The Importance of Conferences
I was reminiscing about my days as a graduate student and the number of opportunities I had to attend conferences, both locally and internationally. Not only were the locations exciting, but the experiences of spending focused time away from the lab and immersed in learning what other people were researching was always beneficial. I remember being tired after a long day of attending presentation after presentation. Sometimes I would feel overwhelmed, realizing how little I really knew. But most other times I would get inspired by hearing something that would get me thinking about my own project. Very few times, were presentations ever useless. It’s been a few years since I’ve attended a conference and I miss it! I need to be reinvigorated and plan to attend at least two this year to make up for missing last year completely. Luckily, our own University is putting on a science specific education conference, WCSE, which I am thrilled is literally steps away from my office. But in addition, I hope to attend my first international conference that I will hopefully also be able to present my most recent research project. There are so many options out there so I am carefully researching what opportunity would provide the best learning opportunity and have it narrowed down to the following three. I really don’t think I will go wrong with any of these options, I’m just so thrilled that I’ll be able to take a little time away and get my brain stimulated in a different way again.
The CELDA conference being held in Ireland this fall is probably best in terms of what I hope to present and is interdisciplinary.
E-Learn is happening in October in Hawaii….most tempting due to location, but certainly great exposure to online learning education research.
STHLE is being held in Vancouver this year and is great because it is focused on those of us who call ourselves educators, also interdisciplinary.
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