So I presented on two topics at this Illinois Writing Project conference – Engaging Students with Digital Writing, and Social Media.  The first was moderately attended – it was a regional conference with a little more than 200 people registered, and I think there were about 10 or 12 breakout sessions happening during each of the two time slots.  I had about 10 people at the first session, which was a reasonable turnout, but only four people at my Social Media presentation.  That was disappointing, but I tried to be professional about it and still do a decent job.

I’m not sure that I did the best that I could, though I think it was useful for my audience.  I wanted to take a minute and reflect on how I can do this better next time.

First, with an explicit conference focus on meeting the Common Core standards, I should have made a more direct link to those standards.  (I know, I don’t love them either, but the reality is that some people are scrambling to learn more about these things before next year.)  I quoted, discussed, and referenced the standards pretty explicitly in the first session, but I barely mentioned them in the second.  My focus was a little broad.  Perhaps with a more explicit connection to the core, I might have had more attendees.

Second, I was boring.  I talked too much.  I had videos to show – good stuff – and I wasn’t able to show them.  I sat and typed on my laptop too much, trying to share too many resources at once and taking minutes sometimes to pull things up.  There was a lot of dead air, and a lot of waiting to see things that were anticlimactic.

Third, I felt under-prepared.  I had a bunch of stuff that I wanted to include that I didn’t have time to include.  I had 20 or 30 books and 20 articles that I had hoped to skim through and pull useful ideas from, that I didn’t have time to get to.  I’m sure that these hopes were unrealistic – they always are – but I’m usually able to at least include a smattering of resources like this.

Fourth, I chose an “edgy,” somewhat non-traditional topic, and I was disappointed when it wasn’t warmly received.  I was up against some well-known and well-regarded presenters, and I had unrealistic expectations for attendance.  I felt like I had something really powerful to share, and I was hoping that more people would attend.  Before the presentation, I was pretty excited.  When I saw the low turnout, I tried not to be visibly deflated, but I was.

Fifth, there were many interesting ways to incorporate social media into the presentation on social media, and I didn’t do that very much.  I showed a lot of Twitter stuff, but I wasn’t opening resources and sharing what people were saying and doing.  The tweets themselves, I should have noticed, were not the key selling point.  What makes Twitter so useful to teachers isn’t just that teachers respond, it’s that they share useful ideas and resources that we can adopt.  I didn’t share enough of that.

So, I think my goal for next time is to focus on just one thing – one topic – that is fun, but closer to the “traditional” mode of instruction, with more explicit links to standards.  And I think I can tie in the social media as needed – while people at this kind of conference might not pack the seats to hear more about Twitter, they might still benefit from mentioning it as part of a related focus on digital writing or blogging and getting comments from an audience.

While I don’t think this was a failure, it was probably a missed opportunity to shine.  I think, in hindsight, that I could have easily made this presentation much better.  Oh well.  Lessons learned, right?