You might know how it goes with large educational conferences…. The excitement of attending. Sorting out travel plans. PLN meet-ups. Wading through inordinate numbers of edu-celeb paparazzi trying to grab a selfie with notable speakers or said PLN. Deathly long queues for food. Darkened conference rooms with a constellation of device lights glimmering and fingers tapping feverishly to capture a photo from a slide on the big screen or a cool or insightful sound-bite. A flick through Twitter feeds to check the official # or for retweets, favourites, follows etc. Don’t get me wrong, I am also guilty of these things too. They are just part-and-parcel of the experience. It’s difficult, because the feeling of being saturated with marketing and sponsorship can, for me, take away from the essence of teachers coming together to share practice and discuss the human-side, not corporate side of our profession.

I have been left reflecting on the recent EduTech 2015 conference I attended in Brisbane on the 2^nd-5^th June. To cut to the chase, I have mixed reactions. I knew before attending that we would be swamped with hard marketing of technological products, have global edu-business foist the assertion that they have ‘worked out what works and why’ on us. Ironic, aren’t we there to learn and make up our own minds what is important to us in our contexts? Much vaunted technology companies would give us (educators and students) the assistive tools to bring learning to life, increase engagement and make learning stick. I lost count of the number of free sweets, pens, bags and information packs I was offered. Again though, this is just part of the course.

In the end, I learnt most, and was genuinely interested in listening to teachers talk about their classrooms, their strategies, their ideas, their struggles, their inquiry and their research. What works for them and what doesn’t? Matt Esterman beautifully captures the essence of what I consider to have been the most valuable element of the whole conference, the TeachMeets. I discovered some excellent perspectives on my own interests and development priorities as well as those for my school from other educators who have become valuable connections. It reaffirmed for me that the profession has a strong sense of sharing and there are people on the ground doing some amazing things. This shows the great value in the ‘inside-out rather than outside-in’ approach to education. I did however thoroughly enjoy excellent sessions with Nick Jackson, Valerie Hannon and Larry Rosenstock to name a few. The event was also superbly chaired by Dan Haesler. They brought some important messages to us.

So when the dust has settled, what then will be the impact of EduTech on my learning? Has this conference and the PD been worth it? I want to be able to justify my attendance. Will my school, my teaching and importantly my students benefit?

Thomas Guskey has written extensively on determining the relationship between professional development (PD) and improvements in student learning. He asks the question, ‘what does the evidence tell us about the characteristics of effective professional development?’ Fundamentally, engagement with PD and practitioner learning should have some direct or indirect impact where it matters most, with students learning and/or pastoral care. Irrespective of whether the PD is tailored to role development, the exploration of new ideas, products, leadership growth or strategy, the work we do boils down to the work of schools – learning development and holistic growth.

 “Effective professional development requires considerable time, and that time must be well organized, carefully structured, purposefully directed, and focused on content or pedagogy or both.” Guskey 2009)

Organisations should, he suggests, evaluate the effectiveness of PD and consider the impact it has had on the professional growth of teachers and more importantly student learning. This will naturally take time to determine but should set out to design in methods of analysis. This is also important to help organisations justify expenditure, staff release and make public the intention to learn in order to grow and also have impact. His Five Critical Levels for Evaluating Professional Development can be seen below.

Reference: https://uen.instructure.com/courses/297394/pages/5-how-is-professional-development-evaluated-in-terms-of-fidelity-of-implementation-as-well-as-impact

As Guskey illustrates, time will tell whether any of the thinking and learning I have undertaken will have impact. I have been left with more questions than answers, but in my book that is ok because I will have to carefully consider the next steps of design and implementation of a handful of strategies and ideas to create learning that sticks, is meaningful and relevant. My goal is to ensure that what I have discovered from generous, intelligent and informed educators can be practically applied, help me grow and take root where it matters most, in the classrooms of my schools and with our students. The sponsored bags, pens, handouts mean nothing. The learning and I what I do with it is all that matters.