AECT 2007 – Disneyland is Burning

Disneyland is not, in fact, burning, but that is because Walt Disney has a contract with g-d to ensure that such calamities do not infringe on corporate profits. For this reason, conference planning is centered around Disney properties when it comes to AECT's annual conference. This year Anaheim, next year Orlando...perfect. We have no worries of natural disaster.

Sorry, I'm a little punchy. It's only the first full day of general sessions, but I'm already a little conferenced out.

Last night the keynote with Stephen Downes was interesting, though he seemed to get a little distracted by the technology he was integrating. I would love to see the script of the messages flashed on the screen behind him by the audience. At one point there was a discussion of whether learning was being facilitated by the visibilization of the audience's mental narrative, but I think that was just the point. At the same time Downes was discussing learning as network, the comments/thoughts/mental impulses of the audience were being quietly shared with the entire room. It was functionally different, I think, than had a text chat been coordinated only for those with a computer. That way, the narrative is hidden, a secret thread for those with access. The way it was set up in the lecture, the entire audience is privy to the discussion. Did I learn from the use of this technology--well, that depends. Of course, we are always learning. As someone commented during the discussion, "can I turn learning off?" If my internet had been working the whole time, I would have enjoyed it more. I don't think it's just game-playing or gimmick, people like to be clever and like to share their thoughts, at least some of the people like this some of the time. Adding this channel to the presentation provided a multi-layered presentation, where I could choose to cognitively engage with Downes' content or textually-verbally engage with others in the audience about the content or cognitively engage with both.