Rosemary Lehman
Senior Outreach/Distance Education Specialist
Instructional Communications Systems
University of Wisconsin-Extension

NOTE: The Florida Educational Technology Conference is one of the oldest in the country and by far the largest. Those of us involved in conference planning can learn much from the expertise that has been gained over the years, from the organizational skills that have been mastered and from the sincere commitment the state has to successfully integrate technology into all levels of education.)

The first thing you notice about the FETC conference is its size. FETC is the largest technology conference in the country Ð and possibly the world. It's held annually in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida - a massive facility - attracts more than 17,000 participants, including 5,000 vendor attendees with 900 vendor booth areas. The vendor area alone occupies more than 200,000 square feet. The conference provides more than 200 hour-long concurrent sessions, along with numerous half- and full-day workshops, a major keynote speaker and 20 plus featured speakers.

The second thing you notice is the organization of the conference. Now in its 20th year, the conference flows with few noticeable flaws. I was able to pre-register six weeks prior to the conference, use the electronic planner to plan and register for my workshops, the Orientation Session and selected daily sessions and then print out my entire schedule. When I arrived at the conference, there was no waiting at the preregistration desk and there was a handy map for finding my way. In spite of the size of the convention center and the number of attendees, it never felt the least bit crowded and everything was easy to find. Ironically, at my first workshop I sat next to an educator from Kenosha, Wisconsin and teamed with her for our "hands-on" PowerPoint learning session that was filled with very practical and useful information.

The central thing I noticed at the conference was the quality of the presentations and the emphasis on teaching and learning. David Thornburg's discussion on Teaching and Learning with Multiple Interactive Media was filled with information and fun. I'd heard David (The Thornburg Institute for Professional Development) several years ago, but was much more impressed this time. Two ideas that he offered that particularly resonated with me were that: 1) generations born during the past ten years have been "born wired" and 2) two keys on our keyboards, used in sequence, point to the direction of the future Ð "shift control." We need to understand, he said, the minds that have been "born wired" (our children and grandchildren) and we need to realize that the control of information is shifting rapidly, that we are in an era that is "beyond information" (the title of his forthcoming book) moving into an era of exploration and creativity. David closed his presentation by coining a name for the "born wired" generation Ð Generation Why.

In a session on the importance of applying brain research to our uses of technology, Susan Jones of the Lighthouse Professional Alliance in St. Augustine, FL worked through a very interesting sequence on the compatibility of technology with brain development, stating that technology can expand connections for the human brain and enhance its ability to learn. The brain craves novelty, ritual and challenge, she said, and the appropriate use of technology can create this type of brain-compatible environment.

Determining the Quality in Distance Education courses and programs is beginning to emerge as a critical area in the field. John Opper from the Postsecondary Education Planning Commission in Tallahassee, FL has begun to put together criteria for determining quality. After surveying the policies that have been developed by postsecondary associations across the country, he has developed several typologies that should be avoided: 1) the Bolton Course or Program - in which the course has had little or no modification, where it is primarily a mode of delivery change; 2) the Student Castaway Ð where the students are left to their own devices with no resources, no advising, low interaction and little idea of how to access the services of the institution; 3) the Dangling Modifier Ð where course modifications have been made with a lack of student understanding, support or training and 4) the Well-Intentioned Designer Ð who has redesigned a course or program on his/her own with no institutional support and incomplete tools/expertise. Opper's recommendations for quality distance education were: 1) the appropriate selection of technologies, 2) faculty training and support, 3) appropriate design based on experience and examples of excellence, 4) student support and 5) the evaluation of the mode of delivery. A highly recommended resource he gave is the new site: www.wiche.edu/telecom/about/studentservdocs.htm

Since I will be traveling to Pennsylvania in May to present to several groups of physicists who are interested in training in the workplace, one of the last sessions I attended was one on Targeting Busy Workforce Training. The experts who presented this session were from the Pinellas County Schools in Largo, FL and have the responsibility to train over 7,000 teachers in their district in the spectrum of technologies. They've developed a most creative and thorough training program with an in-depth needs assessment, train the trainer programs, mentorships, internships and community training as well. They train via and for the use of multiple technologies and have had phenomenal success. Those who sign up for the training sessions must commit to 60 hours of time, the development of a project that they will take back to their schools/organizations and the training and mentoring of others. When the session ended, they provided us with a video of their work and a disc that included their needs assessment and other information, all available for us to use and/or adapt.

My final session was on assessment, an area that is becoming increasingly important in distance education. Vicky Talley of AASU/ETTC, Savannah, GA discussed the importance of matching assessment to goals, being aware of assessment obstacles (lack of professional development, lack of teacher and learner involvement, etc.) and quality assessment alternatives: fairness, transferability, cognitive complexity, content quality, content coverage and meaningfulness. Three types of assessment she had found most meaningful were: performance-based assessment, portfolio assessment and student designed projects. Her critical assessment check list included: assessing the process and the product, breaking assessment down into component areas, involving learners in the assessment plan, sharing the plan, discussing goals and discussing results.

An unusual general session brought the FETC conference to a close. It was called Random Acts of Progress and was a tribute to all of the educators across the state of Florida. It celebrated and shared the success of technology in education with glimpses of programs, projects, sites, sounds and images - and earned a standing ovation.