Brent Warner
This is the HigherEdTech podcast, Season Three Episode 14: Conference strategies in the time of COVID.

Tim Van Norman
Welcome to today’s HigherEdTech podcast. I’m Tim Van Norman, the instructional technologist here at Irvine Valley College.

Brent Warner
And I’m Brent Warner, Professor of ESL here at IVC. We both enjoy integrating technology into the classroom, which is what this show is all about.

Tim Van Norman
Welcome. And we’re glad you’re here with us. So Brent, anything new?

Brent Warner
We are…well, by the time this comes out, we’re getting pretty close to coming back to campus for us. So we’ll be we’ll be back on next week. We’ve got a kind of a weird long weekend going on. But then next week, I think we’re officially coming back on the 23rd for teaching classes. So that’ll be fun. I’ve been checking out the classrooms I’ve been I don’t know, if you will, Tim, I guess you know, I’ve been on campus some days teaching from my office just to kind of mix things up and not be in my, my my bedroom teaching from my bedroom all the time. But I’ve been on campus a few times. And I’ve been checking out the rooms, there’s a lot of cool stuff going on on campus, a lot of like nice upgrades that have happened over the last couple of years that pretty much nobody has seen. Some of us have seen it. And then yeah, so I’m just looking forward to, you know, I mean, there’s concerned about everything. But I think overall, I feel pretty comfortable with going back at this point to campus. Lots of COVID protocols in place, lots of refreshed, H backs and masks and all the rooms and just clean stations and all these types of things. So yeah, I’m looking forward to it.

Tim Van Norman
It’s good seeing people back on campus. Yeah, not very many people. But you know, I think about the last two years, basically. And it’s good to see people you see faces again,

Brent Warner
Yeah, it was a bit of a ghost town for a while, right? Like, I mean, there were some times when like, you could tell there’s like a difference between when there’s people moving and things are happening, or when like the whole campus was like actually totally shut down. Yeah, it’s like, Whoo, that’s there. You could feel the emptiness of it, it was kind of creepy as a few times, so. So yeah, it’ll be good. But speaking of going back to in person, today, we’re going to be jumping in and talking a little bit about conferences, which are starting to move back in person to let’s jump over.

Tim Van Norman
So we decided to talk about conference strategies, how to attend a conference, in this world where everything is constantly changing. In fact, I saw an announcement for a conference today. And it said, Hey, if you want to be a presenter, be prepared to present online or in person we’re planning on being in person, but just in case. You never know. And, and then the question becomes, okay, so this is going to be an online conference? Or is this an in person conference, in the in person conferences is also going to be online? And, you know, so there’s a lot of these things going on. And I think your strategy for, for attending them might be different, depending on what type of conference it is, and stuff like that. And, frankly, some of these online conferences that I’ve attended, you know, I’ve spent less than an hour at the conference the whole three days, or whatever it was, because I’ve just been too busy. And so looking at how do you attend a conference? If it’s online? What about if it’s high flex? And what about if it’s truly in person, because there are some nuances now that I think are coming out? And I’ve seen I’ve had people say, I will never attend an in person conference again? Oh, yeah.

Brent Warner
It’s, it’s, it’s a full thing. There’s like all sorts of opinions, hot takes, whatever. And I think we’ll kind of break down each of them. I first, I guess, I’ll say like, I totally understand anyone’s desire to do any of these varieties. Like, if you’re like, I need to be in person. And if you’re like, I will never be on Berlin person again, like, I totally get both of those sides of things. But I think, you know, the, because of the changing landscape of things, I think is a good topic for for now. We did talk about conferences a couple of years ago, I don’t know. So like maybe once maybe in season one or something. But we probably talked about it a couple of times. Yeah. So, but we wanted to jump into some of these. I think we’ll start by sharing some of the upcoming conferences, because some of the ones that we’re looking at are, are some varieties of these things. Right. And so I think it’s worth we’re sharing a little bit about this and a little understanding a little bit so so Tim, what’s the first one you got in, in your, in your line here?

Tim Van Norman
So going by when they’re coming up March 17? Through 19th CUE? Yeah, that’s my, actually, this is yours. This is one that you and I are involved in and everything.

Brent Warner
Yeah, so I’m pretty. I, you know, I’m well involved with CUE, you know, different parts of the organization, I have a lot of friends and colleagues who are very into it. And so CUE is Computer Using Educators. It’s the it’s kind of edtech, it’s it’s the West Coast, main primary affiliate of ISTE. So ISTE is the big International Society for Teachers– Technology in Education, right? And so that’s the the major one. And they are and ISTE is having their presentation also, or sorry, their, their conference also is also coming up in the summer. But cue is coming up just right around spring break time. And they’re doing a a mixed version. So they’re doing in person, and they’re doing virtual, right. So they’re doing the hybrid thing, and we’ll talk about, we’ll talk about both of these and what these mean, it’s $369, if you’re going for all all the days, and so I think that price has gone up a little bit with the recent price increases of everything, but it’s not too much, I think I think he was always in the, in the mid three hundreds, or at least for last few years anyway, so or maybe I can’t remember exactly. But they also have an option called virtual with Saturday in person. So they’re doing if you want to just do go online on Thursday, Friday, and then on Saturday, you can show up in person, and that’s for 179. So this is a big conference, this is where I get a lot of my ideas home, like what to do as far as like, new innovations and teaching trying to see what other teachers are doing. It’s not a huge, higher ed poll for a lot of higher ed teachers. There’s not a ton of us there. I am on the Higher Education Learning Network and part of that as well. But But anyways, yeah, cue is a great conference. But this this year, again, same type of thing. Teachers are already used. I see I see him on Twitter all the time. They’re like, is it gonna really happen in person because they talked about it last year, and it got switched. And they talked about it the year before and it got switched. And so it’s like, it’s been this kind of, you know, will they won’t they type of thing, but I am looking forward to it. And I feel pretty confident that it’s going to happen in person. This this time around. So again, we’ll jump into some of the details of what that looks like later.

Tim Van Norman
Along those lines, we have the online teaching conference for California Community Colleges puts it on that one is scheduled for June 29 through July 1, in person in Long Beach, California. $300 299 for early registration. So this is right now they’re planning on pretty much in person. It doesn’t look like there’s really a virtual or high flex option. This is so weird. For an online teaching conference,

Brent Warner
like, yeah, we’re totally in person. I’m like, “Mmm, interesting choice.” (laughter)

Tim Van Norman
Now, they do say for those people who are doing a proposal to be prepared to, to speak online, it you know, to present online, just in case. And in fact, last year, it was online, and stuff. So it’s a really good conference for that’s dedicated to higher education and will pull people from all over.

Brent Warner
Yeah, there are some teachers who are pretty upset about the, the in person only thing so kind of like you were talking about, right, like, I will never go to an in person type of thing. And so they’re like, particularly this conference, so we’ll see if they actually hold the line with being to only in person, like, like you said, they might you might have to switch to your presentation mode, or maybe they’ll put cameras in the rooms and and stream them somehow. I’m not totally sure. But that’s it’s certainly an interesting choice for for how they’re, they’re setting that up. But yeah, and then here’s another thing, Tim, I just, you know, you and I had talked about this pre show, but like it’s a little weird that it’s going from June 29 to July first because the fiscal year ends on June 30. And so again, this is only like, you know, college teachers or community college teachers are going to be dealing with this but like, alright, well, I mean a lot of schools right June 30 that fiscal year ends. And so you have to have collected and turned in all of your paperwork before that time. Right. And but if you’re in the middle of the conference, I don’t know, it’s gonna be problematic. I think I think it might get my custom Interesting. Well, you know, the conference themselves, they don’t have to worry about it very much. But like the, the, you know, all the admins and the people who deal with paperwork and refunds and all those types of things that’s gonna be interesting. I guess it’ll it’ll be a little bit of a challenge, maybe maybe a little, just a little extra paperwork? I’m not sure.

Tim Van Norman
And that’s always a question. So So, alright.

Brent Warner
And then we got one other one. I mean, there’s lots of other conferences coming up. But we’re just kind of trying to look at the some of the varieties here.

Tim Van Norman
Well, and especially a big one, Instructure Con Instructure Con 2022. Now this is, this was a huge conference, then they went online, and now they’re gonna stay online. But instead of like they did last year, where it was one day, and it was literally like 24 hours as of Greenwich Mean Time or something like that. They’re doing it. North America is doing July 14, okay, Asia, and the Pacific is August 11. Latin America is September 14, and Europe in the Middle East to September 28. So that’s a real so they broke it by region, big, big time, broken by region, but also time, like, I’m

Brent Warner
surprised that it’s like, you know, it’s like, several months across, like, it’s not like, Hey, we’re doing this July to September, right now, it’s not like we’re doing this one, this, you know, this week, and this next one the next week or something like that. It’s like, it’s kind of all spread out. So it’s interesting. So yeah, this one’s free, free, okay, that’s nice. Cuz instructor calm was not always free, if I remember correctly, right?

Tim Van Norman
When it was in person, it was not free. But they have, when they went online, they really did do a lot to try to make it so that they can put out a quality product for for free. And a lot of that goes in the fact that they’re not paying their presenters and stuff like that. So they can get, they can do a lot of this for a lot less money than it cost them before. Now that they’re online,

Brent Warner
that’s probably wise. You know, especially if you’re, if you’re a company that’s selling a product and doing you know, and running a conference, right? Like, you’re really pitching that product the entire time, the whole thing’s a commercial, right? And I’m not not, you know, not dismissing it at that level. Of course, like, you know, there’s tons of valuable things to learn inside of there. But like running it for free is, you know, does make sense, in this case, for sure. Because it’s not just it’s not a full collection of all sorts of different things. It’s all based on, on teaching out of Canvas, right?

Tim Van Norman
Well, and tools that get added that can be added into Canvas and stuff like that. So it, it is a pretty full day. They haven’t really announced what all is happening on those days yet. But you can sign up now for information. And that’s one of the cool things is you can sign up in advance, you can offer to you can propose to speak at the Middle East Africa conference, if that is something you’re interested in, even from the United States, you know, whatever it is that you’re interested in doing, is now becoming available, even though you couldn’t afford to fly to South Africa to be at a conference there. If that’s what you are looking to do.

Brent Warner
It’s great for sure. Like, I’m an international speaker now, and I’ve never left my you know, my basement. Yeah, so I do like that. I think that there’s there’s a lot of flexibility in that as well. So, so let’s kind of talk in and jump over to him and break down what to consider when we’re looking at these different types of conference.

Tim Van Norman
So as we look at this, we’re going to start with the online conference, the online environment, like we’re talking about with Canvas, in that environment. Frankly, I have tried to attend several conferences over the last year and a half. And some of them I haven’t even been in at all. I’ve the conference is up on my computer. And I all I have to do is click in the middle of taking care of an issue for a student and taking care of this for a faculty member and you know, all of this stuff of life. That Oh, well, you know, I’ll just get to that later. And three hours later, I go, Oh, me. Oh, that was the one I wanted to be at. So that said, a couple of strategies that might help.

Brent Warner
I’m gonna pause you right here, Tim, because I just had a pure curiosity. That was the one that I wanted to be at which I hear so much and it’s like, oh, well, the beauty of it is you can go watch the recording and you have Ever gone back and watch the recording? No. Yeah. Same. I might have done it once. But like, well,

Tim Van Norman
I’m saying no, because I can’t remember a time. But I, I have skimmed through a couple. Oh, they’re they’re teaching me about this one thing I need to know. And so I’ll fast forward. But I have not watched it. It’s not

Brent Warner
the same thing as being in the moment with it right, like going back and watching that video. I mean, it’s like, okay, then just put it up on YouTube. And I’ll we’ll, you know, maybe I’ll it’ll show up in a search sometime. Right. So that that is, I mean, I love the concept of it. And I totally understand that there are some people who do go take advantage of it, and there are, but I think, my guess is that the vast majority do not actually take advantage of the replay options. You know, I think it’s, it’s, it’s a great feature. And it’s well meaning and a lot of well meaning teachers say, Okay, I’ll take advantage of it. But like, one of the things to me about conferences is like, supposed to be now I am making the time for this conference, right, like, now I am setting myself up I am, I am removing the other issues, I am pulling away the distractions, I am getting my head into the moment of this. And again, we’ll jump into some of these, but I feel like for me, and for a lot of people, a lot of a lot of my colleagues that have gotten burnt out on online conferences over the last couple of years, this is part of the conversation is like, we are just tired of staring at the screen more, right. And then when we are staring at the screen, you know, the, you know, the second monitor is equally as likely to get our attention and you know, like the flashing lights and the animated GIFs. And whatever else might be happening or, you know, maybe a family member walks in the room behind us and asks for something, right? There’s all sorts of things that do distract us. And again, I want to be careful, because I’m not trying to dismiss like the benefits of these things. But I also think it’s like, well, I have had, I have been more distracted in online conferences, in one hour of online conferences than I am in like in like a three day full full on in person conference where I’m like, hey, my head’s in this. I’m here for this right now. So it’s interesting.

Tim Van Norman
And, and so from that perspective, the last conference I attended, I actually did attend much of the conference, because I did some of the stuff that we’re going to talk about. Okay, great. Um, first of all, I had to focus on the conference. Yeah, I shut down. And you mentioned, oh, you know, that second screen popping up? In my office, I have three screens, plus another laptop plus, you know, a phone plus, you know, all of that going on. In order to attend the conference, I didn’t answer the phone, I turned the volume all the way off so that I couldn’t hear the ring. I scheduled the time. Okay, I’m going to be in this meeting at this time. This is a meeting, period. And I focused on the conference that made it so I could actually attend the conference. Yeah. I love you mentioned this, when we were talking pre show, taking notes on paper, yeah. Okay, there’s something different about just typing up the notes as you’re going through, and writing them down. That, again, it takes you to that next level, it’s a little more tactile, and it’s it really does help focus on the conference.

Brent Warner
I’m going to follow up with that one, Tim, just briefly, there’s, there’s a big movement, which is wonderful of the sketchnoting. People, so like they, they take notes on paper, or the or they do their iPad, but like, but it’s like, it’s about drawing what you’re hearing and like adding like images to it and not just like, not just the traditional Cornell notes, or whatever else it is, which I am not a good sketch note or don’t get, you know, I’m not I’m not saying like that. But but it’s, it’s it’s another thing where you’re trying to put your brain and the tactile motion and the movement into the learning process. And I think even if you’re just like, you know, making circles and flowers and little, you know, doodles with your with your pen, your brain is moving in a different way as you’re listening. And so then you’re I, you know, you are more open to receiving and consuming the knowledge that you’re getting rather than just like, okay, typing, am I going to copy in money and type the exact words that the person said over and over again, and then it’s just kind of in my head and out of my head as quickly, I think I think there’s a real connection there.

Tim Van Norman
Yep. And so, just a little side note on that. I actually got a product called a rocket book. Yeah, about six months ago. And the reason I got it is because I take notes on paper. It’s not really paper. It’s kind of a glossy thing, but in pen I write it down. And then I can get them in my computer by just simply take a picture of it on an app with my phone. Yeah, the running emails it to me rocket book is super. And so it was a way of getting, getting the information available to me for real for search later without typing it in. Because you’re right, if I type it in, it’s just in and out. Yeah, I’m not paying attention. So I’ve

Brent Warner
got a similar one Tim, called wipe book. And it’s it’s very similar to rocket book but like white book is, is you can use either Expo erase pens in it, or you can use like semi permanent Expo race pen. So the Expos you can just wipe off with the paper towel inside of the notebook. Like instead of the actual paper book, or the semi permanent ones you can write and they will stay, but you can just spray it in Washington, wipe them down later. And so I also really like a white book as an option for physically writing as well. So just a couple a couple choices out there for you guys.

Tim Van Norman
And going back to that allows you to take notes. And frankly, if you never use it again, you’ve at least processed what you heard, and you’re moving through. So it’s really a neat way to handle that. The next part is being a place without distractions. Okay, if your canvas is up, and you are seeing students posting to discussions, or Oh, you’re you need to grade this or phones ringing, you’re checking emails, it’s distracting. And it’s, you’re going to not be paying attention you’re, you’re going to figure well, half of my brain is well, not really, because you’re going to focus on something other than that conference, and you’re going to miss something that was important to you. And going back to what we said before, unlikely you’re going to go back and rewind, and, and rewatch that part of what you had seen. Yeah, so

Brent Warner
can I add a little distraction commentary here. So I love the idea, and I’ve done this a few times, but I still get distracted, like, so I try and take my laptop outside, like on the patio. And like, Okay, I’m just gonna kind of get in like a little peaceful zen mode out here and just kind of watch from outdoors. And it’s there parts of it that are like really nice, like, oh my god, like paying it, like watching a conference from outside and whatever. But also, nature is equally distracted, or the cars driving by or, you know, different things like that. So there are, you know, people, everyone has to figure out what works for them and what doesn’t, but, but I, I have mixed feelings about that. Cuz I’m like, I do like that idea of just being able to float and kind of go where I want to go. But not all of us have those choices for you know, like, you know, I don’t have a Zen Garden, I have a little tiny patio, on my on my back, you know, on our apartment. So it’s just kind of, you know, something else to be aware of, and see what does work for you and what doesn’t work for you in terms of distractions.

Tim Van Norman
Absolutely. Another part here is scheduled time to attend the sessions you’re interested in. All of these conferences have the ability to schedule Oh, they tell you when the meeting is going to be they’ll give you a link, you can add it into your outlook, whatever. And maybe you don’t want to actually add it Outlook, you want to have it someplace else, so that you’re not checking your email. But schedule that time, if you are going to be distracted, and you have to check your email, schedule the time to do it, and then leave it alone and physically turn it off. So it’s not popping up on your screen and stuff like that. Basically, let the people around, you know you’re at a conference. Because when you don’t do that, is when somebody is going to knock on your door, somebody is going to stand beside you, somebody is going to whatever it is to get your attention. And now you’ve just gone back and you’re not focusing on the conference anymore. So the next part is, if the conference allows, and most seem to do this, find a way to interact with other attendees. Yeah.

Brent Warner
This matters, this, this really does matter. So I’m going to follow up with this one to him like, as you know, I like Twitter, as you know, as my primary social media forum. And Twitter does great with the conferences because everybody kind of puts on their hashtags. They share the you know, they’re kind of linked all those ideas together. So it’s really wonderful. But also some of them like you just pop in and there’s like a chat box, right? If we’re in a Zoom meeting, for example, and you got the chat going, take advantage of that chat, right, like, share with each other, you know, talk to the other people that are involved in there. I think you know, it is really valuable to not only hear from the one person who’s talking Talking but also like, you know, a lot of people throw in really good ideas or like some sometimes you get like that, that all star attendee who’s like, Oh, here’s the links to all this the resources this person’s talking about, you know, here’s the Right Question Institute link. And here’s the, you know, this program that he’s talking about, here’s the video that he you know, that they mentioned in the background or whatever. So, sometimes you can get some really cool interactions with other people and resources that you wouldn’t get if you’re just kind of sitting there watching without, without adding that interactive element to it.

Tim Van Norman
Along those lines, if you’re posting in the chat, it’s really nice if you can somehow reference what you’re posting to. And by that, I mean, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen in the chat. Yes, I agree. And you’re like, Okay, but what did you agree with, because there’s been 10, other things that have come up, so And maybe it’s all of them, but that type of thing, if you can, if you can contextualize it, you’ll actually engage other people more. So there’s that. But there’s also a lot of these online conferences are using conference platforms that allow you to not inside when you’re not in a breakout room or, or something like that, to actually communicate with other people. So find out when your friends are going to be there. People that you’ve known from other conferences, maybe you haven’t seen them in two years, because nobody’s seen anybody and arrange a time to get together. But make it that social event that you were looking for a forum from a conference anyway, is very few people go to conferences, sit by themselves, in an in person conference, sit by themselves, don’t interact with anybody, and they get a lot out of it. No, you part of what you get out of it is relationships, and you get to know somebody else, and stuff like that. So try to build that into that online environment. We mentioned this a little bit before, try using one screen, preferably a large screen. Yeah. Okay. If you’ve got a little 13 inch, 10 inch screen, maybe an iPad, something like that, try casting it to your TV. Yeah, we

Brent Warner
talked about this before. So

Tim Van Norman
just before the show, I tried it out. And you can cast to roku. I’ve got a Chromecast as well. And I was able to cast and they could actually hear exactly what was going on in zoom. Now I had to run zoom inside my browser to do the Chromecast part. But you can do a lot of these casting things very easily. And frankly, if you’re watching it on a big screen, it’s a lot easier than trying to focus on this little tiny screen. And, you know, when you’re trying to actually focus on something, yeah, unless it gives you a nice place to write knew you can come be comfortable and stuff at the same

Brent Warner
time. So this kind of ties back also to the like, the going outside thing is like, for me, like when I sit down in my little bedroom office here, it’s like, this is like my work zone. Right. And it’s like all the above, I always, you know, like I have a whatever it is it’s like an emotional setting and a connection to that. And so I’m working right and so if I can move out to my sofa and cast it and watch full screen, like watch the watch the presentation full screen on my TV, that is a different setting, right? It’s it’s moving myself to a different place, it’s getting my brain into a different emotional setting. So yes, there might still be other distractions and you know, whatever those types of things are, but I am moving myself out of my workplace at least and and working from somewhere else. So I do like that idea a lot. And I’m gonna, I’m gonna test out my own casting in the next couple of days as well. Alright, so Tim, we talked about online, let’s talk it let’s do the full shift. Let’s talk about in person because you know, this is this is the concern that a lot of people currently have totally legitimate concerns. But moving to in person conference here. What are some of the things that you’re thinking you’re going to see like if you’re going to go to an in person conference or not see?

Tim Van Norman
Well, and we’ll start with not say our Well, we’ll see that not everyone you expected to attend to be there. So some of the people that were at every conference, you you might not know their name, but you saw their face every time. They’re going to be staying at home because of various reasons. And they, they might not want to even attend a conference anymore, or I’ve heard from a number of people. I’m never going to go to a in person conference again. While I hope that’s not True, you know, I can understand that sentiment. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But just be aware that they might not be there. And

Brent Warner
that actually makes a difference too, because like, I remember when some of my friends like going to cue going back to cue, like, some of my friends, I made some really great friends. I’m like, I see them every year. And then they’re like, Oh, the funding, you know, my school isn’t gonna fund it anymore. So I can’t afford to go. And I’m like, Oh, this is actually not the same experience without you. Right? You make adjustments and you find other people, but it can be like, really a lot to like, once you start kind of finding your group of people and you’re like, every year I get to see them are gonna hang. That’s gone, or that could be gone. Yeah. So it’s really, it’s a shift.

Tim Van Norman
Right? You also now, I feel like you need to be more aware of others. Other people who are attending. Do you shake hands? You know, I’m somebody who shakes hands all the time. Well, at this time, that might not be the nice, the best thing to do. Some people will okay, yes, I’ll shake your hand because you stuck your hand out there. And they’re grabbing a bottle of say, hand sanitizer. The moment you walk away. Some people. Exactly. Some people are huggers, you walk up to them, and they’re going to give you a hug. Okay, I don’t know that I want my face that close to somebody right now. And, and frankly, eating, I was in a room today. And somebody is like, can you imagine what this what this room is like, now that we’ve got COVID and these tables are three feet across, and you got four or five people at this table? Oh, how are we going to do that? You

Brent Warner
know, you’re like, Whoa, this is a little bit gross. But like I am so much more aware now of like, when a little piece of spittle comes out of my mouth. Like, you know, like, it’s, it’s a little it’s gross, but like, but like, even I’m just eating with my wife. Right? And like I see it now every time I’m like, of course, you know, spittle happens, right? It’s a part of the fact that we have mouths, but but like I see it, I’m like, oh, like, my disease is out. Right. And so I think it’s gonna be a really interesting part. I do think though, the handshakes. I think that there’s like a more wider growing acceptance for things like fist bumps or elbow bumps, right, I think the elbow bumps is really like the kind of the thing that people are most comfortable with right now. Even if that’s not something we grew up with, I think that’s kind of the way at least for a while that people are going to kind of, you know, like, Are you cool, like, you know, you’re trying to be respectful of what other people’s boundaries are. And I think that’s kind of the one that is like, we’re still touching, but we’re also trying to be a little safe and distance from each other.

Tim Van Norman
Well, and, and understand, when somebody just doesn’t want to touch. Yeah, you know, and they’re not trying to be disrespectful, they’re not trying to be whatever, they just don’t feel like touching. And that’s, you got to understand that distance, whatever that is for the other person, and go with the longest one between, you know, if you don’t want to touch people, they should be able to respect that even if they’re huggers. So, you know, and so along those lines, be aware of other attendees concerns like masks, some people are against masks, some people are going to be double masked, some people feel are are looking around for the rubber gloves to put on and long sleeves and you know, they’re going to be completely covered up. Okay, people are going there, everybody’s breaking out of their shells in a different way. So be aware that there’s other things going on and and just be I hate to say be human But be respectful be be that person that that people go okay, you know, they might not agree with me, but they are they’re respecting me and they’re allowing me to be comfortable in this environment going

Brent Warner
to show up in hazmat suit. That’s probably well,

Tim Van Norman
I’m guessing many of them would would not come but you know, there is something to be said for showing up at a conference and you know, I’m there it is, especially when you get somebody who’s coughing and sneezing next to you, you kind of wish you had one so

Brent Warner
Okay, a couple more things for in person, what else? What else should we be watching out for thinking about?

Tim Van Norman
Leave the distractions at home. So while you might have a laptop that you’re going to take notes on, or attack or pad of paper or something like that, you’re going to take notes on maybe you don’t want to have the full headset, the Do you would use in zoom? And, you know, all of that stuff? Just leave some of that other distraction at home? Right?

Brent Warner
What can what you know, you can minimize it right? Focus focus on being there. I think, I think this is an issue that a lot of us talk about with, like, just social media in general is like, we’re so distracted by everything. So what can you what can you reduce? What do you not need to have with you all the time? Mm hmm. And then a couple quick last things here, I think, you know, just, as you mentioned, being aware of what’s happening around you, but like, you know, one thing that’s to be aware of is whether or not that session is being streamed or being recorded. And so, you know, if your, these conferences are not going to be set up, like our lecture capture, right? Probably not 10. So, if you’re asking a question to the speaker, and the people who are watching online, they’re almost definitely not going to hear what your question is. Right. And so I think that one, you could speak up louder, or two, if you’re a presenter, repeat the question so that people listening can hear what’s going on.

Tim Van Norman
And the other part is engage with the speaker. Yeah. Don’t have it just be, you know, Speaker pontificating on something. Okay. Any questions? Okay, by, you know, just engage, make it lively, because nobody online especially wants to hear something that’s just speech and no interaction. But also, this is a time where we’re engaging, we’re talking about engagement with students engagement with their faculty, engage that speaker, have a dialogue, where appropriate, and, and make it a much more lively, we’ve had a year and a half to two years where we haven’t been doing this, let’s break out of the shells a little bit. And, and have that engagement.

Brent Warner
I’m going to be a little careful with this one, though, Tim, because there are some people that don’t have the awareness and when, and some people will see this, you know, used to see this all the time back in the day in conferences was like, one person just keeps, like, hounding on weird questions, or weird ideas that don’t totally matter, or, like, totally pull the speaker out of what they’re what they’re trying to get. It’s like, hey, like, let let the guy keep going? Or, or let her keep speaking a little bit more. Right. So So yes, I think people do want to talk to you, they do want to interact, but also, you know, appropriate balance

Tim Van Norman
is fine. You know, I’m talking more about laughing at their dad jokes and stuff like that, you know, engage.

Brent Warner
Alright, so the last one, and we kind of blended a little bit of this conversation in the last section, but the high flex so, you know, I think Tim, you know, that I am pretty opposed to high flex in, in, in classrooms, but I think that there’s actually a lot of interesting places for high flex in, in the conference settings, like, I really think there’s room for this, I really think that there’s a good setting for this. Because this so high flex again, I’m sorry, if I haven’t been clear with this. This is where the person, you know, the presenters in person, a lot of people might be in the room together with them. But it’s also streaming online, and people can interact with the online version of it as well. Right. So it’s like you’re watching the live event and you chatting online, can chat with the other people who are online, but then there’s also people physically in the room, right. And so. So as I said, I think that some of this, you know, might have some of the same shortcomings. And we’ll get into this in a minute, but I think, but I think that there are also some real benefits to this, because not, you know, everybody can still get access to the information, right? And this is the big argument for a lot of people that are saying, like, online is great. It’s like, hey, yes, absolutely. Learners, whether you’re a conference attendee or whether you’re a student, you can get now get access to it without like, you know, without too much extra beyond what you’re, you’re, you have what you need. So like, Hey, I have an internet connection, I have a computer, I can see what this person is saying, I don’t have to go out of my comfort zone, or I have to take care of my grandma and I can’t get I can’t risk a situation like that. I think all of those things are really wonderful choices. But I want to share and Tim I don’t know if you have any thoughts on this the problem for me here, potential problem is same potential problem for teaching, which is that it’s a great setup for a lecture type of situation. Hey, I’m just going to present you with the information do with it what you will a little bit of light interaction is okay, right? But it’s not necessarily the best for like a workshop or, or you know, trying to really do like, Hey, okay, we’re gonna we’re going to Get you guys into little groups you’re gonna do, you know, elbow partners, and you’re gonna, you know, move around the room and chat with other people and go freely and figure out this thing over there. And, you know, let’s, let’s get some TPR, the total physical response, movement, action, all those types of things, those will not happen in the online part of a high flex setting. And so, before COVID, there was a big movement in professional development to like, let’s make things more fun, let’s make things more active, let’s make them more interactive, all of those types of things. And, and then I think back with COVID, we kind of moved more back towards like, a lot of the sit and get and a lot of the lecturing, which is, you know, not as exciting.

Tim Van Norman
And so maybe the presenter gets to use tools like Kahoot, or something like that to try to engage, but that it does require the presenter to be more cognizant of what’s going on, and how to engage those people that are on in both environments. And that’s which is the struggle that it is for teaching in a classroom, it’s the struggle that it is for giving an online workshop, it can even be the same struggle in person is you always have to be thinking about the environment and the people that are attending. One of the things that I found very helpful as a presenter, almost all of my presentations are this high flex I, but what I will often do is have somebody else in the room that’s managing the chat. Yes, that’s, that’s interacting with them with whoever’s chatting, and they’re, they’re asking questions, they’re bringing it up, and it helps them keep me on task. So it’s cool. To to and interactive.

Brent Warner
Yeah, that is also like a, I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like a, like a, like a hype man or a hype woman, right? Because they can also like, do things in the chat to like, keep people engaged. If you’re well planned, right? It’s and like, they can actually do things that are like, Okay, let’s keep let’s keep thinking about this, let’s keep doing our work, too. So I do like that option a lot. And again, we’ve kind of mentioned that might be a real effort and like future of, of teaching, or teaching in general is like the teachers assistant or the you know, the producer of the class is going to be doing some interesting stuff as well. So yeah.

Tim Van Norman
And, and that goes back to what you were mentioning before, where in online, sometimes you’ve got what I really a big fan that is putting in notes constantly in the chat and stuff like that. That’s what that person can do. But it takes preparation ahead of time. And done well. HyFlex can be really, really good. And so we are seeing more and more of that. environments, especially when there might be travel to a conference, we’re gonna see some of that where well, okay, so they’ll, the people who can make it do, but this allows for those other people to contribute as well. And, frankly, at IVC, we’re seeing more and more conferences that we present, little, you know, welcome to IVC type of things going more towards a HyFlex type system? Because we can it allows for that quick transition between topics and stuff like that, that it doesn’t you don’t really get necessarily in an in person.

Brent Warner
Yeah. Yeah, I think I think the big thing for success behind it, I have flex situation, which is I mean, it shouldn’t be but it’s kind of Anthony antithetical to, to a lot of education, which is, pour the resources into it, right, pour the money into it, make it actually cool and make it work. And, you know, obviously, as teachers, we know, we’re kind of shoe stringing so much stuff. And even when even when we have access to money, we don’t always have access to that much money, right. So. So yeah, there I think that there’s once people start going, Oh, hold on a second, we will pay someone to do this to be this producer level person, or we will, you know, pay someone the money that it costs to prepare their presentation for this conference, or whatever it is a lot of conferences still aren’t paying their present or their presenters or in fact, they’re even charging their presenters to come to the conferences a whole nother rant that I can get on in the future, but But yeah, I think that there, there is a space for it. But the resources also have to come along with it to make it really, truly successful.

Tim Van Norman
Absolutely. Thank you for listening today. This episode we talked about conference tracks. energies and the time of COVID. For more information about this show, please visit our website at the higher ed tech podcast.com. There you’ll find our podcasts and links the information we’ve covered.

Brent Warner
As always, we do want your feedback. So please go to the higher ed tech podcast calm and let us know your thoughts. If you have ideas for future shows, there’s a link on that page where you can give us your topic ideas.

Tim Van Norman
For everyone at IVC that’s listening. If you need help with technology questions, please contact IVC Technical Support at extension 5696 or by emailing IVC tech@ivc.edu. If you have questions about technology in your classroom, please contact me Tim Van Norman AT tvannorman@ivc.edu.

Brent Warner
And if you want to reach out to me about the show, you can find me on Twitter or Instagram @BrentGWarner.

Tim Van Norman
I’m Tim Van Norman,

Brent Warner
and I’m Brent Warner and we hope this episode has helped you on the road from possibility to actuality. Hope to see you at the conferences