I just want to say Ditto to everything Ginny just said. And add one other
possible non-Inksheddian sort of suggestion that we consider the
possibility of ONE afternoon during the conference of just 2 concurrent
sessions (that is, only 2 time periods out of the whole conference, with 2
sessions meeting at a time)--I know we all want to hear everything and
there is benefit in that, but we are also a diverse enough group that we do
have some sub-groupings possible where people could choose by their needs
or interests in that particular year. Especially if it's a matter of
funding for people who couldn't come otherwise.
A few concurrent sessions make more sense to me than changing things that
actually make the Inkshed gatherings so different from more rushed and
pressured conferences (focused /silence/ for writing and gathering our
thoughts at regular intervals during the day, as Ginny has described so
eloquently, make INkshed gatherings unique in my experience--and the
discussions at Inkshed always seemed richer than those at other conferences
/because/ we took the time to be quiet and write before talking). As long
as almost all sessions are NOT concurrent, especially opening and closing
sessions, I think the feel of the conference would remain much the same. A
good candidate for concurrent sessions would be precisely the research
updates Jane was talking about--that by their very nature don't necessarily
fit into the conference theme (people could select which research projects
seemed most important or intriguing or connected the most with their own
work--and we could use the inkshedding reports as a way of reading about
what happened in the sessions we couldn't attend). If we inkshed less
often, then a big issue for me becomes the question "Who loses out?" on the
gift of writing to take home that Doreen mentions, written responses that
have been so helpful to so many of us as we continued to work on the issues
we had presented about.
I'm feeling that loss keenly this year myself since I was hoping so much
for some inksheds that would help my own thinking on a project I've been
slowly trying to make headway on for 14 years, the Writing Skills
Inventory. I'll also emphasize that if we do have some poster
presentations or copies of papers, serious time needs to be built into the
program for studying these and for inkshedding about them. When I agreed
to bring my work as a poster presentation, though I was disappointed, I was
remembering that at PEI, quite a significant chunk of time had been set
aside for actually taking in the many fine poster presentations and
inkshedding about them (I still remember some of them keenly--and there
were a lot of them, not just 2). With the conference schedule so full this
time, people just did not have a spare moment to do additional reading and
inkshedding about the work on display.
I had proposed an interactive session where people would fill out the WSI
themselves after a brief intro from me, giving some background on it and
what it is meant to accomplish; I would have loved to be able to answer
some questions about it on the spot in a concurrent session, even without
everyone there, since that would have helped me see right away and clarify
what I had failed to make clear . Instead, I received responses from only
3 people (who I think of as heroic--thank you!--given the claims on
everyone's time and also the absolute necessity for us to be able to get
outside and enjoy that gorgeous place at least a bit!). Unfortunately, what
their responses mainly revealed was that I had not had time to explain
clearly enough how the WSI works, what I see as its pedagogical value, and
what the WSI attempts to measure (knowledge of terms being one thing I very
much want to measure--so that if a student doesn't have a clue what either
f"reewriting" or "inkshedding" are at the beginning of the course but that
same student understands those practices quite well by the end of the
course, that--to me--is a major accomplishment that the WSI allows me to
record, for both me and the student).
So, I'm casting my vote for,
--yes, fewer presentations accepted in future (I say this even as one of
the two poster presentation people this time round) ;
--one afternoon of concurrent sessions (2 sessions, with 2 meeting at a
time, so 4 in all--perhaps to always include the research updates as a
standing category that doesn't have to fit into the conference theme);
--more time to get outside and explore where we are (perhaps with some
inkshedding time allowed out of doors? an assignment to return in 2 hours
with one or two short inksheds to share about the presentations that just
finished?);
--more interactive sessions (thinking of ways to share ideas and what we're
doing without simply reading a paper--if we're going to just /read/
hardcopy and inkshed about it, though, I think we could do that all year
long via email and the web; sitting around reading formal papers and
commenting on them just doesn't feel like a good use of our time together
to me--though perhaps we could all have one or two things to read BEFORE we
arrive at the conference, something we can bring an inkshed about and share
sometime in the first 24 hours as a lead-in to a discussion?
--renewing our commitment to inkshedding as a practice for deepening and
enriching discussion and allowing generous amounts of time for it (and not
as something we just do mechanically, but that we value for all the reasons
that have been brought up on this list since the conference). For me,
there's something almost spiritual about the silence of us all writing and
thinking together--I have way too little silence in my busy life,
especially communal silence with that incredibly powerful sensation of so
much heartfelt and smart thinking going on at the same time in one space.
It helps me focus intensely in a way I often find difficult (and hardly
ever am able to do at any other conferences). I would hate to lose
that--Inkshed is the only place I experience it (except for moments when I
am inkshedding in class with my students--but that's always a bit different
since my students, not matter how wonderful they might be, are are not you
guys).
SOrry for the length of this--I actually started it out just intending to
say "Amen" to Ginny's posting. By the way, in case anyone was wondering, I
heard only from two other people off list that they had been very sick
after Inkshed as well--I hope that the rest of you all stayed healthy.
Best, Betsy
At 08:58 AM 5/27/2005, you wrote:
>Russ Hunt wrote:
>
>>I think this is the problem, or a problem:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Do we have to be cued to inkshed? At one of the tables I was
>>>at, some of us just wrote in response to sessions anyway, even
>>>if not cued. Don't know what happened to them after they were
>>>read at the table . . .
>>>
>>
>>There needs to be a structure around them -- it's not just
>>writing, but agreeing on some more or less formal way in which
>>they get read and used. Otherwise it's freewriting -- which is
>>fine, but there's no need to structure an occasion in which
>>people all do it.
>>
>>One danger, I think, is that inkshedding becomes a sort of
>>ritual that we all do because we've always done it, and because
>>that's the name of the conference . . . but that it stops
>>serving the main purpose of the conference, which is (I'd argue)
>>to explore ways in which we can make this gathering of people
>>whose common interests include literacy and learning a more
>>effective and rich occasion for exchanging ideas and values.
>>
>>-- Russ
>>St. Thomas University
>>http://www.StThomasU.ca/~hunt/
>>
>> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>> To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
>> [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
>> write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
>>
>>For the list archives and information about the organization,
>> its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
>> http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
>> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>>
>>
>I'd like to add my two cents here - but to begin I'll reiterate the
>thanks that others have offered to Jane and her "team." Inkshed 22 was
>well-organized and stimulating, and the location was totally beautiful.
>A whole lot of work went into making that happen, and I'm really
>grateful to the organizers.
>
>About "inkshedding" .... I've only been to two Inksheds, so I don't
>have a whole lot to base this on. I have, however, been to lots of
>/other/ conferences, so I have plenty to compare the Inkshed concept
>/to. /And when I went to my first Inkshed in P.E.I. several years ago,
>I found the practice of inkshedding to be an excellent focussing and
>reflecting tool. It was also wonderful to be able to take away and
>ponder the diverse written responses to my own presentation. I would
>hate to see the inkshedding process become something rote that we do
>mainly because we've always done it... I'd also hate to see the process
>eliminated, or adapted into a periodic, generalized response to a number
>of sessions.
>
>To eliminate inkshedding from our conferences would be to do away with
>the rich exhange Russ mentions, above. Yes, some of that exchange can
>occur through discussion - as happens at other conferences (and I do
>agree with Doug that inkshedding should not /preclude/ oral discussion).
>But I think that the kind of meditative process that occurs in solitary,
>reflective written response is a rare and special opportunity our
>conferences offer us - an opportunity we seldom get otherwise, unless we
>are students in classes that use inkshedding or disciplined individuals
>who keep voluminous journals. I don't know about any of you, but neither
>of those describes /my /daily circumstance. So inkshedding at these
>conferences permits us to engage in reflection in an unusual and
>privileged way. And obviously, the products of this process are a
>treasure trove for the person who gets to take them home as critique of
>his or her work....
>
>But to use inkshedding as a kind of summarizing technique at two or
>three points in the day - or to do it without a cue when one is so
>moved, as Roger mentioned - seems problematic to me. I engaged in both
>these kinds of writing at Inkshed 22, and both of them left me
>dissatisified. Doing a "group inkshed" didn't work for me for two
>reasons. For one thing, the "common theme" according to which
>presentations tend to get grouped together doesn't always end up being
>as common a theme as expected. Therefore, the two or three presentations
>about which we might write may not invite a joint inkshed, even though
>on paper they had sounded as though they would. Also, though, I found
>that if I held off responding until I'd listened to a number of
>speakers, I wasn't able to give as focussed and complete a response
>to the first speaker as I was to the last; my brain just wouldn't let
>me :-( Inkshedding without a cue didn't work for me, either.
>Actually, it wasn't the lack of /cue/ that fooled me up:
>thought-provoking presentations tend to provide sufficient cue to
>respond, as Roger suggests. But when not given silent time in which to
>/do/ the inkshedding, I didn't like to do it. Doing so meant I wasn't
>giving my undivided attention to the next speaker - so I just gave up
>writing anything down, at all...
>
>So for me the solution would be (perhaps unfortunately) to limit the
>number of presentations at Inkshed conferences, even though that is also
>a very non-Inksheddian-thing to do. Having an all-inclusive conference
>is a commendable goal, but something seems to need to be sacrificed,
>here - and I'd rather have fewer presentations (even if it was mine that
>was eliminated) than give up the very process that makes this conference
>one-of-a-kind.
>
>What a long two cents'-worth that turned out to be.
>
>Ginny Ryan
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
> [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
> write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
>
>For the list archives and information about the organization,
> its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
> http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to
[log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
For the list archives and information about the organization,
its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to
http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
