DevLearn 2009 Recap

(Okay, I admit it… this post is WAY overdue.)

Let me begin by saying this is not a rant, but rather an honest account of my impressions regarding this year’s DevLearn.

Nearly two months have passed, and when I think of DevLearn I think of two things: Social media gone wild, and hallway conversations.

Social Media Gone Wild

DevLearn 2009 was absolutely wonderful if you’re into incorporating social media into e-learning. Or should I say “using social media for learning,” without the “e.”

Unfortunately for me, I’m not really interested in using social media for learning. I mean, I learn via social media all the time — Twitter and RSS feeds are a raging river of information flooding my head with ideas every day. But when it comes to creating e-learning projects at work, we’re not ready for social media. It doesn’t really have a place in our plans yet, and we’re A-OK with that.

So upon attending DevLearn, you can guess how dismayed I was about the lack of breadth regarding session topics… it seemed as though every other session was about social media. Perhaps the conference should have been named SoMeLearn.

I believe this was my fourth DevLearn conference — I live nearby so it’s not difficult to attend — and I’d have to say this one felt the lightest when it came to the Dev part of DevLearn. There were so few hands-on technical sessions that I had a hard time finding them. I know I’m not the only person who felt this way, as a number of folks confided similar sentiments. Chad Udell, one of this year’s presenters (probably the best technical session I attended) said [link no longer available]:

[T]he conference wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns for me. There are some real underlying problems I have with the conference’s overwhelming love affair with Social Media or Web 2.0 or whatever you may want to call it. […] Do we really need 5-6 sessions about “Leveraging Twitter in your Learning Organization”? […] Given that Mark Oehlert so masterfully managed the Social Learning Jam as a dedicated area for discussion about using Social Media for learning in the eneterprise, it seems a tad silly to have so many concurrent session on the topic.

I may be cast out by talking so candidly about this, but here’s the crux of it for me: If the conference really is called “DevLearn” shouldn’t their (sic) be more “Dev” in the schedule?

I wholeheartedly agree, Chad. I have nothing against social media and finding its place in learning, but did it have to steal so much focus from other areas? Despite my MA in education, I consider myself a developer first and foremost. I like to get my hands dirty. I want more “developy”-type sessions, especially considering the price of the conference. This is meant to be constructive criticism… hopefully next year DevLearn will have a more rounded/balanced session lineup.

Hallway Conversations

Returning to the positives, it was wonderful to meet so many people in person. I’ve “known” many people via Twitter and the blogosphere for quite some time, but it’s a real trip to meet these folks in person. Janet Clarey had a nice post about it (great to meet you, fellow introvert!). In fact, if there was anything about Devlearn 2009 that really stood out for me, it was how great the hallway conversations (and after-parties) were.

Gary Hegenbart said it nicely in his DevLearn recap:

Almost everyone I met included their Twitter name as part of the introductions. […] Twitter accelerated the conversation because if you just met someone you follow or who follows you, then you already knew a lot about the person.  It felt like a reunion and conversation flowed easily and freely.

It was absolutely awesome to finally meet The Beard (aka Aaron Silvers) in person, even if we never really found much time to chat. (Does this guy command a crowd or what? I should start calling him “The Mayor.”) And it goes without saying that if Brian Dusablon and Steve Howard are in the house, we have to hit a pub for a beer and a chat! In my case a Coke since I had to commute an hour by car. Sad, I know.

I learned firsthand that (Mark Oehlert + Kris Rockwell + Koreen Olbrish) === instant mischief. This time it was zombie mischief. LETSI’s Avron Barr was there, and I had the pleasure of driving Mike Rustici to the airport (sorry if I scared you with my crazy driving!). I could go on and on. I’m something of an introvert, so I may not have seemed very excited, but trust me, it was fun.

Following BJ Schone’s footsteps, here’s a list of tweeps I chatted with (apologies if I left you off the list, it wasn’t intentional):

• @alwaysbreaking
• @avron
• @briandusablon
• @bjschone
• @em_tee
• @hybridkris
• @jclarey
• @j_haag
• @koreenolbrish
• @mike_rustici
• @moehlert
• @mrch0mp3rs
• @stevehoward999
• @visualrinse