I’m included with five others on a session / workshop for the upcoming OLC Innovate Conference; we are talking about Virtually Connecting — Rebecca Hogue got us together, and I think she and a few others will be on site. Maha Bali will be virtually there as are others of us, including me.
Not being employed by an educational institution makes conference attendance for me a pretty rare thing, the numbers work against us severely. You at an institution might be out some pocket expenses and time; me I am out $1000-$2000 AND I am not making money while not working at a conference (if an employer pays your way take some time to really appreciate that as a benefit, and skip the complaints about bad coffee).
Still I try to attend a few. In 2015 I got to Open Ed 2015 on my own dime and DML 2015 (train trip to LA was cheap, and a I bummed a room share from a colleague). In 2014 I attended and presented at OER14 in New Castle UK, yes I did pay my own conference reg and hotel and travel from south in the UK, but got a bit of an assist from Martin Weller for the plane flight over. To be at a conference and participate; I get something out of it, and will pay for a few conferences a year, when I have the means to make it.
But another trip this April was not in the cards. And Rebecca did tell us in email,
Anyways, we will need to do a headcount of who is and is not attending sometime soon. They will move anyone who is not attending either onsite or virtually to “additional presenter” status on their website.
So we told the conference organizers ahead of time that I and others would not be attending onsite. And how I am listed really does not matter boo to me.
But still, i got at least 3 warning emails from the conference about looming registration deadlines, the last one with an URGENT subject line and:
You previously received notification from us advising that all presenters must register for the OLC Innovate 2016 (April 16-18, New Orleans) by the presenter registration deadline. The deadline for presenter registration was Monday, February 29.
Despite numerous reminders, you have not registered for the conference. Therefore, you are being reassigned from co-presenter status to additional author status, indicating you will not be attending and presenting in New Orleans.
Not to be too bitchy, I do not appreciate the reprimanding tone of “despite numerous reminders” and addressing me like I am a petulant child (though this blog post is feeling petulantly childish).
Now I like a lot about the way Laura Gogia described efforts to make OLC Innovate more of a conference that provides participation for participants who are not registered to be on site and Maha has written about OLC being much more accommodating for virtual presenters.
I thought we had indicated at the time of proposal that I could not attend.
Yet. Almost. This bit of assuming that presenters are going to register to be on site, or that presenters not on site are some kind of lower tier is… well… not quite there.
Top / Featured Image: I sought on the word “almost” in Google Images (limited to images licensed for reuse), finding this one about 2 scrolls down. It is a flickr photo by Christopher.Michel https://flickr.com/photos/cmichel67/20970585769 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
As I was telling u, at least OLC have a good-priced virtual option in the 100-200 range. Another conf wanted me to pay the adjunct price to present virtually even though they have no virtual conference!
Best events are those that ask u not to pay if they don’t have a virtual option (dlrn15, aacu) and even better are ALTC/OER16 who livestream lots of the conf AND ask for no money. See POST below featuring the virtual openness of OER16:
And compare that to this:https://oer16.oerconf.org/oer16-open-culture-conference-open-as-in-open/
Yeah I was hoping to add those examples except my laptop was down to 3% and my charger is broken! It still remains a special case situation, or some kind of optional feature as in Martin Weller’s post today on openness… And unless it’s related to the conference topic not likely to be considered.
Online teachers are still considered pink collar offshore workers, even if we are full time. Which I wasn’t and then I was and now I am not. Let’s not get into pay equity, but part time gets paid less than full time for the same class load…and online teachers are predominantly part time.
What it is it about having your body in THIS chair instead of THAT chair that somehow translates into issues of class and status.
Your experience echoes that prejudice.
I don’t look good in pink.
This seems a good place to ask this question that I have. If one were to have the opportunity to go to one edtechyish conference in North America this year, which one would one recommend?
You should ask someone that goes to more of them than me. I have few useful data points. And it varies with your interests, desired modes of interaction, what places appeal to you…
Thanks I’ll keep asking around. The DML one looks pretty cool though!