Tuesday 12 October 2010

Crowd-sourcing...

...it might not work for everyone however crowd-sourcing, in the form of a 'Smackdown' has provided lots of learning and fun collaborations for us over the past couple of months. Back in June this year Dorothy, Rocky and I attended edubloggercon, an all-day unconference held before ISTE 2010. I was also on a bit of a recce for EduCampNZ where we included a Smackdown as a quick and effective way of connecting with people and ideas. Starting the day with this type of activity can be quite important for an un-conference, where the programme is developed on the day and there may be participants who are attending for the first time. We set up a Wallwisher and everyone was invited to contribute before, during and after EduCampNZ.


This can be quite important for an un-conference, where the programme is developed on the day. 

I was excited when Dorothy came up with the idea to try this out at uLearn10 this year even more so when I found out the theme was Apple Tools...a "sMACdown!"

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

The standard rules applied and this time Dorothy also created a GoogleSite and invited other Mac enthusiasts to contribute their tips to kick-off. A Wallwisher was posted for participants to add their tips and it was great to see how many were also added by people not attending the conference. We also tapped into Twitter using the conference hash tag #ulearn10 and #sMACdown

The Smackdown concept has worked for us in both an un-conference and traditional conference setting and we have been able to adapt to suit the context and purpose. From the feedback received it also seems to have worked well for the 'crowd' who at the end of the day are the reason why these types of collaborations are valuable.

If you participated or contributed...many thanks! The 'what the who and the how' can be accessed from the sMACdown Google site along with everyone's contributions.

If you are planning a Smackdown please share it with us...the crowd will be ready and waiting!