Conferences, Professional Development Changing Dramatically for 2021-22
As we are exiting this unprecedented time of lockdown, many people are beginning to think about what professional development is going to look like next year. People who know me know that I'm a little bit of a conference junkie and I've run a few events in my time, including one of the largest edtech events in the US. I would like to take a moment here to share what I think is coming in the coming year. These may be changes that will become permanent.
People are social animals, and we will still have many events where people get together to experience the buzz and excitement of seeing their friends and great presentations face to face. But in a similar way that schools will change, with a new, permanent element of hybrid capacity and a comfortable sense of what's possible with online learning, I expect to see more events that have hybrid elements or a continuation of events that are 100% online at a much higher level of participation than before the pandemic. The ability for teachers to simply log in or watch a video to get three or four of the best sessions of a conference after school, instead of getting on a plane or driving for five hours makes a lot of sense going forward. I don't think any type of professional development is going to end as much as I think we are looking at a broader spectrum of options, and let's be honest - traveling for professional development is very expensive - which means less accessibility for many educators.
I've done a lot of professional development over the years. I average about a hundred days delivered per year in a normal situation. Let me tell you from experience, six hours of face-to-face professional development is a hard lift for everybody. It's a long day and most of us are overloaded by about 1:30, but we keep smiling and hanging in there. The biggest epiphany I've had about professional development due to the pandemic is that six one-hour sessions spread out over two weeks or four weeks (or more) is far more effective and impactful than a day of PD all packed into six hours. I think the biggest change in educational development is going to be that districts are far more open to teachers getting a series of one- or two-hour sessions for professional development instead of trying to do training for a whole day. One of the biggest side bonuses for this model is that schools don't have to pay presenters to travel, giving even more PD capacity in a fiscal sense, and districts don't need subs or as many subs. And nearly all school districts have limited access to substitutes right now.
The Vendor Hall
The vendor hall is a very important piece of nearly all the conferences that I attend, fiscally, culturally and, as part of the total experience of going to a conference. Important relationships are developed there, teachers see new products that they bring back to their classroom and in some cases, teachers shift their career path because of the products that they see in the vendor hall.
But I think that the line-up-at-tables-and-grab-a-fun-sized-candy-bar-or-pencil model has really got to be rethought at this point for a virtual setting. My experience is that virtual vendor halls are not going to attract enough traffic to keep vendors funding their appearances at conferences. This funding shift could cause higher prices for teachers attending events. I think the future of vendor sessions should include expert classroom users of the various brands who seek to share, so that attendees can see the tools in the context of classroom success. And really, maybe this is a good model for all face-to-face events as well. What could be better for vendors than excited teachers/users actually sharing how their product has impacted learning positively in their classrooms?
The Wrap
So the pandemic has disrupted professional development and training in many ways - and ways that are similar to the changes we've had in classrooms: we've had to change quickly, grow quickly, and learn quickly because of the pandemic. My hope is that we can fold all these new skills into a ‘learning mosaic’ of sorts, keeping the best of things and adding new skills while letting some old practices go.
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