NECC the sales event that was !
Posted by Lauren O Grady on July 13, 2009
Well again my blog is the neglected youngest child in my flock. I have to say I really struggle to write a blog about education when I can have conversations and also have a life.
As many people know I am an avid twitter user however not for education primarily. I use twitter to broaden my PLN outside of education. I do tweet about mundane aspects of my life and I love it. Twitter for me is about connections and conversations which broaden my thinking. I hardly follow any educators on twitter and I think that is why I love it. If I want to talk about education I have forums for it but my whole online identity is not about my work and neither it should be. I think one big thing about twitter that people struggle to understand is that you can build your social network to be however you like it. That is what is wonderful about it. I could think of nothing worse (no offence educators) than only following school based thoughts, links and yet another *experts* social rhetoric on how education works.
NECC was fantastic to clarify my thoughts about the world of education. I got to meet so many people whose blogs I read and love. Through these discussions and meetings I began to understand the most edubloggers are in the business of educational sales. I could not believe how many people were organising work schedules, book deals or keynote sessions. My favourite quote from the conference was:
“There is as much sales upstairs in the sessions as there is on the trade show floor”
This made me think about our conferences and what Australians go and speak. I have to say that besides only one person I could think of that for the most part presenters in Australia are presenting whilst working in classrooms and do so asking for nothing in return. These teachers are not looking for the next consultancy junket, book deal or keynote invite. They are working for their kids and are happy to present and share information for the purpose of a better educational system. This made me quite proud.
After NECC I think that in any session I will look at what are the underlying sales messages from the session. This is a very hard thing to do in a non trade session but I think it is a worthwhile activity. As many know I work for a vendor and I am upfront about what I am selling but I have to question how many “big names” both in USA and AUS are into sales not of product but of themselves. I would love people to be upfront and proud of their personal sales messages just as the vendors are forced too !
The amazing part of NECC was getting beyond all of the glitz, trade shows, personal sales and to get to the people. The conversations I had and the connections made were truly wonderful. I hope that on my behalf I managed to show a few people that you can still be intelligent with an interest in education whilst having fun and not taking yourself or your job too seriously. I hope that a few people understood my philosophy of “I work to live, not live to work” and that by having interests outside of education can be a truly wonderful thing.
So my learning’s from NECC in a nutshell were:
- Online discussions are wonderful but are still no substitute for live face to face conversations
- Everyone needs to be aware and upfront about what “products” they are selling. Selling yourself is a product never forget that !
- Educators could learn a lot from people outside of education but life is quite safe in the echo chamber.
- I learnt more talking to homeless people in Central Park than I did at any presentation and I love that that is ‘OK’
- Conversations allow people to see the “real you” and online personas struggle to do this.
- I knew this already thanks to Sue Waters but “You can only be one person online” I choose to be me mundane at all and I will never apologise for it.
- Aussies are doing extremely well in regards to education and we should be very proud !
I would love to hear others views on this !
July 13th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Very true Lauren, Aussies are doing a great job with tech integration in the classroom to assist student learning! I guess the key to such success in Australia is that student ‘learning’ is the priority, rather than assessment of learning, as is the case in many States in the US and boroughs in the UK. Lets hope Australia does not head this way in the future.
It often seems that the NECC conference is about selling the tools for assessment and tools for comparing and ranking schools and students. For many at NECC it seems the conference is more about the making of the ‘Benjamins’ rather than the making of the “Ben” and “Jens”
Cheers
Darren
August 11th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Lauren, I agree with you that it is important to talk face to face with people and have interests outside of education. I would like to tell you about an online teacher community I came across, Applebatch. The resources they offer are amazing and very helpful. I was able to discuss my educational views in their forum with other teachers and received some great advice. Nevertheless, nothing is better than face to face conversations, especially meaningful talks.
August 11th, 2009 at 11:25 am
“…more about the making of the “Benjamins” rather than the making of the “Ben” and “Jens” – love that.. very true!
Lauren – I agree with your thoughts on your “online identity.” It would be quite dull to have everything you do on the vast thing we call Internet to be work-related. I love tweeting about the mundane aspects and small victories of my everyday life
However, like you I really do enjoy participating in online forums and discussions with other educators. I have recently joined a site called Applebatch.com and have thoroughly enjoyed it thus far. I can have discussions and meet other educators plus upload and share resources when it comes time to write those dreaded lesson plans!
Thanks for your post – really enjoyed it!