One of the the things that has changed in the age of corona virus is going to academic conferences or presentations.

At the end of May, I was supposed to go to Niigata to present at the JALT PAN SIG conference. I was really disappointed when it was cancelled because I was really looking forward to seeing my friends from all over Japan and also presenting on my action research on extensive reading.

The conference was quickly moved online and took place last weekend. I’ve had some experience presenting online to people I can’t see on the screen, but still haven’t gotten completely used to it. Luckily during the question and answer time, most of the people turned on their video cameras and it was nice to see the faces of a few friends in the audience.

There are many advantages to having a conference online, especially for people who can’t manage the expense of traveling to a conference far away. However, I think nothing beats seeing your friends face to face. I often learn just as much by having spontaneous conversations with my colleagues as I do attending a formal presentation.

In the meantime, we’ll just have to make the best of it and learn what we can.