How many hours of preparation go into a conference presentation?
How many hours of transport are necessary to bring people together?
How much money does it cost to present in a foreign country?
How many people are able to see all the presentations?
(NONE)
In 2012 and 2013 I was able to present at Eurocall.
In 2014 we worked for a year on a project, had a paper accepted....
At the last moment, there was no longer the financial means to attend the conference.
Frustration, dismay, disillusion.
Against the odds, it is easy to give up hope.
It seems to me now that we might have benefited from the opportunity to present online.
In 2015, I co-presented via a Google Hangout with my colleague Marcin Kleban in situ in Krakow.
, Hybrid conferences...
The ALT conference is one that does a great job facilitating access to its events for remote participants.
The live streamed conferences, available immediately, mean that it is possible to participate not fully, but richly with the conversations around the event.
Virtually Connecting has become more and more important in my learning.
It offers opportunities which are not available to events which are only onsite.
How many people do not have access to learning, to conferences as a result of visa restrictions, financial barriers, family constraints, statutory constraints etc, etc?
This was exemplified by Parisa Mehran who was accepted to present this year, but was uable to attend due to visa rejections.
Frustration, dismay and (very costly) disillusion.
She was able to co-present her session via video conference.
Perhaps from such learning events new opportunities might be developed?
Earlier today, I was fortunate enough to have been able to follow Maritta Riekki and Leena Kuure's presentation thanks to Teresa Mackinnon offering to Periscope it.
I think about all the sessions which will not be streamed or recorded.
I wonder how many live streaming smartphones were available in these sessions...
I wonder how many people wouldn't even try to participate because they believe that it is impossible.
I think of all the missed connections, the missed opportunties for learning, for community building.
Of course technology can never replace the power of people present together bodily but it can enrich, amplify and offer new powerful affordances.
Earlier today, I get notifications that my friend Daniel Bassill over in Chicago is joining in the conversations from Eurocall with Parisa over in Osaka.
I come back and tweet a photo from Shannon's keynote.
Towards complexity-informed language teaching in higher education.
To what extent is it possible to adopt “complexity-informed perspectives” (Mercer, 2013) for language teaching in higher education? Considering the classroom as a complex adaptive system (Larsen-Freeman, 1997; Ellis & Larsen-Freeman, 2009), we use mixed methods adapted from Nexus Analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) to explore evolving ecologies of learning (Van Lier, 2010) in a French university language centre’s English classes for non-specialist undergraduate and postgraduate students. Using qualitative and quantitative survey, pedagogical programs, capture of interactions: photo, video, and learner portfolios, we trace discourses in place and interaction orders. We study teacher and learner reflection, narratives and interview to highlight divergent perceptions of affordances. We observe how network-connected technology offers the potential to modify pedagogical practices and assessment in the classroom, to better respect learner diversity and to “situate learning” (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Gee, 2004) in diverse contexts, to facilitate observation and analysis of learners and learning activities. We attempt to identify “core components of the system - hubs where the effect of change is more likely to spread throughout the system” both of the learner and the institution (Mercer, 2013). If research may enable us to identify “general principles which language educators can use to guide their actions” (Tudor, 2003), analysis of individual stories illustrates the complex, unpredictable, emergent nature of learning. What strategies might teachers adopt to facilitate dramatic progress in learning? In an institutional context ordered by program outcomes, marking grids, and time constraints, learners may be more concerned with gaming the system for credit rather than actually learning a language. Teachers’ “historical bodies” (Scollon and Scollon, 2004): experiences, beliefs, attitudes, competences, and time and or financial constraints may enable or limit their desire or means to adapt practices. Going forward, we consider it essential to develop connected, reflective communities of exploratory practice (Allwright, 2003) including learners, teachers and researchers to work towards manageable pedagogical solutions and the recognition of diverse perspectives, competences and roles.
This is brought to you by....
A growing feeling of becoming part of academic communities.
Thanks to people that I can share common VALUES with.
Despite past feelings of disgust for everything academia.
An accessibly human American researcher, Steven Thorne packing an hour long keynote into 45 seconds, responding in dynamic whispers so as not to disturb adjacent partner/sponsor event...
"THIS EVENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY...."
speaking volumes about social issues in conversation with Parisa Mehran, an Iranian researcher refused a visa to attend Eurocall.
"SHHH!"
This is brought to you by....
Questions from Joe Dale and Teresa Mackinnon to Steven Thorne about how to connect theory to pedagogical practice.
Questions of how to be a teacher in a complex age of change.
("Was there ever an age that was not one of change?")
Questions of how to enable the work of researchers to be accessible.
Questions of what constitutes citizenship in a connected world.
Questions of identity, of language, of meaning, of POWER.
Questions of frontiers, of who defines our boundaries, our bodies, our movement....our lives.
"Teachers have never been so necessary." Steven Thorne.
"Accessibly human, caring, experts have never been so necessary." I think to myself.
"Working together across artificial frontiers has never been so necessary." I conclude.
