Comments on: The Death of Teacher Conferences or I Can’t Believe I Miss My Canvas Bag http://tweenteacher.com/2009/02/23/the-death-of-teacher-conferences-or-i-cant-believe-i-miss-my-canvas-bag/ Heather Wolpert-Gawron Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:37:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Nancy Flanagan http://tweenteacher.com/2009/02/23/the-death-of-teacher-conferences-or-i-cant-believe-i-miss-my-canvas-bag/comment-page-1/#comment-2038 Nancy Flanagan Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:26:20 +0000 http://tweenteacher.com/?p=253#comment-2038 Need another canvas bag? I've got forty of them in my closet (and I only kept the good ones). Your point about being able to do this work more efficiently is a good one--I'd do a f2f conference every three years instead of every year, if I had a steady stream of good content and conversation rolling in through my computer. But. There are some things that we haven't been able to do via networking. MY annual conference (the Midwestern Music Educators) features a plethora of live performances of outstanding K-12 bands, orchestras, jazz ensembles and vocal groups. Watching them via live streaming (or watching/ listening to recordings) will not inspire me, or push me to grab a glass of wine at the free reception afterward and meet the teacher who made that performance happen. There are some things I could easily do without--the exhibitors, IMHO, could easily demo and shill on-line. But a lot of the energy at a conference comes from real-time mix/mingle/random encounters. Need another canvas bag? I’ve got forty of them in my closet (and I only kept the good ones).

Your point about being able to do this work more efficiently is a good one–I’d do a f2f conference every three years instead of every year, if I had a steady stream of good content and conversation rolling in through my computer.

But. There are some things that we haven’t been able to do via networking. MY annual conference (the Midwestern Music Educators) features a plethora of live performances of outstanding K-12 bands, orchestras, jazz ensembles and vocal groups. Watching them via live streaming (or watching/ listening to recordings) will not inspire me, or push me to grab a glass of wine at the free reception afterward and meet the teacher who made that performance happen.

There are some things I could easily do without–the exhibitors, IMHO, could easily demo and shill on-line. But a lot of the energy at a conference comes from real-time mix/mingle/random encounters.

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