Carol at 2010 Midwest Educause Conference

Everyone, I couldn't go with you to either of the national conferences, so I am in Chicago at the Educause Midwest Regional Conference. To follow tradition of other postings, I will report that it took me as long to go by train from the airport to downtown Chicago and find the hotel, as it took to fly from Marquette to Chicago. I had a wonderful sandwich at a deli for lunch. I'm incredibly tired, whether due to getting up at 5 or sitting passively through so much of the day---I don't know. It kills me that people who should know better talk non-stop for 1 1/2 hours, or show powerpoints which are samples of student papers with 12 point type, and on and on. The other interesting thing is that with 450 people here, I happened to sit next to someone whose nametag said Kansas State. I grew up in KS, and lo and behold---her family is originally from a town of less than 100 people, less than 25 miles from my hometown. Small world and all that.

Now, as to other matters of more weighty import:
1) The keynote speaker talked for 1 1/4 hours non-stop, after lunch, in a huge room with chairs and no tables to take notes easily, about the future of higher education. Many people had trouble not falling asleep. I kept myself awake by taking notes!! Her key points at the beginning had to do with the conomy, the imperative of getting more education, the worldwide competition, how education and economy are linked, and how while cost and demand are going up, funds are going down. One interesting thing she called an "inflection" had to do with "campus versus beyond campus", how consumer devices (computers, cellphones, etc) and many other things are causing a whole shift in education from instruction to discovery, etc.

2) The next session I chose was on how to build successful efforts on campus for technology---what are the supports for that and what are the problems. My tablemates and I talked about politics and different priorities as being problems. I shared about our CTIP project with the whole group, talking about the necessity of time, money, and support for this project and how we have developed somewhat of a community feel as a result, among ourselves.

3) I just came out of an e-portfolio session that was interesting. This fellow presented reasons why students should develop a portfolio that would display their skills, and he gave examples of 8 different types of assignments that would lead to a portfolio content product. One I might try in my HR class this summer was to have students make a catalog of trade publications in their field, weighing the publicatons on objectivity, accuracy, authority, how current the aritcles are, the type of coverage, etc. This gives students an overview of the realism of the field and helps them begin to "speak the language". His comment was that in his college, different profs give different assignments which then lead to different portfolio projects. I'm not sure I can get other faculty to work on me with this, but if at least 3 of us did, we might have something.

And just like someone else at one of the other two conferences you attended, one of the topics I was really looking forward to was cancelled!!

Basically the end of the day for me; there was absolutely nothing at the last 45 minute session that appealed to me. However, there is a small reception this evening so I'll go to that and see if I can strike up a meaningful conversation with someone!

Carol