Categories
Business Education Technology

Planning An Internal Conference

Yesterday it was decided to plan and run a small, one-day internal conference focused on technology at Martin Luther College. I’ve been to a number of technology conferences and get-togethers over the years, but this is the first time I am being relied on to plan and manage such an event.

So I’m going to blog about the process … obviously.

To start, I’d love to be able to “sit down” and talk with people who have already run an internal conference. I know there are challenges when you are talking about bringing in many “non-technical” people to talk about the use of technology, so I’d love to be able to get a wider perspective on things.

This is new ground both for me and for the campus and I want to make it worthwhile so that we can continue to hold events like this internally to better improve the organization without the need for catastrophes to be staring us down.

So, I’ll post more in the future but I’d love to hear from people who have experience with this or would just like to sit down and talk through the concept.

Photo by Citrix Systems from Flickr

Categories
Education Technology

Technologically Skeptical

Prof. James Carlovsky shared iPads, Hotels, and Learning on his Twitter feed today. I think the article is worth a read, so go ahead and take a look. The real “meat” of what I enjoyed comes from the comments.

Here is my favorite so far:

“I maintain that those of us that work at the intersection of technology and education have to be the most critical about edtech.”

In theory, that is true. In practice, I rarely see it though it is badly needed. One of the primary roles of the edtech spokespersons I see has been a form of cheerleading that often employs demands for unquestioning adherence to the dogmas proclaiming the inevitability of online displacement of all semblances of traditional pedagogy. Those of us who actually dare to question such revealed truth are often proclaimed technological blasphemers: Luddites. Welcome to the 12 Step Group for once valued educators cast into outer darkness.

Those same attitudes exist in the great technology community, not just in education. “Everything is going to be in the cloud” exclaims one without thinking through what that might actually mean for how work gets completed and, sometimes more important, what skills are now outsourced and allowed to atrophy.

I work with technology every day and I think it is a great idea to always stay skeptical.

I am worse at that than many.