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ThoughtFest08 – an unconferencing event

October 16th, 2008 by Graham Attwell

12 and 13 December 2008

A totally unConference event !!!! in Manchester / University of Salford.

ThoughtFest 08 (Twemes: #TFest08) is a two-day event being organized by Pontydysgu with the support of the JISC Evolve network and the European Mature-IP project. The event will bring together researchers in Technology Enhanced Learning in an open forum to debate the current issues surrounding educational technologies and discuss how and where research impacts on practice and where practice drives research.

Full details on the Thought Fest  and how you can get involved can be accessed here: http://tinyurl.com/4q7hcf

Deadline for  submissions is 26th October 2008

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One Response to “ThoughtFest08 – an unconferencing event”

  1. Jen hughes says:

    Well inspired by Dirk’s twitter, I thought I might actually come to this event.

    I clicked on the url, found the website but had no idea how to navigate it and no idea how I could make a contribution. I clicked randomly on words I didn’t understand but it kept asking me to log in. I tried that because I thought I had to create an account to say anything. When I tried to do that I just kept getting a message saying I didn’t have an account so could not contribute anyway.

    One of the things I wanted to comment on was that it is described as an event designed by researchers for researchers yet the focus is on practice. I can’t get my head around this. Is it going to be another event where researchers talk to researchers about what teachers and trainers should be doing? Or is it for practitioners as well? Anyway, I thought I might do something on that – like what the issues are.

    The reason I have never been interested in attending e-learning events is because they all seemed out of reach of ‘the rest of us’. Since working for Pontydysgu, I decided I ought to take the plunge.

    So, the first thing I tried to join was some on-line conference thing a few weeks ago but the technology broke in the first few minutes so depressed and with confidence shaken, I gave up.

    Thoughtfest was only the second thing I tried to get involved in and I’m now even more depressed. Maybe I am just dull – tho’ I don’t suppose any more so than other ordinary teachers and trainers I know who might be interested in discussing e-learning – but so far this event is totally inaccessible to me.

    It might be OK for the ‘community of practice’ that is already involved but as sure as hell it is not welcoming for those who are just dipping their toe in the water. Both the web site and the ideas are impenetrable to a newcomer.

    Have a nice conference!

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