Week 13 - The Pre-TCC Blog
Being a “veteran” participant of TCC I have my expectations of TCC 2016 set and they are pretty high!
Admittedly, I’m writing this blog well after the fact. The Conference has come and gone. But this is not my first TCC, and assuredly not my last. I remember well what I was anticipating when I saw the TCC listing on the class schedule/syllabus.
TCC offers a wide variety of presentations within the three day schedule - more than can possibly be viewed “live”. And because I don’t live in the Hawaii time zone, some of the offerings will be quite late in the night for me. But, TCC offers all presentations in a recorded format. This is a welcome opportunity to be sure to catch presentations of interest at a later time.
This year we are asked to participate in the social media aspect of TCC. Not having done this in the past (especially with Twitter - which quite frankly I just don’t “get”) I don’t recall the usage of Social Media at TCC before. My expectations for this facet of TCC are quite low. It seems that FB-ing or tweeting during the conference will be almost distracting and I am not sure the point. Open mind Kimo - open mind!
I anticipate the usual long-distance online technical difficulties with broadcasting so many presentations from such diverse locales. The chipmunk voices and dropped transmissions that plague these type of e-gatherings are to be expected, but can still be a little off-putting.
E-conferences don’t have the feeling of community, albeit short-lived, that real world conferences do. There is something about smiley faces and applaud icons that just doesn’t muster the same effect as being in a room full of attentive (or not so attentive) participants lending support to their cohorts through raucous rounds of applause. But, this is not isolated to TCC, it is present throughout this e-format.
But, my overall expectations remain high. I have learned much in the past and expect that I will also this year by participating in TCC 2016.