The title is actually a question that I was asked when I was at a conference recently. The conference was a National conference on second language education. After the completion of the conference, some teachers were not happy, claiming the lack of new methods being introduced.
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Many teachers were there for the purpose of learning new teaching methods. However, many claimed that it was not addressed. Education as it is has remained unchanged for a while now. With regards to education conferences, it too has remained largely unchanged. Most teachers will present their findings in parallel sessions. There could be nine sessions running concurrently at the same time. As such, it is likely that a teacher will not be able to listen to more than half of the presenters at the conference.
As such, one way to overcome this is the use of Smart Media Tokens. Each conference, be it an education conference or a medical conference can create a smart media token of their own. These smart media tokens can be used for the following applications:
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Rewarding great content
It is conventional for most teachers to just present and leave. The only reward received is the networking and experience gained from presenting. However, with the implementation of smart media tokens, the organizers and presenters can be rewarded for presenting.
Rewards can be scaled with the best presentation getting rewarded more than other presenters.With this, at the very least presenters will get rewarded for the hard work that they have put in. This also adds some form of incentive for presenters to want to present, knowing that they are being appreciated for the hard work that they have done.
Reward engagement
Education conferences are rarely very engaging. Most of the conferences that I have gone to will have a few people engaging the presenters, asking questions at the end of the presentation. However, if there is an incentive to engage, ask questions or comment, the conference will become much more engaging, enabling the presenters to find out more about the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation.
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In addition, if the conference is done on an online platform, the engagement will reach not be limited to a few presenters. Anyone participating in the conference can engage every at the conference. Furthermore, it can also allow for participants not present at the conference to potentially upvote or reward good presentations and comments.
Multiple token support
Last but not least, the use of Smart Media Tokens also allows for multiple token support. There are many conferences that are organized by different organizers these days. Some of these conferences share the same theme, niche and topics. Allowing for multiple token support also allows for other conferences to reward great content and engagement. This allows for participation over a wider audience. In addition, this also allows each presenter's research to reach be seen by others. It is also likely that the presentation may help the teachers in problems faced in their lessons. .
I hope someone will implement this in a conference one day. It will be cool to attend such an education conference online. This is just my thoughts on how Smart Media Tokens can be implemented in an education conference. Do let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
I'm not sure this makes sense as a use of SMT. What's the difference between doing this and handing out candy? Or to be a little more serious, distributing incentives to engage in a conference, even using Cash or other token?
Having the conference online instead of offline or both. Well, for now SMTs seem to be geared towards creativity in terms of entertainment, better pictures or videos but I'm going with the route of rewarding ideas which is commonly found in conferences. Taking them online and reaching a wider audience can promote better engagement or rewards. Something like steemit but for teaching ideas.
Thanks for the ideas, helps me see some of the flaws
Interesting idea - feel the same way as @eonwarped about why smart tokens have to be used, but can see the benefit of having a more universal social reward system for conferences and panels that would incorporate such tokens.
That's right, but like all things, still requires fine-tuning that's why its good to get comments to see if others can find any flaws with the idea.
I see great value in this idea, especially as a form of encouragement for academics who spend much time polishing their ideas and travel great distances to give quality presentations which are sparsely attended. It is especially disheartening to see audience members fiddling with their programs or frequently glancing at their cellphone screens and rushing out after a few perfunctory questions.
Some sort of small incentive in the form of SMTs for valuable presentations and thoughtful questions would be helpful for all concerned: the sponsoring organizations, the speakers and the audience. With the widespread availability of cellphones with quality optics and microphones, streaming or putting presentations online is not really that difficult anymore.
Alvin's idea is well worth considering.
Resteemed!
Thank you so much for your support! Hope to get it operational one day