Come one, Come all!

[awilliams]

"Come one, come all!"

That is the carnival cry, yes? Well, this year one of you called us out on the conference for the "all" part. Let's be blunt, if we could figure out how to have a party with all of you there, we totally would! For a lot of reasons, it may prove difficult to make it to Keystone this year. We understand. However, no matter where you are, the carnival extends to you! This year we’re going to do even more to make that true.

First, all of our keynotes will be live streamed and you can register now! These aren't just your average live streams though. These will be multifunctional engagement rooms with chat, resource links, and much more!

(click to register for the livestream)

Second, we have an official #instcon flipgrid! The passcode is "instcon18".  People from all around the world, will be and already are posting video questions and responses about the conference. Download the mobile app for iOS or Android 

Third, we’re also calling out the person who called us out by bringing her to the conference! laurakgibbs is an avid online educator and sharer. When we first started planning for this year’s conference, Laura expressed her desire for teachers and learners to share their educational conference experiences with each other in forums such as the CanvasLMS Community. Her words struck a chord with us and we invited her to this year's conference, with a special mission (oops, that was last year’s theme, right?). We have asked Laura to put her energy towards spreading the conference experience to anyone who is unable to physically be present in Keystone in July. Read Laura Gibbs' Blog and check out the amazing resource she has created in her InstCon Remote Control course where you will find:

• Ways to engage with other remote participants and on-site participants, like Laura
• A tool for connecting with others around specific sessions of interest
• A Twitter feed of #instcon tweets and people
• A form to include yourself in Laura’s twitter list for the Twitter widget
• Ways to introduce yourself and meet other remote participants
• Ways to share your own #instcon resources, be they a Canvas course, or not
• Diaries from Laura and others attentinding on-site

We hope you will join us, from wherever you are! Post on our flipgrid, follow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram, or if you prefer email, you can also sign-up to be contacted periodically about remote experience news and updates.

Do not let this experience pass you by. We want you to join us!

[Bobby2]

This is the best special treat. Thanks so much awilliamsfor letting people know about this.

And laurakgibbsfor understanding that we all want to be there and having the brilliant idea to share it all with us, as much as possible. Isn't technology wonderful!

[orwinr]

awilliams thanks to you and laurakgibbs for working to engage the remote participants. As a person that works remotely, like on the other side of the planet from my university, I truly appreciate any efforts folks make to engage remote participants. My team and I live streamed 261 events last year for all members of our department at the University of Washington, including faculty and staff meetings and of course loads of events for students in our online graduate degree programs. It really makes a difference to the remote community. Kudos to all the team that will be helping engage with those that cannot attend this year!!!

[laurakgibbs]

Remote-Workers of the World, UNITE! Thank you orwinr‌!

I also work remotely from my school, and Twitter has been the main way that I keep up with what is going on at my school. I'm always very pleased when I feel as much or even more "in the know" than faculty who are on campus but just limit their interactions to people in their department/building.

And please let me know of ideas and strategies that come to mind as you ponder InstructureCon! I have "drone slots" open, for example, where I am glad to be your eyes/ears on the ground. Let me know if there's something of special interest I can cover for you! 🙂

DronePad 

[orwinr]

Thanks for the info, laurakgibbs. Thankfully I get to participate again this year in Keystone 🙂 I will take a look at the agenda and if I can squeeze it in might engage with the Drone-Pad and see about helping engage some of the remote participants.

[laurakgibbs]

Oh, how great -- and hopefully we can connect there in person. Excellent! 🙂

[awilliams]

For more context on how this came to be, I was inspired by posts like The "InstructureCon From Afar" Experience‌, #stepsforbeth (woot Beth is making it!), and OU Digital Teaching: Week 2. Thoughts on NOT attending conferences. So it has been all of you poking that has led to this and I hope to see where all of you take it. I'm just here to grease the wheels. Thanks for making them squeak! 

[DrNufer]

Honestly, this is awesome. I can't think of another conference that has such a tight-knit community and outreach to remote participants.  

[laurakgibbs]

AGREED! That's just what I was saying about Flipgrid and Canvas in that other discussion: it's just night-and-day difference when a software company is really interested in their users, listening to us, helping make conversations happen. My personal hope is that InstCon can be the starting place for lots of long-lasting conversations, discussions that take us in all kinds of directions, like the great convo ericwerth‌ started the other day here. That is my kind of convo! 🙂

https://community.canvaslms.com/message/106386-re-higher-order-thinking-in-memorization-heavy-course... 

And hey, to find that convo here all I had to do was search for "Gramsci" because how often does Gramsci come up in a software conversation ha ha.

[ronmarx]

This IS a great idea and much needed offering until (or instead of) Instructure adopts an exhibition-conference model closer to that of other trade shows, where speakers/presenters get full access to the events, and lunch to boot! It's just a budgeting matter. Until that happens, streaming keynotes ( #instcon flipgrid) is great!

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Thank you awilliams‌ and laurakgibbs for making this effort to keep the worldwide community connected to InstructureCarn. I will miss the conference in person this year but look to gain nonetheless. At least I'm on the same side of the Continental Divide. 

[laurakgibbs]

And speaking of your part of the world,  @ProfessorBeyrer ‌, I am going to be doing one of the talks for the Online Network of Educators event in October, which I think is an online follow-up to a Los Rios event last year, is that right? I'll be getting to meet with  @mpb ‌ at InstructureCon (the first time we have ever met in person!) in order to brainstorm some more about this whole Can*Innovate project that they have going on. I think it is so great how the whole CCC system is sharing resources and learning opportunities with people all over through this ONE initiative. It is very inspiring! 

Online Network of Educators: Can Innovate

http://onlinenetworkofeducators.org/webinar/can%E2%80%A2innovate/" title="http://onlinenetworkofeduc...\

[Bobby2]

That's exciting laurakgibbs. I enjoy seeing innovation being spotted and shared. Keep up the fab work. 

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Thank you for mentioning Can•Innovate! 2017. Yes, my district hosted it last summer. In prior years we called it "Innovate!" and used it as a chance for our faculty and other employees to share how they use technology to support our students. But putting on a conference is a lot of work, even without worrying about where attendees will sleep and with rotating the location within our district. Once the Online Education Initiative (OEI) selected Canvas for its common LMS (and our district selected it too), we relaunched it with its LMS-specific prefix and were grateful for the support from Instructure, the OEI, and the Los Rios College Federation of Teachers.

The OEI and Instructure expressed interest in making a Canvas-focused conference an annual event, and it was gratifying to see them keep the name. I have attended some of the planning meetings for Can•Innovate 2018, and a funny thing happened on the way: #CCCDLDAY in February of this year. This was organized by the awesome @ONE program and is an all-online conference. We had 31 colleges throughout the CCC system host viewing parties, and it was a lot of fun knowing that the handful of people in the Center for Instructional Innovation at my college were concurrently participating in a conference with hundreds of others.

Michelle was the coordinator for #CCCDLDAY and is for Can•Innovate! 2018 as well, and I remember her saying how successful the February event was without a single location. There will be more online-only conferences in the future. And for those conferences that do take place in person (like InstructureCon), it is great there will be opportunities for people to participate remotely.

[laurakgibbs]

It is so cool to see how one good project like the Innovate from Los Rios can then be the basis for building new kinds of projects and reading new audiences. And I am so impressed at how the power of online is making it possible for all this @ONE goodness to reach many people above and beyond the CCC audience. It is all so exciting!

[DrNufer]

Can•Innovate sounds intriguing.  Maybe I should look into contributing to that. 

[mpb]

laurakgibbs, I am so excited to meet you in person later this month -- and I'm also so excited to watch this super cool role evolve that you are playing. Instructure picked the perfect person to connect the on-ground events and experiences with those who are unable to be there in person. I love seeing all of your ideas take shape.

Thanks for referencing CanInnovate18 and,  @ProfessorBeyrer , thank you for sharing the background.  Laura, we are thrilled to have you infuse our day with creativity, as our Showcase Speaker.  We invite everyone to learn more about Can•Innovate! We'd love to see the event extend beyond the California Community College system! The sessions will be free to all who attend. 

Can•Innovate 2018 

[laurakgibbs]

Autumm Caines put out a question at Twitter today re: ongoing professional development opportunities coming up in the next six months or so, so of course I chimed in with Can*Innovate and links to @ONE stuff. Yay!!! 🙂

[awilliams]

This post has been updated with a registration link for the live streams. Don't miss out on all the fun of those and check out this awesome post from  @biray ‌, https://community.canvaslms.com/community/ideas/canvaslive/blog/2018/07/03/instructurecon-2018-live-... 

[k_jagdev]

Just signed up! :smileygrin: Very excited!

[awilliams]

I sent this out in an email to everyone who signed up to be contacted by email, but I see no reason not to share it here as well for anyone following this blog.

--

Greetings remote participants! It is officially #instcon week! Wooohoo! We are already soaking up the digital buzz from the conference and we hope you are too! I have new information to share and then I will recap all of the cool things you can do from anywhere in the world to be a part of InstructureCarn.

NEW!

There is a new tool for exploring Twitter and Instagram posts. I really like this Media Wall view but you can check out all the options on the left and set it up however you like.

If you don't already know about #stepsforbeth, you should. Read about how people are walking and posting every day to rejoice in the fact that a member of our community, who days before her flight to InstructureCon 2017 was hit with a super rare (1%) spinal stroke and paralyzed from the waist down, is making her triumphant return this year!

Recap:

Follow our social media accounts and the #instcon hashtag as well as engaging in the InstructureCon 2018 space in the Canvas Community. There is already a ton of cool stuff to check out from today on Twitter, Instagram, and the Community.

Watch ALL the keynotes live. Don't just watch though, chat with others, find resources, and win prizes too! Read this blog post for registration details.

Watch and post videos to the official #instcon flipgrid. Password: instcon18

Last, and definitely not least, is the amazing Laura Gibbs and her efforts to bring the conference to everyone everywhere in all new pioneering ways. Check out her Instcon Remote Control course for an entire experience inside a Canvas course. Here are a few highlights of the course and ways you can benefit. I've directly linked to each one in case you want to go straight there:

• Find and request details on specific sessions of interest in the DronePad
• Find other remote participants in the Guestbook
• Find all of Laura's notes on the sessions she attends in the EventPad
• See Laura's curated Twitter lists and add yourself
• See how the community is committing "Acts of Panda" (kindness)

We hope you are having a blast so far and we can't wait to see you around!

[Bobby2]

Many, many thanks awilliams

Hard to believe it's all happening while we sleep Down Under.

Good reminders. I forgot to set my alarm for the one this morning!