Thoughts on Learning Technologies 2010 (#LT10uk): how social media prolong, deepen events

Well, it’s over.

Just about.

I mean in the old days, you finished the conference and everyone went back to work and that was it for another year.

These days, everything has changed.

This year, more than ever, it’s clear that social networking means a conference lasts much longer than just the face-to-face couple of days.

That makes it a richer experience. It also makes it more demanding, and gives cause for greater reflection than ever before.

So we salute the army of Tweeters and bloggers that discussed #LT10uk before, during and after the event ….

Particular thanks this year goes to everyone using the Learning Technologies Conference hash tag: #LT10uk. If you missed the Twitter stream, you can find it in:

• A What the Hashtag narrative (thanks @chambo_online for the tip)
• A TwapperKeeper archive (thanks Andy Wooler for setting this up)
• A PDF Tweet book from Tweetdoc (thanks Nigel Paine)
• A psychedelic wallpaper of Visible Tweet’s random collection of #LT10uk Tweets.

The bloggers? I began by trying to summarise what they said, but gave up in the end.  They are uniformly a thoughtful bunch who have put some work into considering the event in detail, and they deserve a visit:

• Amit Garg Day 1,  Day 2
• Clive Shepherd
• Dave B Day 1, Day 2 
• Hans de Zwart
• Jane Hart
• Jay Cross (who managed to comment lucidly without attending!)
• Josh Bersin
• Mark Berthelemy – and related post by co-presenter Patrick Dunn
• Nigel Paine
• Steve Wheeler
• Will Pollard (a summary for education)

Prize for pithiest reflection on the conference goes to Lynn Wernham for highlighting a phrase of Mark Oehlert that really caught the conference’s imagination:

Think big. Start small. Move fast.

It’s also worth giving a mention to David Hopkins who seemed to do a good job of attending ‘virtually’ via blogs and tweets. His own blog, by the way, is well worth a read.

Vendors, too, got into the summarizing game – check out Brightwave’s Lars Hyland for his 7 key themes for learning.

And finally, I have to thank everyone who has mailed me directly with their thoughts on the conference. It’s a valuable set of feedback which will ensure that next year’s event is even better.

Don

PS – what blogs have I missed? If you know of any, please comment and let me know!