Help to make this your conference! You can participate in many ways:
• Submit a draft paper or extended abstract for a refereed paper on which you would like colleague feedback and further discussion.
• Propose a tutorial, a step by step guide demonstrating how to use a technology tool or course material.
• Prepare a poster session in which you showcase a special use of technology in teaching or learning, showcase an effective assignment that engaged your students, or other learning activities and instructional strategies that have worked well for your classes.
• Suggest a speaker or topic. The topic need not be new or unique but should be connected to promoting/supporting student success in a technology-enhanced learning environment and be timely, relevant and, perhaps, entertaining.
• Submit a proposal for a workshop. Workshops are hands-on, participatory, interactive sessions where small groups have discussions ranging from highly detailed “how to” sessions to discussions of practical applications of current technologies and even futuristic discussions.
• Organize a Birds of a Feather session –BOF or Roundtable-. These may be discipline specific sessions to discuss the use of technology to improve teaching and learning in the discipline. This is an opportunity for colleagues to discuss the benefits and challenges of using technology to teach the discipline and to improve student success. Also, this is an invitation to those who are responsible for the administration of academic courses and programs to discuss the challenges in areas such as faculty evaluation, class size/workload/efficiency, recruiting, supporting, and supervising adjunct faculty.
• Organize or join a “Talking Circle” – The Talking Circle, a community-building communication strategy that has its roots in Native American culture, is an opportunity for a very small group of participants (3 -5) to engage in focused “listening” and sharing on topics of particular interest to individuals in the group. Anticipated outcomes for this experience are better understanding of the interests and points-of-view of colleagues, possible consensus on actions, or at least clarification of concerns and questions that need to be explored by the larger community and/or administrative leadership.
• Serve as conference recorder for a session. The recorder will post a short summary of the discussion at the end of the session.
• Lead a Sandbox Session. The sandbox is where you get to play with the technology, possibly exploring the use of new “free stuff” .
• Serve as a conference blogger during the first or second week of the conference. This blog will be a place where conference participants can have ongoing exchange about conference activities.
• Set up and moderate a topic or discipline specific blog.
• Join the conference Tweeters.
• Suggest vendors. Let us know contact information for your book publishers’ reps and others who might be interested in promoting their products and services to conference attendees.
• Email any ideas for the virtual conference to mmacbeth@reynolds.edu, or jmbarnes@reynolds.edu.
This conference continues to be successful only because of your active participation. To submit a proposal or to volunteer for other conference activities, submit the Call for Proposals form by February 23, 2010.
