RELATe Reflections
There is a lot of pressure put on Year Twos (whether from an outside source or self-inflicted) to put together a successful RELATe conference, as it is generally regarded as a reflection of our progress thus far, and our ability to bring something big together in such a small amount of time.
This year, despite heightened levels of tension in the class and a general feeling of confusion or unpreparedness, we really pulled it together and managed to deliver a well put-together, interesting, meaningful, and fun conference. Thanks to a tremendous amount of help from Leigh, we were able to include virtual attendees, and take this conference to a level not yet reached by the Year Twos in the past.
I was really happy with how the RELATe 2011 conference went. Overall, the immediate verbal feedback was awesome, and the interest levels shown by the attendees were very positive.
Aside from the added dimension of the virtual attendees, the new structure of the conference sessions seemed to make a positive impact on the goers in general. The informal exploration time afforded by the Kiosk sessions made the material presented more available to all, and allowed attendees to bring in their own experiences and perspectives.
People were really excited about the different structure of the conference overall, and there was a positive sense of organization that really came through. The breaking down of the technicalities of the conference, assigned to various groups (scheduling, video, the website, etc) was an enormously constructive suggestion, coming from our professors. Even two days after the conference, I was still getting congratulations from many of the Year Three's (veterans of RELATe) - not just on my session, but on the conference as a whole.
As far as what went into the making of... there was stress, at least that is what I sensed in the ranks. Many felt that as an assignment it lacked definition and wanted to be firmly guided, when in reality, this is our show. There was confusion as to what was expected of us, but I think everybody pulled it together and delivered well thought-out and useful material.
Personally, I had difficulty fitting my Unpacking TPACK wicked problem into something that I thought would be meaningful and interesting (-to prepare and -for the audience), so I ended up changing it. The dynamics of our classroom over the previous week really made me think about what reaches out to me most in terms of not only education, but life-long learning; the idea that peoples' fears and misunderstandings hold them back in so many aspects of life.
As soon as I "stumbled" upon this idea, I felt deeply passionate about it and wanted to use it as my platform for the conference. In researching and attempting to organize my ideas, I discovered that I was only picking away at the very tip of the proverbial iceberg, and, as Mike warned me, it ended up being very difficult to pull it all together into something coherent that could be conveyed in a short presentation. I'm not sure I was as coherent as I wanted to be; in fact, I felt that some were either unimpressed or a little confused, but I did have a conversation later on that night that, well, made me proud. One attendee was very interested in my topic and had many questions for me- which led to a very meaningful discussion about exactly the topics that had been swimming around in my mind- I felt like I really made her think. And THAT, my friends, is what it's all about!
This year, despite heightened levels of tension in the class and a general feeling of confusion or unpreparedness, we really pulled it together and managed to deliver a well put-together, interesting, meaningful, and fun conference. Thanks to a tremendous amount of help from Leigh, we were able to include virtual attendees, and take this conference to a level not yet reached by the Year Twos in the past.
I was really happy with how the RELATe 2011 conference went. Overall, the immediate verbal feedback was awesome, and the interest levels shown by the attendees were very positive.
Aside from the added dimension of the virtual attendees, the new structure of the conference sessions seemed to make a positive impact on the goers in general. The informal exploration time afforded by the Kiosk sessions made the material presented more available to all, and allowed attendees to bring in their own experiences and perspectives.
People were really excited about the different structure of the conference overall, and there was a positive sense of organization that really came through. The breaking down of the technicalities of the conference, assigned to various groups (scheduling, video, the website, etc) was an enormously constructive suggestion, coming from our professors. Even two days after the conference, I was still getting congratulations from many of the Year Three's (veterans of RELATe) - not just on my session, but on the conference as a whole.
As far as what went into the making of... there was stress, at least that is what I sensed in the ranks. Many felt that as an assignment it lacked definition and wanted to be firmly guided, when in reality, this is our show. There was confusion as to what was expected of us, but I think everybody pulled it together and delivered well thought-out and useful material.
Personally, I had difficulty fitting my Unpacking TPACK wicked problem into something that I thought would be meaningful and interesting (-to prepare and -for the audience), so I ended up changing it. The dynamics of our classroom over the previous week really made me think about what reaches out to me most in terms of not only education, but life-long learning; the idea that peoples' fears and misunderstandings hold them back in so many aspects of life.
As soon as I "stumbled" upon this idea, I felt deeply passionate about it and wanted to use it as my platform for the conference. In researching and attempting to organize my ideas, I discovered that I was only picking away at the very tip of the proverbial iceberg, and, as Mike warned me, it ended up being very difficult to pull it all together into something coherent that could be conveyed in a short presentation. I'm not sure I was as coherent as I wanted to be; in fact, I felt that some were either unimpressed or a little confused, but I did have a conversation later on that night that, well, made me proud. One attendee was very interested in my topic and had many questions for me- which led to a very meaningful discussion about exactly the topics that had been swimming around in my mind- I felt like I really made her think. And THAT, my friends, is what it's all about!
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