{"id":1012,"date":"2006-10-13T21:58:24","date_gmt":"2006-10-13T21:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/so-what-did-i-learn-at-the-conference\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T22:04:59","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T03:04:59","slug":"so-what-did-i-learn-at-the-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/so-what-did-i-learn-at-the-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"So . . . what did I learn at the conference?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am really glad I made the trip to Dallas. I got a lot out of the experience. However, it was not necessarily the same kind of experience that I thought it would be when I was planning my trip to Dallas. I was prepared to gather and share resources and new ideas. In reality, that didn't really happen. What I found is that my blog roll provides a far better way for me to get up to speed and stay current on the latest and greatest in the world of education and technology. <\/p>\n

Instead, I got to speak with some really inspiring people, validate several of my preconceptions and challenge what I thought I knew about the field. I leave feeling neither let down nor invigorated by the experience, but rather something in the middle. I am definitely<\/span> inspired to further explore some of the ideas I heard about (mainly in side bar conversations) and I'm ready to jump back into it. For what it is worth, here are some of my take aways:<\/p>\n

Biggest Surprise:<\/em><\/strong> Apparently, very few Masters students attend <\/span>AECT<\/span> and being a distance<\/em><\/strong> Masters student put me in the freak show category (see prior post<\/a>). I could pay for my plane ticket home if I had a dollar for every, \u201cReally? I\u2019ve<\/span> never seen a distance Masters student at AECT<\/span>!\u201d Quite frankly, I think I was the first online distance Masters student many had ever met<\/em><\/strong>! Without jumping back on that train of thought, it still strikes me odd that so many studies and presentations at AECT<\/span> were devoted to online learning, but when faced with a real live \u201csubject\u201d, most elicited an immediate \u201cfor real?\u201d response. <\/span><\/p>\n

Best Aspect:<\/em><\/strong> I entered the conference knowing just the names of a few<\/span> people who would be there, but I hadn<\/span>\u2019t actually met (f2f) anyone beforehand. So, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people I had great interactions with during the conference. Across the board, people were incredibly warm and went out their way to reach out to the \u201cnew girl\u201d. <\/span>Maybe because I was such a novelty? I have now met several professors in my program, a handful of students in the resident portion of the program, a student from my distance program (yes, there were at least three of us odd balls there), and many professors \/ graduate students (PhD candidates primarily) from other schools. <\/p>\n

Best Advice:<\/em><\/strong> I received a lot of tips and words of wisdom during the week. However, the advice that hit home for me is to seek out mentors. I think that is a missing link for me right now. I have made some great relationships (virtual<\/span> and otherwise), but I don\u2019t have a deep, rich mentor relationship. <\/span>This was a golden nugget realization that made it worthwhile to come all this way to the conference.<\/p>\n

Biggest Let Down:<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n