Stephen Downes

I'm not likely to change my approach to presentations a whole lot (save messing around with recording and backchannels and other interactive play like that) even though I recognize the importance of conversation and local knowledge. Here's why. I do not regard my talk at a conference to be the totality of a person's learning experience. It is partial in two respects. Partial, first, in that it is supported through the very interactive mechanisms of my website and associated resources. And partial, second, in that participants have the entire conference to generate local knowledge, and don't need to do it during my talk. I see myself as playing a role, not delivering the whole package - and that role is to offer a 40 to 50 minute communication of outside ideas to a particular audience. The conversation happens before and after the talk - and I often find myself in the middle of it. Ewan McIntosh considers similar issues in this post.