This morning while trying to process EduBloggerCon, I went to my RSS reader to see what others were thinking and saying. I came upon Jeff Utecht’s post about his experiences at EduBloggerCon and it piqued my interest. I too worry about the impact that a scheduled NECC Unplugged will have on the spontaneous nature of the Blogger’s Cafe and the informal connections which were made last year in Atlanta. This was best demonstrated in Atlantanwhen we commundeared a plasma display to hold impromptu demonstrations where were were all able to learn.
Since this is my first visit to San Antonio, I went to visit the Alamo. While touring through the grounds and revisiting history, an idea emerged in my mind. The Texans were reacting to the shift towards the Centralist government led by Santa Ana. The free form nature of the Blogger’s Cafe is going to be under seige by the scheduled nature of NECC Unplugged. So why don’t we take up arms, retreat into the garrison, and fight for our rights to preserve the informal learning environment that is the Blogger’s Cafe, a place where we can come together and be able to reflect and connect in the ways that we want to or need to. I do not want to be barraged by a continuous stream of more presentations. I want to carve out a space to be able to absorb ideas and make new connections.
I believe that there is a place for NECC Unplugged and people being able to have quick shares. Bur I do believe that the scheduled nature of this venture, while being created for all of the right reasons, is keeping those who may be late to the party, the ability to share.
I guess I am advocating for a rallying call to arms, a reclaiming of the Blogger’s cafe space. LIke Travis, Crockett, and Bowie, and the other Texans, many whose statues are in the hallway right outside of the Blogger’s Cafe, I am willing to defend the turf from the invasion and instrusion in order to allow for those, who like me, just want a place for informal learning and reflection. Anyone want to join?
One issue brought up was the large numbers –200+. I wonder if the classroom 2.0 meet up had been held separate from Edublogger Con would that have helped? I think many, including myself, wanted to recreate the atmosphere that was found last year in Atlanta, but with so many unknown people it was difficult. I did however strive to cultivate discussions with a few new faces since they were present, and some of these discussions were healthy and mind stroking for me. Example–>Carolyn Foote and Virginia ___(cant think of her last name right now) who both are school teacher librarians like myself. Neither were in attendance last year. I also fretted about the room set up thinking it as not conducie to conversations where everyone would feel they had equal footing. The typical conference set up kind of also kept the conversations form flowing, and kept the wallflowers there on the walls. Oh well. I did very much enjoy the filtering session. It felt very much like Educon and EdubloggerCon from last year.
I’ll join you in defending the informality. My opinion is that this was one of the things I most benefited from.