I just finished attending the
Sloan-C Emerging Technologies for Online Learning,
#et4online, virtually, from the convenience of my office. This was my first virtual conference. While I do enjoy the on-site experience, I don't feel like my experience was in any way diminished by attending virtually. A few of my colleagues attended virtually as well and we engaged in substantive debriefing conversations over lunch and before closing up shop for the day. The timeliness of discussing and considering how the topics applied to our institution, now or potentially in the future, enhanced the virtual experience.
I set a couple of personal & professional goals for myself with this experience:
- Expand my awareness of social media applications for learning
- Use social media apps that I had NOT used previously (this blog is one)
The
nuggets I picked up from this conference were numerous! I plan to review my notes and hopefully organize them into a coherent "something" but for now, these are the ideas that exist in the foreground.
- I am excited to share the potential of digital storytelling with my teacher education students and point them in the direction of tools that were shared at this conference.
- How will I live, work and learn in wide open digital spaces?
- Learning is Messy... my husband would say, "Well, you will be right at home then!" I find this concept most refreshing and challenging at the same time.
Thank you conference organizers for a uniquely rich virtual conference experience. I look forward to "joining" again in the future.
