John Smith

I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into here, but it looks like good company! And an important question!

This is John Smith -- from Learning Alliances in Portland, Oregon (USA) and from CPsquare -- more or less around the world.

Looking forward to see where this conversation goes!

Liz,

Warning, thisi goes beyond the "one diagram" idea! :-) Your favorite texts are current as far as I'm concerned. I hear people referring to this one fairly often:

http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/gongla.html

The presentation that I gave at the E-Learn conference talks about an approach to launching where people need to get acquainted and become more adept with technology:

Weaving Together Online and Face-to-face Learning: A Design from a Communities of Practice Perspective

Another perspective is here: http://technologyforcommunities.com/
(especially see the CEFRIO chapter, which again focuses on getting the technologies to work for a community: http://technologyforcommunities.com/CEFRIO_Book_Chapter_v_5.2.pdf

And will you let us all know how your presentation went?

The converse of our question might be: to what extent do we see evidence that conference organizers build on and incorporate technology and connectivity into the design of the event? To my eye, this photo suggests that participants are entangled in a web of connectivity that includes all kinds of media, including day-dreaming.

This is an example of the norm, where people grab any dark spot near a plug as long as it has minimal wi-fi signal.

Labels such as geographical origin, favorite software, or favorite pet can get conversations going. The practice of labeling people doesn't have to be completely "official." Once people are encouraged to take self-labeling on, they will extend the practice into new areas.