by driftword

Professional organizations and annual conferences have long been the bastion of intellectual advance for decades. Those of us who participate in these affairs know their importance to us, our colleagues, our discipline—and ultimately our students. We come away from our annual conferences energized with new ideas and new ways of thinking. What is just as important is that we get the opportunity to conduct face-to-face networking where we can make new professional connections while strengthening established ones. Face-to-face communication IS truly networking in the major leagues—something the virtual world of the internet cannot replace.
 
What if Profpost were to become an off-line/on-line forum—of the archetype variety? What if real educators gathering for a real forum where like-minded people would plan to set aside some significant time to meet and discuss topics and issues face to face in the same room at the same time? Add just a little bit of structure by positing a thorny issue to discuss. Who knows, we might create the same atmosphere of our beloved professional conferences right here at UC —twelve months a year.
 
Imagine the cross pollination of a think-tank environment in our academic setting where wild ideas meet best practices or old ideas are thought of as new again. Think of that: cross-campus colleagues gathering in a spirit of forward thinking—just because we can. Imagine the impact of these meetings if we were able to document these potentially super-charged discussions for the academic world to experience. I am NOT suggesting that this would replace being there. Think of the possible postings on the internet as “intellectual advertising” —our contribution to the greater good. Catch my drift.
 

driftword is a pen name. This contributor chooses to remain anonymous.

Tags: academic conferences, best practices, cross pollination, face-to-face networking, professional connections, think tank, wild ideas

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 am and is filed under 21st Century Teaching & Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.