At the end of day one, I’ve seen some of the conference, Learning Technologies/Learning Skills exhibitions and the fringe event Curation Camp. Before bedtime, some initial thoughts…

Organisational responsibility

The conference key note speech was from technology legend Nicholas Negroponte, who is responsible for One Laptop Per Child. Parts of his key note didn’t resonate with me at the moment and it will be interesting to revisit later with more thought.

Nicholas_Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte, the keynote speaker at Learning Technologies 2013

The key point for me to apply was about the organisation having some responsibility for inspiring and nurturing our employees to be excited about education. Kate Graham summed it up with this tweet: “Negroponte’s words about kids learning ‘energy’, ‘passion’ – how often do those words describe corporate learners?!”

Negroponte also commented, to much agreeing laughter, “I heard things your education minister is saying that are so outrageous I almost didn’t want to come!”

Learning eXchanges

Facilitating two Learning eXchange sessions back to back for Training Journal was absorbing and I was grateful for a drink afterwards, to catch up with people and meet others.

A key point from Steve Wheeler’s face to face interaction on the eXchange was to eloquently state that “true flipping of the classroom is that I’m not going to teach, but you are going to learn: I create the environment for you to take risks”.

Likewise, Julie Wedgwood highlighted to during her eXchange that “business leaders think they understand how training works. This is a conspiracy of experience. They have experienced training, which is out of date. More senior people; more out of date with technology” and gave some excellent key tips on moderating online communities.

The evening Curation Camp fringe event for me highlighted two things: one comment from Sam Burrough “just a link is sharing, context or meaning is adding value” and one from Ben Betts “curation is taking new ideas and applying them to myself”. It’s all about meaning-making in context.

My evening finished in a pub and a restaurant, with fine food and finer company!