No, no, not the first conference I attended. The first conference I’ve organized. I’m really enjoying the opportunity (try to) do all the things I’ve said about conferences that started with, “If this was my conference, I’d…”
Engaging Every Learner
That’s the theme for the 2017 UBC Okanagan Learning Conference, May 3-4, 2017. To quote the conference website (which I can cuz I wrote it):
The 13th annual learning conference explores how we can design, assess, and facilitate learning that engages every learner, allowing each student to build their own knowledge and contribute their own strengths to their learning and the learning of their classmates and instructors.
Here are some of the features and events I’ve decided on, very often with input from my more experienced colleagues:
- Theme: Engaging Every Learner
- The conference theme has been cycling through pedagogy, student experience, and education research. It was time for a pedagogy theme again so I picked something I think will have lots of entry points: the whole backward design process, diversity of students, critical pedagogy, #edtech. I’m still wondering if this theme is too wide? too narrow? Will people have things to propose for sessions? Is it interesting enough that people will attend? All the questions. We’ll see in 3 months, I guess.
- Names and name tags
- I’m ensuring name fields on the proposal form and registration form that ask people how they want their name to appear in the program and on their name tag. Which can be different than the name on the paper or poster. And I’m giving people space to write special instructions about their names in case there are accents or special characters that a typical web browser form doesn’t recognize. (Thanks, Aimée Morrison @digiwonk for telling me how much she hates having to draw in the accent on her name tag. Every. Single. Time.)
Yes, this means there may be name tags that have to be created “by hand” rather than pouring the registration database into the labeling program. That will take time for my organizing committee colleagues. But how can I advocate for engaging every learner if I can’t afford the effort to get each conference attendee’s name correct?
- Twitter handles on name tags
- I’m tired of writing my twitter handle @polarisdotca and crappily drawing a Twitter bird on my name tag. Every. Single. Time. So the registration form asks people to give their Twitter handle if they want it to appear on their name tag. Yes, it means creating some name tags with the Twitter stuff and some without. Again, how can I not ensure each learner is welcome and supported?
- Keynote speaker: Sarah Eddy
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Dr. Sarah L. Eddy, Florida International University
The landmark 2014 active learning meta-analysis by Freeman et al. provides, once and for all, the evidence that effective active learning helps students learn. (Aatish Bhatia wrote an excellent summary.) I know the analysis comes from the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines because that’s where the data exist, not because that’s the only place active learning exists successfully. Sarah is one of the “et al.” on the Freeman paper and her “Getting under the hood” paper with Kelly Hogan is one of my favorites. Their paper shows that the structure instructors provide, in the design and delivery of the course, is critical. It’s not about content knowledge (“chemistry”). It’s not even about pedagogical content knowledge (“how people learn chemistry”). It’s about teaching and learning. And that’s why I’m so thrilled Sarah agreed to give the conference keynote, “End of Lecture? Active learning increases student achievement.” Yeah, and I got to ask her!
- Minimize TTWWADIs
- This is the 13th annual conference and my colleagues here at UBCO have running this conference down to a fine art. Need this done? Here. Need that done? Yep, no problem. It’s so smooth, sometimes people don’t notice what just happened. I’ve got fresh eyes, though, and I’m forcing myself (and my patient and generous colleagues) to critique “That’s The Way We’ve Always Done It.” I’m looking forward to sharing some new practices and events with the campus and conference attendees. Like
- a Programming Committee to review and select proposals
- a poster session
- wine and cheese reception at the end of the first day, in the same time and place as the poster session
- charging a conference fee
- conference hashtag #everylearner17
I hope this list will grow over the next 3 months as I encounter more things that matter to me and make the choices and decisions entrusted to me.
Got any tips and things to watch out for? Comment away!