Session Types

The DLAC agenda is a bit more complicated than other education conferences of similar size, because:

• We have encouraged lots of different types of sessions

• Many sessions are 20 minutes which includes a required 5-minute discussion period; others are longer as explained below

• We designate a 20-minute period as a segment 

• We encourage DLAC participants to move between sessions to meet their interests.
  

Therefore, the total times are:

• 1 segment: 20 minutes

• 2 segments: 40 minutes

• 3 segments: 60 minutes

• 4 segments: 80 minutes

• Sessions are the 80-minute blocks of time, made up of multiple segments, that can be built around a specific theme/topic, which will combine different session types. 

Session types are:

• Contributed Talk (1 segment) - These talks are made up of 15 minutes of presentation and 5 minutes of questions and discussion.

• Organized Session of Talks (4 segments) - The presenter proposes the theme and all four speakers. These sessions are still based on 20-minute segments in order to allow conference attendees to move between sessions throughout the day. A session moderator may choose to have three speakers plus a  20-minute discussion for the fourth segment.

• Table Talks (2 segments) – Table talks are facilitated group discussions of 35 minutes plus five minutes to move to a new topic or session.

• PechaKucha (6 minute 40 second presentation) – this is a very specific type of presentation where you must have exactly 20 images in a Powerpoint with slides auto-advancing after 20 seconds. See www.pechakucha.org for more information. 

• Shark Tank (1 segment) - do you have a new idea or approach for a product or service and are working to bring it to the digital learning market, but you are unsure how it will play out with real students, educators, and leaders? Share your story in a presentation similar to the reality television show “Shark Tank” (in which entrepreneurs present their products to potential investors, trying to persuade the investors to put venture capital into those products), to get feedback from attendees, and allow them to look at the future of digital learning. The presentation portion will be less than half of the segment time with the audience (attendees) asking questions the rest of the time.

• Infographic (poster) Sessions (2 hours) – Infographics will be presented during two late afternoon/early evening receptions in the exhibit hall. We are using the term “infographics” instead of the more common “poster session” to stress that the graphics must convey a problem and solution, or research question and findings.