Teach42

Well, I’m here at the Catalyst Ranch for BlawgThink 2005. Matt is giving an overview of the goals of the conference and I really love what he started off with: Conference reform. The main idea is that the best part of conferences quite often isn’t the actual sessions or workshops, it’s the conversations that occur in the halls between sessions. Or at the bar towards the end of the evening. Or in the taxicabs on the way to the airport. So this conference aims to be a little different. The first day is fairly typical, there are strands and workshops and more. However, the second day is entirely open, or to be more specific, Open Space. People can create their own little groups to discuss topics from the previous day, and hopefully stray way off topic. It’s not about rehashing what people were already exposed to, it’s about exploring the ideas and taking them farther.

Many of us Ed-Tech bloggers have often discussed how we could make conferences more productive. When you have 50 dedicated, creative, motivated educators in a room, is having one person lecture at them for an hour the best use of the time? The question has always been how can we make better use of the collective brain power gathered together at a conference.

The environment is perfect for this sort of forum. The Catalyst Ranch is a conference center in Chicago that is hardly a typical place for a business meeting or workshop. I’m not sure how to describe it exactly, but it’s sort of like a thrift store exploded. There are beanbags, plastic furniture, koosh balls, TV trays, hula hoops, markers, and a good ol’ fashioned jukebox. Of course, there’s also projectors, speakers, DVD players, Wifi, computers, printers and every other amenity you might need. It’s definitely a stimulating environment as I think you’ll see from the photos. It helps get the creative juices flowing and provides an infinite number of conversation starters.

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