I am the first to admit I do not like uncomfortable situations or confrontation, but if we truly believe we are a community, and want to be a functioning viable one, we have to discuss openly our growing pains face to face, to come some understanding of what we are looking for from each other.
I agree with Kelly Dumont’s and Vicki Davis’s posts, we are all trying make a difference for children, education, and those we work with day in and day out. There is another conversation going on at Scott McLeod’s blog about FB, NYFB and LR’s, we do have to figure this is all out, hopefully before NECC 2009 and EduBloggerCon09 we will be able to drop the the titles discussed in this post in particular, for the good of the community. Each of us, in our own way are trying to use our voices to the best of our ability. It was wonderful for me to meet so many people this year at NECC who have been part of my personal learning network and as a result, now having had this personal time, I know our online conversations will be richer indeed. Thank you all for a memorable few days, I look forward to next year and hope as we move through the year ahead we will be able to work together in a more participatory way to make EduBloggerCon 09 something we will all be proud of.
Image Source Flickr user oshuchi
Glad you had a great time at NECC and Edubloggercon this year. I did too!
We’ll figure all this out by next year, I hope. Growing pains!
Robin I loved meeting you at NECC, and while we didn’t get to spend relaxed time getting to know one another like I had hoped, it was still nice to be able to match a face with a name.
As to your comments about community I think you have made an interesting observation.
Communities develop over time and the kind of discussions you are suggesting we have need to be built on a foundation of trust. Most of the folks at the edubloggercon belong to a network of learners (small pieces loosely joined) rather than a true community. Add the dynamic of being filmed and you really take away any serious chance of candid, meaningful discussion. (That isn’t a criticism of the filming just an observation of the dynamic)
Communities go through stages of development and while the blogosphere could probably allow us to jump start some of the forming stage- we would still need to go through a norming, storming, to finally achieve the performing stage where we trust each other and can have those tough family discussions.
Networks and communities are different animals and the literacies that support each are very different as well.
Thanks for the post, Robin.
I love having Sheryl comment because she knows all the “terms” for what we are experiencing!
I felt like the wrap-up session on Saturday was a pretty trusting “family discussion,” and I think within our network there is a community. By the very nature of the blogosphere there will be an inherent (and positive) tension between individual voices and collective action, and we’ll learn better how to balance those when we’re face to face.
I think we are, in a very real way, breaking new ground with each of these events. NECC this year was seen by the bloggers, I think, much more of an event of value and participation than previously. We had EduBloggerCon, the Bloggers’ Cafe, NECC Unplugged, and countless sessions that we cared about and participated in. From being on the fringes, the blogosphere/2.0 community went to the center of a lot of conversations. I remember hearing last year a lot of “I’m not sure NECC is a relevant event for me”–this year, I heard a lot of “here’s how I’d like to make this even better.” If we reflect and just look at the “drama,” we might miss the bigger picture of what progress that is.
Hello again, Robin, thanks for the post.
Sheryl’s observations about networks and communities are something that I’ll need to digest further. While those that choose to blog about educational topics can rightly be considered a network of learners (“communities of practice” has also become a popular term), I would hope that we never forget the human element found in communities – as relationships are forged through such networking experiences.
In the end, I agree with Steve: we’re forging new territory here. It’s exciting, it’s transformative, and it’s highly emotional.
And honestly, I think it’s all good.
As we change what we come to expect from the “conference experience”, we change not only how we expect to be taught, but how we expect to learn.
Can’t wait ’til NECC09.
@Sheryl,
I had hoped to have a little more time to spend as well, but with everything everyone was trying to manage it was hard to find that time. Look forward to another meeting soon though.
I understand and agree that communities develop over time and must be based on trust. I hope we take advantage of the times we have together, however loosely joined, to do the norming and the storming necessary to reach the performing stage I believe we are all trying to achieve.
@Steve,
You did such a tremendous job coordinating the events, again my thanks to you. I agree we are breaking new ground and as time goes on I hope we do learn how to balance any tensions that arise, face to face in a positive way. It was a great experience and I hope the “drama”, especially from afar did not distort impressions as to what some of us truly did get from general sessions, EduBloggerCon, the Blogger’s Cafe, and NECC Unplugged.
@Darren,
I couldn’t agree with you more, I too hope we never forget the human element found in communities. Sometimes, I think it is easy to forget in our writng there is another person, just like you or I, on the receiving end of our words. Our posts are flat, we don’t see the reactions or hear the inflection in another’s voice to tell how they have interpreted what we have said, as we do in face to face conversations. It is all good, and we will continue to push not only our teaching but our learning as well. I just hope the trust begins to spread through all of our loosely joined small pieces as we continue to interact and build our community.
Thanks so much to all of you for your comments.