I love to read murder mysteries as I'm going to sleep at night. I'm currently reading one by JoAnne Dobson, and the main character is an English professor (Liz???!!!). So, last night, I hit the sentence "An academic conference is a lot like a carnival." Never thought about it, but how true. Ringmaster, sideshows, etc. However, hopefully more education than entertainment, more interaction among audience members and between audience members and the main show.
As to manner of dress and uniforms, however, we have a good one. There is a fellow here who both days has worn a straw hat, carried a backpack, and has a sweater wrapped around his waist. He looks like he's hiking through the conference or something.
Meanwhile, I'm thinking that there are aspects of my life, or life at NMU, that are more like a circus.
I went to 2 sessions this morning having to do with research. One of was the U of MN where they did research about percentages of students who have had various types of e-learning interactions, compared to faculty experiences. One interesting note was that students had similar reactions to other students using technology inappropriate during classes to the reactions that faculty have---it's distracting, it's rude, etc.
The other session was on conducting interviews through technology. This was for research, but I got some good ideas for my web-based HR class where I have students interview practitioners about various aspects of HR---what are the main difficulties they've experienced in hiring people, how do they recruit, what are the issues in their organizatons about pay, etc. I may try to interview some managers myself and imbed those in the course, and I probably should have my students obtaining "releases" from the people they're interviewing. They are telling the interviewess (I hope they are) that this info will be shared on the class discussion board, but that probably isn't enough.
I'm leaving this evening; if I learn something really interesting, I'll post it later!
Carol
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2 comments:
Sounds like you picked up a few interesting ideas at the "carnival." I'll be interested to hear more about your idea for students conducting interviews with practioners via technology (Skykpe? Web conferencing?) Hope you had a good flight back.
I'm glad you saw a few things you may ba able to use in your HR course. When you get to that point, I believe we have a sample release form you can use.
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