Blogging the Conference: We’ve come a long way in 3 years!
The response to Joe Corbett’s June 12th post here on ISTEconnects, “Planning To Create Lots Of Great NECC Content? Share It With Us Here!” has been amazing! To date, about one hundred people have indicated they are going to share content from NECC 2009 via blogs, Flickr, CoverItLive, Ustream, and other websites. What an exciting NECC conference it is going to be! Not only can face-to-face attendees look forward to great opportunities to learn and network, but virtual attendees can as well thanks to NECCUnplugged as well as a digital river of content which is going to shared from attendees at “regular” NECC sessions.
These prospects for shared, online learning surrounding a face-to-face conference reminded me this week of a situation in the fall of 2005, when I attempted (unsuccessfully) to catalyze live blogging and sharing from the upcoming TCEA 2006 conference. Citizen journalism is a disruptive prospect for many organizational leaders. Empowering anyone with access to a computer and the Internet to share their voice on the “global stage” can seem risky as well as dangerous to leaders most comfortable with tightly controlled, top-down styles of management as well as information dissemination.* As I noted in 2005, we’re living in an era where traditional publishing has been disintermediated. This landscape is fraught with risks and dangers, but it is also filled with opportunities. For more on the pros and cons of blogging for teachers, see the point/counterpoint article in the May 2009 issue of ISTE’s Learning and Leading with Technology, “Is Blogging Worth the Risk?” by James Maxlow and Lisa Nielson. It’s available as a free PDF download for both ISTE members and non-members.
It is impossible for me to think about social media and its potentially transformative potential to permit transparency and more open communication without reflecting on recent events in Iran following their election last week as well as many EduBlogger responses to the election.
On Monday in his post “An Amazing Day”, Jim Gates wrote:
Today was an historic day in the world. The elections in Iran sparked demonstrations by the people there insisting on their freedom. They objected to what they call a fixed election and have, in spite of everything, taken their anger to the streets in incredible numbers. And, they used the social medium of the web to help spread their message…This was a GREAT day to be working with teachers and trying to show them the power of social media, Twitter, specifically. In Tweetdeck I created a Search column for the word Tehran and that’s how I followed the events. There was a hashtag of #iranelections too that I could have chosen to follow. But, the bottom line is that I was following up to the minute reports from the people who were living the event.
Yesterday as well, Shelly Blake-Plock wrote in his post, “This is the Moment: Legitimize Social Media in Education:”
This weekend will go down in history in two ways. First, it will mark — for better or worse depending on the outcome — a fundamental shift in the way the people of Iran are able to express dissent with their government. Second, at least here in the United States, this weekend will mark the moment at which the mainstream media — particularly cable news — was overwhelmed by social media.
It can not be denied. We are all now living in a world of social media. You can’t claim ignorance. You can’t call it a ‘trend’. Whether or not Twitter exists in five years is beside the point. What happened this weekend is that social media became — in the most legitimate way — the voice of the people.
Shelly goes on in his post to exhort educators to take action, along the lines of her guest post here on ISTEconnects, “What Does Internet Blocking Suggest to Students?” He wrote yesterday:
The blocking debate ended this weekend.
Goodbye to the last vestiges of 20th century top-down media. Goodbye to the fear of what humans might produce given the opportunity to work collectively in thought and goodwill. Good morning, humankind.
So teachers, don’t try to teach kids to live in a world that doesn’t exist anymore. Rather, reach out and take hold of the possibilities social media offers. Anyone countering you doesn’t deserve the authority their office holds.
This is the moment. Legitimize social media in education.
When it comes to content filtering and other administrative policies relating to technology and social media, in many contexts we definitely have a strong need to “unmask the digital truth.” What ARE the reasons all blogs and wikis are blocked in many school districts? Why do some organizational leaders resist attempts to embrace social media and blog coverage of conference events as well as organizational meetings?
At NECC 2009 this year, it’s going to be exciting to not only EXPERIENCE the conference, but also SHARE the conference. We are probably only beginning to glimpse the power of social media tools to communicate and amplify ideas as well as conversations. Social media’s potential to provide transparency for a national election or a local school board meeting is largely untouched in many communities, but that reality is changing. Quickly.
We’re living in a “publish at will” digital landscape. What will you share today?!
* I first heard Marco Torres use the phrase “the global stage” at an educational technology conference, when referencing students publishing work online for a worldwide audience.
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Sharing by default and empowering others to share » Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Tuesday, 16th June 2009 at 12:20 pm
[...] discovered this video when writing the ISTEconnects post, “Blogging the Conference: We’ve come a long way in 3 years!” and looking for a link for my closing question, “What will you share today?!” Full [...]
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