31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader -- Day 19: Attend a Conference

A task a day for 31 daysIt's a great pity, in my view, that one of the first things to go when the budget is tight is training. You can understand why: allowing a teacher to go on a training day not only costs the event fee, but also the cost of hiring a substitute teacher. Plus there is the hidden cost in terms of the fact that substitute teachers, no matter how good they are, rarely fill the shoes of the regular teacher. (And that is one reason, incidentally, why creating a lesson bank is such a good idea.)

Nevertheless, it's a short-sighted measure because I think continuing professional development (CPD) in any job is essential. One especially good form of CPD is — or can be — a one day conference.

I've already written about what I look for in a conference. But how can going to a conference help you become a better ed tech leader?

Benefits of attending a conference

A conference presentation can give you useful insightsIf you choose the conference well, these are the potential benefits:

• Get the latest news and upcoming developments. Things move so fast in  both technology and education that this is a good enough reason in itself to get along to a conference. One thing I have often found is that if a representative of officialdom is giving a talk, they will give you off-the-cuff news and insights which will either never find their way into published reports or will take some time to do so.
  
  For example, they may give you interim results of some research they've been carrying out, or some options they've been considering plus a heads-up about a forthcoming consultation. All of these kind of things help you keep on top of your game and put you in a position to be able to advise the senior leadership of your team from an informed standpoint.

• Meet other ICT leaders. I do my best to keep up with the news, but even so I always manage to find something out from a fellow attendee that I didn't know before. In fact, just being able to, if necessary, have a good moan about the state of things can be very good. After all, being an ICT leader or co-ordinator is often a lonely job, and meeting others in a similar position can be therapeutic if nothing else.

• Another benefit of meeting colleagues in similar positions is that it enables people to exchange ideas. No matter how innovative you are, you can still learn something from talking to other people.

• If the conference has been good, you will not only come away full of new information and ideas, you will also have had a morale and energy boost.

Conference follow-up

One of the downsides of going to a conference is that the new information and ideas end up going to the bottom of the virtual in-tray. I think it's very important indeed that when you return from a conference you work to a simple rubric along the lines of:

1. What were the three key things I learnt at the conference?
2. What is one thing I can and should change immediately as a result of attending it?
3. What is one thing I should change, or advise the senior leadership to change, over the long term?

If you lead a team of teachers, feedback should be given at the next team meeting. That in itself can provide valuable CPD, not only in terms of disseminating the knowledge to colleagues, but also in terms of the ensuing discussion.

If the team meeting is not scheduled for a long time, the information and advice should be disseminated to the team in some way.

I also think that one of the conditions of being allowed to go to a conference is that the notes made are distributed as necessary. Otherwise the benefits of attending are confined to only the attendee and can soon disappear.

Clearly, most of the points made here can be applied to any form of training, not only conferences.
There are aso online conferences, perhaps the best known being the K12 Online Conference. Attending such a conference is often easier than attending a physical one because you can watch the presentations in your own time, and so do not need permission as such.

However, I think there are two principles and one practical issue involved here. The principles are that, firstly, I believe that teachers should be treated as professionals. That means being given time to go to events like conferences. Secondly, expecting people to attend a conference in their own time effectively discriminates against those teachers who have family commitments and for whom, therefore, attending an online conference is impractical at best and impossible at worst.

The practical issue is that attending an online conference in real time enables you to participate in the discussion and Twitter stream taking place at the time.

It may be possible to negotiate for members of your team and yourself to have guaranteed no cover while the online conference is going on, so that each of you could attend in their 'free' lessons. Obviously, that kind of arrangement won't be possible in the average primary school.

In any case, it's not an ideal situation because in my experience you still get constantly interrupted and even called upon to do an emergency cover anyway. In fact, the ideal arrangement is to attend the conference at home or at a colleague's house. I don't underestimate the difficulties of getting that approved though.

Bottom line: attending a conference at least once a year is essential. It should help you do your job better. Everyone knows that teacher expertise is one of the most important factors in securing student learning and progress; conferences can help you maintain and increase that expertise.

You may also find this article useful: All About BETT: What it is, 9 Reasons to Attend,4 Reasons You Should Be Allowed to Attend, and 4 Other Colleagues Who Should Go Too

Further Thoughts on Conferences

My ruminations on what makes a good conference seems to have sparked quite a bit of interest. Hardly surprising, if you think about it, given the inordinate amount of time a lot of us spend at these things! I thought I'd write a separate post about it in order to draw your attention to some other people's thoughts on the subject, especially as they may be currently buried in the comments on the original article.

Jim Buckingham expands on the comments he made about my article, in a blog post in its own right. In Conferences, My Definition of a Great One, Jim comes up with some brilliant suggestions, including this one:

Ultimately the perfect conference, is not a one off or something that works in isolation. By that I mean, it is hopefully part of a broader picture… namely supporting a “community of practice” and is clearly seen to be doing so.

Absolutely!

I loved reading Kim Cofino's recipe for a better conference, in her Next Generation Conference. She takes the view that conferences ought to be more practical, ie result in the actual creation of something. That certainly ties in with my own tendency to ask myself, whilst sitting in many conference sessions,

Yes, but how would this help me with Year 11 on Monday morning?

One thing I agree with, though it worries me a bit, is Kim's asking:

Why, oh why do we still see the same presenters at every conference? I don’t mean the same individual people (although that can be a problem too). I mean the same older, white, males. Where’s the diversity? Gender, race, age, experience? How did we get trapped in this model where we think only older white men have something to offer?

I think we should have more diversity, but as an older white male I feel I am being unfairly picked on here: I didn't select myself, and I can't help my age, gender or colour!

Actually, I was thinking at the Naace 2010 conference recently how many presenters were men, but also how thrilled I was that two of the keynoters were Martha Lane Fox and Keri Facer. These are two of the brightest people you could ever have the pleasure of listening to. I would also venture to suggest, at the risk of being castigated for generalising and/or sexism, that on the whole it's less likely to find a female ego-tripper on a conference podium than a male one. But maybe that's because there are fewer of them to be  ego-trippers!

Finally, Doug Woods asks:

Is the conference relevant to me and my work?

He also mentions the issue of cost.

Both points are well taken. One thing which Doug does not mention is the opportunity cost of lost earnings. For example, a conference that costs, say, £300 is actually costing you £300 plus the money you could have earned had you not gone.

A big thank you to Jim, Kim and Doug for their helpful comments, and for forcing me to deepen my own thinking in this area.

What I Look For in a Conference

There is an updated version. of this article.

I attend a lot of conferences, and over the years I've developed a useful set of criteria by which to evaluate them. Here, then, in no particular order, are my top 14 characteristics of a good conference.

#1 Fresh air and daylight

I shouldn't have to say this, but air and natural lighting are pretty fundamental for our existence. We all know that, so how come half the conference sessions I attend don't make the grade in these respects? Worst of all were the National Strategies' training days. They were pretty dire anyway, for the most part, but what made them even worse was they always seemed to be held in a basement room with no windows and no air. As the day wore on, especially after lunch, half the delegates would be falling asleep. Not good.

#2 Can we move now?

That raises another issue. A lot of conferences involve a lot of sitting around and listening. After a while, you feel like your blood has stopped circulating -- which it probably has. Now, I don't go along with ideas like getting the audience to do some sort of physical workout, which I have seen advocated in self-styled 'cutting edge' texts. But I think a variety of different kinds of session, together with making each one no longer than an hour -- and preferably less -- helps a lot.

#3 Where are the kids?

Like I said in an article called But where are the kids?, you would never know, walking into a lot of educational conferences, that the conference is about education at all. At best, some of them have a few token young people around to remind us all what they look like, but that's about it. I have to say that this is where conferences like ISTE(previously known as NECC) and iCTLTdo well. Kids not only start the conference off, but are seen at the exhibitors' stands, and even speak!

I like the increasing presence of young people as reporters at some conferences. This was the case at the BETT show in January 2010, and a curriculum conference in March 2009 (see the 'kids' link, above). We need more of this sort of thing.

#4 Plenty of 'down' time

Some conference organisers feel that they have to pack every waking moment -- and half our sleeping moments too! -- with activities. This is justified on the grounds that would-be delegates have to have their applications approved by bean counters who equate more stuff with better value. In fact, after a certain point has been reached, the opposite is likely to be the case.

My own view is that the best part of any conference is the conversations you have. I won't even say 'networking', because although you're 'supposed' to go to conferences to network and make connections, I find it really hard to do. The reason is that whenever people unleash their 'elevator speech' on to me, I feel like I am being sold to -- which, of course, I am. Far more interesting is having a normal, honest conversation. And if that leads to some business in the future, that's all wonderful and marvellous. And if it doesn't, well that's fine too because at least you had a good social time.

#5 Good speakers, on good topics

For me, given my views on the importance of #4, if the sessions are good too then that's a bonus. By 'good speakers' I do not mean people who shout, jump up and down, try and gee us up, and regard themselves as primarily entertainers (unless, of course, it's in the context of an after-dinner speech). I mean people who are at the top of their game, who have a deep knowledge of their subject, and who are going to give me some information and insights which I would either not be able to obtain at all otherwise, or which it would take a fair bit of time and effort to get otherwise. And up-to-date insights too, not the ones they came up with five years ago and have been trotting out ever since. Ever heard of blogs and YouTube, guys?

By 'good topics', I do not mean stuff I am interested in, because that's taken as read. I mean stuff that I should  be interested in but which I didn't know I need to know about!

#6 Let the people speak

I think there's a place for 'unconference' elements in the conference programme, like a Teachmeet or opportunities for groups of people to get together to discuss topics of mutual interest. It's not the end of the world if there isn't this option, but I think every effort should be made to provide it where possible.

#7 I wanna be connected

The best conference will have wi-fi throughout the venue, including the hotel. There must also be a conference Twitter feed, and Flickr and Technorati tags. Some conferences also have a conference blog, Facebook page,  and a social network. I think having all that is more likely to dissipate commentary, or even discourage it altogether, by making the choice too wide. What's the point anyway? Anyone who's going to write about the conference will want to do so on their own blog, wouldn't they?

#8 Who else is here?

I like to see a delegate list. Notwithstanding what I said about networking, if there is someone there whom I'd really like to meet, I'd prefer to know about it so I can look out for them and try to connect with them. Conferences provide great opportunities to meet people you have had dealings with, or need to have dealings with.

For example, at the Naace 2010 conference I was able to meet up with several people I've been having work-related conversations with. As it happens, the conference was small enough for me to see they were there. At larger conferences, you cannot rely on spotting or bumping into people, which is why a delegate list can be so handy.

#9 Decent accommodation

It's a well-known fact that people evaluate training days on the basis of whether the food was any good. The same goes for conferences, and more so if you're staying overnight. Good grub, with a proper choice for vegetarians and other diets, and a clean, well-appointed room, are what we all like.

#10 Lots of choice

It can be very frustrating when sessions you want to go to clash with each other. But I'd rather be spoilt for choice than to feel like I have almost no choice at all.

#11 Post-conference information

Presentations, and podcasts or videos of the presentations, should be available afterwards. So should supplementary material where relevant.

#12 If you're going to advertise, tell us

If you look at the ads in the paper, or this website, you'll see they have the word 'Advertisement' above them. The reason is obvious: to make sure that people don't mistakenly think they're part of the editorial. Well, I believe conference speakers should do the same. I've been to a couple of conference sessions where the presentation was an extended advertisement in all but name. If this is made clear in advance, then people are given a genuine choice. If you find out once you're in the session, not only have you had your time wasted if you didn't want to listen to an ad for 45 minutes, but you've missed the chance to go to a presentation you would have liked to have seen.

#13 No text please

Exhibitors should make their stuff available electronically, such as on a conference CD. I think it's unreasonable to expect delegates to lug tons of printed material home.

#14 Start and end on a high

I want my conference to open with a bang, and make me eager with anticipation. I want to end my conference on a high, full of adrenalin, wanting to rush back home with renewed determination to make a difference.

Over to you

What do you think are the characteristics of a great conference?

But Where Are The Kids?

This is a modified version of an article written and published in 2009. I am reproducing it because it is still relevant, and I shall be referring to it in articles in the near future.

One of the big absences at most educational conferences, as far as I'm concerned, is children and young people. Let's be honest: you would have no idea, walking into most conferences, whether you were attending an event about education or one about how to improve the market share of widgets.

Youngsters remind us why we're thereIt is hard to get this right, without a doubt -- not least because of child safety considerations -- but the more I think about it the more important I think it is to involve young people in conferences in meaningful ways. After all, it is they who, in management-speak are our clients and, in marketing-speak, our final consumer.

I've been to a few conferences recently where young people were involved to a greater or lesser extent. First, take the Naace 2009 Conference. There were children in evidence, but in my opinion in an utterly tokenistic way. I don't mean this to sound as critical as it does. When I organised the Naace conference a few years ago, it was generally regarded as being very good indeed, but there were no youngsters there. In hindsight I regard that as a mistake, and think I should have worked harder to include them (we did try, but it was logistically difficult, because of the distances involved, to liaise effectively with local schools; also, I think it requires a more imaginative mindset which is easier to nurture once you're away from all the deadlines and other headaches involved in planning a large conference).

The youngsters were there to help represent their schools, which had been invited in order to receive the ICT Mark. Traditionally, this little ceremony takes place straight after the talk by the Secretary of State for Education, so that it is he or she who is, in effect, handing over the certificate.

Alright, the fact that there are children there reminds us that this is all about them, but it seems to me that here is a golden opportunity wasted. Why not go straight into a panel discussion in which the audience can ask the youngsters what difference, if any, the process of applying for the ICT Mark has made. If it has made a difference, the session might just be the thing that's needed to convince a wavering school that it ought to take the plunge. Also, and of more immediate importance and interest, it would help us see the process from the customer's point of view (I cringe from using such terminology, by the way, but it does seem rather apt).

On the subject of a panel discussion, last year's ASPECT conference featured a panel session in which a group of students of around 17 years of age really gave the assembled educational glitterati a run for their money. For example, one of them said, in response to a rather patronising answer, to a genuine question, to the effect that it was a nonsense to say that young people were left out of decision-making, "I notice that all the people in this room have been given briefing packs. But we haven't." Stunned, embarrassed silence: after all, you can't argue with something which is so visibly true.

The Dimensions conference run by the then Qualifications and Curriculum Authority went a stage further. As you arrived at the entrance to the building, students (from a school local to me (Mayfield School), as it happened) were there to greet you and point you in the right direction. They were also involved in a workshop about the BBC School Report event (which I hope to write about separately), took part in a panel discussion, generally helped out and, crucially, went around conducting video interviews of delegates.

In the workshop, two of the students were on hand to advise us oldies of what would be best to include in a news bulletin that would fire up the interest of people of their age (15-16). They were brilliant, somehow managing to combine brutal honesty with humour and courtesy. (Perhaps we adults could learn a thing or two from them.)

Here is the video they made of the day:

There are other ways in which youngsters can be involved. A lovely way of starting a conference, for instance, can be seen in the programme of last year's Game-Based Learning conference, the second day of which was opened by a performance by children from the John Stainer school. (That was nice for me on a personal level because I worked with the school a few years ago helping it to implement its Framework for ICT Support programme).

I think what I would ultimately like to see is youngsters involved at all stages of a conference:

1. Planning.
2. Attending.
3. Taking part.
4. Evaluating.

Difficult, perhaps, but surely a goal worth striving for?

A slightly different version of this article was first published on 7th April 2009.