Phew! The big day has finally arrived and dashed by. The Oman International ELT conference has been abuzz with enthusiastic faces, and it is wonderful to see colleagues old and new, ex-students and classmates from my MA studies.
My workshop drew a healthy mix of participants who shared some great ideas. Of course it is the participants who make a workshop, and they were simply great. Had I known how much they had to share, I would have planned to leave far more time for their input. But all is not lost: the UnPluggEd! site is always there for sharing ideas. A summary of participants' contributions is included here.
I am a quite critical of my own contribution, though. I do believe very firmly in the principles behind UnPluggEd!, but I don't know if I brought them across clearly. In retrospect I could have simplified the concepts more and left far more room for participation. That was my weakness: the workshop was ABOUT participation, yet I didn't walk the talk. Timing was partially to blame.
Conclusions: For workshops, I would do better to keep the presentation aspect and task very simple. The focus should rather be on how to foster more participation, and even get participants feeding back on each other's contributions. Based on plast experience, I was concerned that participation would be low. That is a possibility to provide for, but as a last resort!
Any event like this is always precious experience. The key is to learn from mistakes! I did make a few, but it was clear that some participants definitely grasped the concept and are ready to put it into use. And then there always is the website, which I hope will be a resource for those who are interested.
Dies diem docet!
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