Skipping conferences: "I’ve barked and moaned previously...about the staleness and sad irony of the 50 minute lecture to a passive audience being the primary mode of information sharing at professional gatherings and the minimal information density of conference presentations."
Comment: I agree with Alan. I haven't been to a significant conference for over a year. The last conference I attended seemed to be a 6+ month delay of topics I encountered from education bloggers earlier. In a less critical note, often conferences are opportunities to connect with "the mainstream". Bloggers sometimes acquire limited vision - we assume that because we know, others know. To encounter rants about the value of blogs after a person has blogged for four years seems a bit "old". Yet for many in the education community, RSS is still a new concept. Perhaps that's the value of conferences - they provide the opportunity to connect with others outside of our small community.