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Ocotillo Presentation Under The Belt

Today was our presentation on our "Ocotillo" project titled Maricopa's Ocotillo Evolves Again: 18 Years of Faculty Led Instructional Technology Initiatives:

Since 1987, Ocotillo has been a faculty led initiative to promote the effective use of instructional technology. Like its desert plant metaphor, Ocotillo has evolved again into four new action groups, leading a range of face to face and online activities in the areas of Learning Objects, ePortfolios, Hybrid Courses, qnd Emerging Technologies. Learn what the groups have done and see how they have used a "small technologies loosely joined" approach of weblog, wiki, discussion board, RSS, and streaming video technology to support their projects

We had the coveted slot of 4:15 - 5:15 PM, last of the day, on a day when the temperatures climbed 20 degrees, the sun was glorious, and broadway shows apparently beckoned. Still, we had a good 20-25 person turnout, and in our tiny room, it looked pack. There was a bit of Ocotillo's past, and by sheer good luck, the creator of this organization, our former Vice Chancellor Dr. Alfredo de los Santos was present. He's an amazing leader, and a highlight for me was a mentorship with him a few yards back.

The bulk of this was an overview of the activities of our Action Groups, and we had two in the room to do their own spots (Thanks Lisa and Shelley!). And a real quick dash through the "small pieces" technology approach. As a point of note I only got half a hand raise when I asked who in the room had experience with wikis.

It was fun, we laughed, we cried, we found learning objects (just kidding about the last one). Nice to have it in the rear view mirror.

This was another wiki-fied presentation, a format that works well for the fluid ideas I weave at the last minute. Lacking net access in the presentation room (Grrr), I faked it good enough by running the wiki off of my G4 laptop in local server mode.