This is part 2 of my summary posts in preparation for the face-to-face BlogTracks presentation. In part 1, I summarized what I have blogged about in this space in the last couple of months. In this second part, I will discuss what I think might be some keys to enabling a successful BlogTracks presentation in the future.<\/p>\n
A BlogTracks that focuses just on the blogger\u2019s own research, and simply tries to communicate that blogger\u2019s findings to a listening (or not) audience is basically a presentation that is not at all different from traditional paper presentations. In other words, it is lecture-based (albeit lecture through writing), is focused on a singular point of view, and does not engage the audience in a dialogue about the chosen issues. I think BlogTracks will be a successful conference format if we can make it different, substantially different, from the other kinds of presentations already available (posters, roundtables, paper presentations). Towards that goal, I have a few suggestions from this year\u2019s experience:<\/p>\n
1. Have defined goals that are discussion-based.<\/strong> The second half of this point is that the BlogTracks goals or foci should be discussion-based. I am also participating in the other 2006 BlogTracks presentation, where we are blogging about our personal journey online in developing an online persona. I think this was a good idea and concept, but I think this Blogtrack struggled even more than the present one because we did not understand clearly what we were supposed to actually blog about, and it wasn\u2019t a topic that necessarily encouraged discussion. <\/p>\n I think future successful BlogTracks should consider what issues would engage the most people in a discussion, and propose those as topics.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Define your boundaries.<\/strong> 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Engage nontraditional conference participants. <\/strong><\/p>\n The BlogTracks could be an excellent way to help people stay connected with AECT if they can\u2019t attend the conference. To do this, I would recommend inviting bloggers from other professional organizations to participate on the blogging teams. We could gain a lot of insight into our topic if we had, perhaps, members of our team that was well entrenched at AACE, ASTD, and other organizations. It would have exposed them to our AECT community and exposed us to conceptions of distance education held by these other communities.<\/p>\n We should also try harder to engage AECT members who can\u2019t attend the 4. Tie BlogTracks to divisions<\/strong><\/p>\n The challenge with any online conversation is you need a few folks to help get the dialogue going, before it can take off on its own. I propose that one way to do this for the BlogTracks is to\u00a0 tie the BlogTracks to the divisions. This is how I think it could work. Each division could have one sponsored BlogTracks. They hold a call for proposals, review the proposals, and pick the blogging team they think best represents their interests. The bloggers commit to post a certain number of times, beginning a specified time before the conference. The division commits to have four or five folks–maybe the division leadership–subscribed to the blog who will engage in the dialogue. The division’s communication officer advertises the division’s sponsored BlogTracks heavily. Eventually, when the discussion takes off, the division no longer concerns itself with forcing the dialogue, but engages in the conversation as it wishes. Then, at the conference, the bloggers attend sessions for that division, and report on them for the members not at the convention.<\/p>\n I think this would be a wonderful thing for both BlogTracks presenters and divisions to meet both of their purposes of advertising and engaging AECT members!\n<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n As always, I am interested in your thoughts. Here’s a few questions I still have:<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n technorati tags:AECT2006<\/a>, AECT<\/a>, BlogTracks2006<\/a>, BlogTracks<\/a>, distance<\/a>, learning<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nIf a blogger is just blogging about what they would normally blog about, what distinguishes it as a special AECT presentation? I think a successful BlogTracks should have a defined goal and purpose to frame the discussion on that blog. We have tried to do that with our BlogTracks, and each of us has a related, but different, focus for our blogs. Our general theme is distance education literature review, but each of us is looking at a specific portion of the literature. I think this was very helpful for us, and would make it easier for other folks to understand what we are doing and how they could participate.<\/p>\n
\nOur BlogTracks struggled in this area. In AECT\u2019s original call for proposals, it appeared that the blogging would happen the week of the conference. We decided to start before the conference, but I don\u2019t think we really agreed together on when the presentation would officially \u201cstart\u201d and how much blogging we would do as part of each person\u2019s \u201crole.\u201d I think AECT could help in this area by setting some time tables (maybe, the BlogTracks presentations will begin two weeks before the conference and continue throughout the week of the conference). This would help bloggers know the level of commitment expected. AECT could then help advertise the BlogTracks by giving a big kick of publicity when the BlogTracks officially start. As it happened this year, each of our bloggers on our team started blogging in earnest at different times. In the other BlogTracks it was the same, and we spent a long time wondering if we were supposed to get started yet, or not. These expectations once established by AECT, could be refined within each blogging team.<\/p>\n
\nconference. Perhaps by advertising heavily though the AECT website and
\nall the division listservs, and by blogging in a way that promotes
\ndiscussion and engagement in the dialogue, perhaps these folks would
\nparticipate in the discussion. I also think the BlogTracks could be a
\nform of connecting to the conference, and as such should be one of the
\nlast presentations of the week, and the focus should be on blogging
\nabout your topic throughout the week, connecting your thoughts to those
\npresentations you attend. In this way, people not attending the
\nconference can get second-hand reports of some of the presentations and
\nbe able to respond and participate. In this situation, the BlogTracks
\nface-to-face presentation would also be a summary of sorts of emerging
\nthemes throughout the week, an abstracted discussion of major
\nconference points. This could be a potentially very interesting
\nface-to-face session, and this would add to the prestige of the
\nBlogTracks format for the following year.<\/p>\n\n