While some (including
yours truly) have been speaking about the ASTD convention and the lack of Web 2.0 technologies used there and by the organization (membership) itself, I am reminded that ASTD did establish a number of wikis to be used during their
Learning Labs that were conducted on Monday and Tuesday at the conference.
I attended one of these, the one for University Instructors and Professors (hey, I adjunct at NYU, don’t I?). Of the three people who showed up for the face-to-face session, nobody changed anything on the wiki. Ironically, in bright red text, the instructions on each page of the wiki stated
Please leave existing text on pages intact.
Doesn’t that contradict what wikis are all about, namely to foster interactive content creation and sharing? Take a look at the wikis, most of which do not have any changes or edits or anything done to them. I wonder if this is because people did not know what to do with these? Did not know they were there? Followed the directions quite literally? Did not care?
I am not sure, but am wondering if these should not be revisited and used TO PREPARE for next year’s convention? I think if ASTD did more to foster community among convention attendees going into the event, then that may help people strengthen them during and continue well after the event.
I am definitely considering some ideas to submit for next year. Hmmmmm.
If the ASTD 2009 call for papers were not enough, the call for papers for AHRD (Academy of Human Resource Development) 2009 is also online and available. AHRD is one of my main professional organizations, and I was not able to attend it this year. The major change? Longer full papers can be submitted as well as Refereed Presentations and Scholar-Practitioner Presentations.
