Last year for InstructureCon 2017, I was participating remotely via Twitter, and I was very grateful to all the people who were tweeting with the #InstCon hashtag, especially @lindalee who was attending exactly the sessions I would have wanted to attend.
So, as I was brainstorming with the Canvas Community folks about the Remote Experience for 2018, I told awilliams about how Linda was my eyes-and-ears on the ground, and he came up with the idea of Panda-Drone... the idea being that people on-site can be dedicated observers communicating out to remote participants via Twitter (or the communication channel of your choice).
THE DRONE-PAD PADLET
So, what I did was to split up the ten break-out session slots: for half of the slots, I picked out the sessions I want to attend (including one by Linda Lee herself: Lessons Learned From a Year with Blueprint Courses)... and for the other half of the session slots, I created a Drone-Pad Padlet where people could ask me to attend a session during which I will be transmitting to them via Twitter. (Padlet is super-easy to use in Canvas; I embedded with the Redirect Tool.)
People chimed in already for four of those slots, but I still have one slot open on Thursday at 3:25 PM. To see what's on offer during that time slot, check out @mjennings 's unofficial / super-useful program guide here: Programs! Get Your Programs!
So, remote participants, is there a session during that Thursday afternoon slot I can attend for you? Just click on the + in the Padlet column to let me know, and include your Twitter handle so that I can ping you when the session starts in case you want to do this in real-time and have me ask any questions for you. (I was participating remotely in real-time thanks to Linda last summer, and it was really fun that way!)
THE MORE DRONES, THE MERRIER!
I hope there will be lots of people onsite who are tweeting... so feel free to make a request for any session there at the DronePad. Even if I am booked for a given session, there might be somebody else on-site will be tweeting a session of interest to you.
At the DronePad, I'll highlight in pink any requests people are making that are unfilled (so far). Make sure to include your Twitter handle for connecting.
Then at the conference I'll tweet out those unfilled requests as each session slot begins. Maybe somebody will be inspired to tweet for you!
THE HIGH-TECH DRONE HAT
So, look for me at Keystone: you'll know I'm in Panda-Drone mode when I'm wearing the high-tech Drone-Hat... let's just hope the propeller survives being toted in my carry-on luggage. 🙂
THOUGHTS...???
This Panda-Drone experiment is something I am excited about, and if you have thoughts or ideas about how to develop this experiment for future Instructure conferences, chime in here. Just speaking for myself, I would be tweeting anyway, but it's so much more fun to know that I am doing that not just for myself, but a remote audience out there. And maybe that onsite-remote connection will inspire even more people to tweet too!
So, that ends Day 2 of the 10 Days of Twitter countdown to InstructureCon. I'll see you back here tomorrow with Day 3.
banner image: Cosmic Flying Panda Wallpaper
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