This past Saturday, March 6th, I was given the opportunity to attend my first TEDx event. I didn’t really know what to expect, I typically only attend technical conferences filled with pocket protector wearing programmers. Okay we don’t wear pocket protectors, but that doesn’t make it any less of a complete geek fest, me included. Anyhow, to start, I must applaud the group of educators that ran the event. The location was great, the line up of speakers was very good, and overall I had an amazing time. However, there where a couple of suggestions, or maybe some preconceive expectations that I may have had prior to attending.
Although I believe that many of the speakers where amazing, at points I felt like i was at an educators pep rally. Don’t get me wrong, it is always great to get other educators excited about certain topics, however much of what was being talked about is nothing new of innovative. For instance, I think just about everyone knows that standardized testing is probably not the best way to assess students, but how could you successfully implement portfolio based assessments? One speaker touched on it, however I really wanted more examples, more case studies. I basically wanted the speakers ideas, so I could tweak them start putting them into practice. Most of the talks were powerful in there own way, I unfortunately didn’t quite get that “Ah ha!” moment that i was hoping for.
The other critique that I had about the event was networking opportunities. Although, I am sure it is mostly my own fault for not pursuing enough conversation during the break, I feel like there must be a better way of creating connections of like minded or curious attendees. Since i never like to give a critique without at least attempting to give some suggestions, I’ll take my best stab at the problem.
You asked each attendee to give you 3 topics that we where interested in. Having them on our badge was a great idea, however the type was way too small, and it was nearly impossible to try and read those without looking like a complete weirdo. Maybe creating some sort of physical area in the space where we could gather and talk and network. For example, take the top 4 topics of each session and plot them on 4 separate sides of the room. It is easy enough to print them out so why not have the topics be crowd sourced, and then quickly polled at the end of the session? “People interested in talking about educational reform for to the far left corner”. This sort of setting would have given me the opportunity not to walk in circles and go to the first person I saw in that area and say “SATs suck, any ideas on how to make assessment better?”
I would have also liked access to individuals twitter handles, along with their three topics posted on a board, or possibly even in the program itself. This way I could have just picked up my phone and tweet “@person I see you have X as your topic, would you like to talk about Y at the next break?”
Just a couple of suggestion, from an attendee. Thanks again for an otherwise great event, I hope to attend many others in the future!
Update: The people of TEDxNYED have released a public listing of all the attendees, along with interests and twitter information (http://tedxnyed.wikispaces.com/participants)
This was great, I was able to communicate with some people post event via twitter. Would be great to offer this pre-event so I could have set up some networking time at the event with certain individuals that are working on similar projects that I am working on.
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Comments ( 6 )
I understand where you are coming from, it can't be easy to create a full day event with a broad audience. Although, I didn't get that "ah ha" moment, i wrote in my post, I definitely learned a lot which made the event worth every minute and then some. Keep up the great work, and look forward to the next event. As for my networking suggestions, I don't know if my suggestions are the answer, however, I am sure that there is an innovative way to scaffold conversations. In my opinion, the discourse that happens outside of the auditorium is really where the power of an event like this could make things happen.
Alex Britez added these pithy words on
Mar 08 10 at
6:25 am
[In full disclosure, I am the curator for TEDxNYED]
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. TEDxNYED was designed to introduce many of the ideas to a larger audience. Obvioiusly many of the attendees had prior knowledge of some if not all of the speakers but our hope was for those attendees to make connections and potentially go back to your institutions and spread awareness on those particular speakers that spoke to you.
As for the networking suggestions, you bring up some great points and I appreciate your insight. We will definitely take your ideas into consideration for next time.
Dave Bill added these pithy words on
Mar 08 10 at
5:57 am
Alex, thanks for the suggestions. They are helpful, and you're right about the hallways – they're one of my favorite parts of any conference! As an organizers I was really sad to miss out on making some of those F2F connections. Knowing now that we could have done more to facilitate them is a helpful point. You'll be receiving a survey in the next couple of days which we hope you fill out. We've found much of what's been posted on the web, but it's hard to collect it all since there is so much out there in all kinds of locations!
@arvind added these pithy words on
Mar 08 10 at
1:44 pm
It’s my pleasure. As proactive as you and your team have been post event, I am positive that your next event will be mind blowing. Best of luck, and i will be sure to fill out a survey once i get my hands on it.
Alex Britez added these pithy words on
Mar 08 10 at
7:29 am
I watched the event via the Livestream and have shared your feelings about hearing what we SHOULD do but not enough of what IS CURRENTLY being done or HOW TO actually do it. I think this speaks to the state of schools and how difficult it is to change them. For now, public schools are always going to be 2 steps behind society in terms of technology until we reach the tipping point where our staff, as a whole, understands that implementing technology involves a lot of tinkering and trial and error. They aren't as receptive to learning, unlearning and relearning, quite frankly, because it takes time.
I hate to be "that guy" because I really enjoyed Chris Lehmann's speech and love everything he is doing, but the reality is that he is the Principal of a charter schools that can be selective in its admissions. My reality is that our school must admit every kid that lives within our borders. Some of these kids are so damaged from their home situations that the most creatively crafted inquiry lesson will still not engage them in the learning. We can care about them and even if we do understand that we teach kids, not content, they aren't being cared for when they walk out the door.
@briwcarter added these pithy words on
Mar 08 10 at
2:47 pm
In hindsight, I think the source of my aggravation was partly due to my own role in education. I am a technologist that works with education. The majority of the people at the conference where direct opposites, educators that work with technologies. Although I am familiar with all the topics, there was nothing that I could really latch onto for my own personal role. I still stand by my comments that I would have liked to see more examples, but the issue then becomes, how to prevent each talk from being a complete brag fest filled with "I this" and "I that". Don't really know what the answer is, except maybe a little more diversity.
I am not so sure if i agree with not being able to engage a child that comes from a terrible home. I think just about every kid has the ability to be engaged in any topic. In my opinion, if a kid could be engaged while playing video games, or in a conversation with their friends, then there is nothing stopping them from being engaged in school. Although it may not be easy, I wouldn't say it is impossible. It is actually one of the main reasons why I recently decided to focus my technical talents in education. I want to do my part in insuring that those kids have a shot, and not get written off before they even had a chance to succeed.
Alex Britez added these pithy words on
Mar 09 10 at
10:11 pm
