AECT 2007 Anaheim
Ah….if I could retract other posts as easily as I edited this one…..Obviously, one important advice: Stay away from any listserv when you’ve been a little bit too sleep-deprived, too multi-tasked, and a bit distracted (the fires in SoCal..close too close).
As per some insightful replies to my post on the SLED and offlist, I report here that yes, indeed my session was well attended for a Saturday morning (I did say that). That there was a way to access the internet for free at the AECT (I tried and found the access protected, so for time sake, I went ahead with my own account with the hotel’s service). And that I should have stuck to my original topic of my title “MUVE It: Using Second Life for foreign language and culture instruction” (I revised my session to a more introductory presentation for newbies).
The SecondLifers in my room were not happy (I learned later. The people I talked to at the beginning of my session were newbies, and the evaluations reflected that as well. They were thrilled and wanted more).
My reasons? Based on the reviewers’ feedbacks and the latest TechTrend’s piece by the AECT President, Ross Perkins, I assumed (wrongly) that the audience was still new to SL. As I am more interested in convincing people about the possibilities and the current happenings in SL than scaring them away (there is still a lot of resistance from higher ed institutions to recognize SL other than a game and a fab), I revised my original prez to an introductory session of SL with a focus on international implications (places, organizations, tools, language schools, etc.)
My lessons:
1-Do what you set up to do. That’s why the abstract was accepted in the first place. (Do you really want to be on the blacklist of ivy-league associations such as AECT? I did not think so.)
2-The people in the room are a self-selected audience. They come because they are interested, they have done some work on the topic or related one, or they are new to it and know it. (That’s why the Q&A is very VERY important. ALWAYS have 10min for Q&A.)
3-Spend a reasonable amount of time getting to know your audience: Like “have anyone been in SL?” is an obvious one! So don’t be in a rush and remember the essentials: this is a discussion, and knowing your audience can avoid bored/disappointed participants. (I felt pressed for time and forgot my audience).
4-Always, always scan the conference program as soon as you’ve got access to it (online a few weeks before the conference actually starts). This should dispel any wrong assumptions and keep you on track with your presentation. AECT happened to have several sessions on SL, and I did not even know it. (Now granted, I was not at the conference much during the week due to the fires in the area, and a post-op child who had to stay away from school for 10 days. However, the program was available online. That should have enlightened me a bit).
So here is the ppt I presented at AECT 2007 (http://www.slideshare.net/sreljic). You are welcome to leave some comments on it.
I am also currently polishing the article that was meant for the AECT proceedings (my paper was selected for potential publishing in the Proceedings a few weeks before the conference). I hope to bring to the table the topics and issues that my presentation was originally supposed to address at the conference, and engage one more time the AECT SecondLifers’ interest to my work.
