It wasn’t my intention to write a Part 2 to my conference review, but I’ve just finished reading through a twenty thousand word document which I felt needed a comment. When you think about it, that’s the length of a reasonable degree thesis, so you’ll forgive me (or possibly inform me) if I missed a couple of the finer points. The document consists of an article about an unnamed conference (ISTEK ELT 2010, in Istanbul) and the discussion that followed it. Although the original poster claimed that the name of the conference was not important, I feel it is important to name it. The comments in the article, and indeed in this article pertain directly to this conference, and no amount of playing with words should allow the impression that any other conference is being discussed here.
You can read the article, if you haven’t already, here. There are a lot of claims made, but for those who aren’t inclined to read the article and comments, I will list the points with which I take issue. (Unfortunately, the author completely deleted the article and comments after receiving more criticism regarding an initial attempt to edit them. I’m sure that copies of the original post and comments, and the edited version are available somewhere though.)
- The author’s faith in PLNs has been shaken
- There was “appalling elitism and favoritism” at the ISTEK ELT Conference
- Foreign presenters were treated differently to local presenters
- Staff from the schools organising the conference were forced to work there
- People are scared to speak out
- Turkish teachers get paid less than native speakers
- Because of Twitter, friends at conferences “are being separated from each other.”
- The author’s PLN often didn’t offer support
This is quite a hefty list, and the article elicited some considerable response, and inevitably, some criticism. I didn’t see the article when it was posted, and by the time I read it the author had chosen to close the comments “in the interests of promoting harmony.” There is also a remark, that the content will be edited to remove all references “to specific events or people.”
The problem is that this article was not general in nature and the convoluted attempt not to name ISTEK was reminiscent of a ham-fisted attempt at satire. I attended this conference, as a foreign delegate. I was neither invited, nor paid, nor sponsored. I paid my own way, and wrote about the experience in a previous post. Continue reading »
(c) Wesley Fryer, via Flickr
So, I’m sitting in a train on my way to the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. The ISTEK ELT Conference is taking place there this weekend. I’ve been looking forward to going for several weeks, but now I’m angry. The train’s on time, and I haven’t forgotten my passport, but travelling by train gives me time to make plans or brood (depending on whether the planning is finished or not). No, the reason I’m fuming mad is because of my colleagues.
Let’s go back a few days… On the last day of term the conversation in the staff room turned quite naturally to the holidays. The activities varied from doing nothing to moving house to going away somewhere – all quite normal, until I said I was going on a training course and then attending a conference in Istanbul. Actually, the reaction didn’t surprise me too much. Some people were surprised that I was going given that I was not being sponsored, others couldn’t see the point (without even asking what the conference was focused on), and a sizeable group stated flatly that they would never do such a thing in the holidays. Even the professional conference attender on the staff wasn’t prepared to give up time during his holidays for such an event. No-one expressed any interest in getting feedback after I returned, though many wanted a report from a colleague who was going to Mallorca. As I said, I wasn’t particularly surprised by this, and I got on with more important things in my life. Until this train journey. No planning to do. Time to brood… Continue reading »
(c) gcbb via Flickr
Personal Learning Networks are all the rage at the moment. As with a lot of “modern” things, they’re existed for a long time but have now got a snappy new name. It used to be called “advice from friends and colleagues”. But in the era of social media the word friend has taken on a new meaning. Social media has provided me with a lot of friends who I’ve never met and never spoken to. I’ve exchanged a few tweets with them, commented on or received comments on a blog article, or maybe read a few forum posts, and as a result these people are, in Web 2.0-speak, friends.
A PLN can take advantage of lots of different services – Facebook is perhaps the best-known, Ning is also very popular and offers The Educator’s PLN, but there are lots of others, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Of all the available services, the one I find the most fascinating (and the most useful) is Twitter. One of the most interesting things I learned about Twitter before I even tried it was that it is like Marmite. It polarises.
I’m constantly amazed at how many people feel the need to criticise Twitter - it’s superficial, it’s useless, it’s boring, you can’t say anything useful in 140 characters, and so on… Never one to be influenced by the crowd, I signed up. Continue reading »
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