ConnectED 2010

Connect ED 2010

It’s a scary feeling to arrive at this huge campus, and try finding your way around.  I went on the Sunday to orientate myself, and spent time working in the library, the Australian’s are a friendly bunch, and eager to assist with whatever query you may have.  So I was allowed to sit in the student study era and work on my presentation.  Which by the way was full of students, strange, considering they were on holiday as well. 

My first day at the conference was meet with a lovely feeling of butterflies in the pit of my tummy, knowing what lay ahead, and of course, total excitement.  Having registered I watched as the delegates started slowly filtering in.  When it was time to begin, I was disappointed by the relatively small number of people in the hall. 

As the conference progressed most delegates commented on the low attendance.  We were told that due to the “world economic crisis,” the numbers had dwindled and colleges just didn’t have the funds to send people to international conferences at the moment.  I again realized how fortunate I was to have this opportunity to represent Inscape.  During one of the plenary sessions the chair informed us that 35 countries where represented at the conference, that defiantly made up for the lack of numbers.  (Plenary session or meeting, the part of a conference when all members of all parties are in attendance.)

I made contacts with people from all over the world, and I hope to correspond or collaborate with them in some way in the future.  When you get to chat to lecturers from colleges abroad, you realize that we all have more or less the same stuff going on in terms of classes, courses, and student issues.  As it turns out, it’s really nice to know that!

There are a lot of University’s and UoT in Sydney alone, and they were well represented.  They also all know each other and they collaborate with each other constantly as well.  I stated to get the sense that collaboration and cross pollination amongst, and between, education faculties and institutions has a very positive effect on the employees and seemed to hold benefits for their students as well.  I’ll elaborate more on this later.

To stress the above point, it’s interesting to note that three very different faculties in the same university hosted this conference.  Namely the Faculty of Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering and the College of Fine Arts.  This was not a coincidence, in discussions with various faculty members it became clear that they interact in a multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach to courses and subjects.  Again, more about this as I go along. 

The Connect ED conference came about out of a need to well, connect design education.  To speak the same language.  To learn from each other, and be inspired by each other