Now this was a League conference highlight. Diana Oblinger knows how to deliver a compelling presentation (she speaks, she does not read) on a relevant topic. She researches and presents data, references, processes, and important ideas. And she uses PowerPoint with a bit more power and point than most.

Someone give video copies of her keynote this morning to some of the other clowns that they have put on stage here.

The title was “The Agile College” and started with a compelling true or false quiz- “The US is still the world leader in higher education”, and then presented an impressive string of facts and data that shows the many places we have lost of long held edge. From drops in completion rates, to dramatic differences in success from poorer students, the message as not about doom and gloom, but a wake up call to do something radically different in higher education.

She had our attention..

Monday morning here at the League for Innovation conference and I was asked by my Macromedia friends to make some remarks at their breakfast session- a packed room of about 50 or so.

And then I was following an awesome series of examples and ideas from Bill and Eric two faculty from Sinclair College that do some wacky (in a good way) and creative things teaching math and psychology.

Below are the notes I made up ahead of time- I did not use the notes (too many bad examples here of speakers reading canned speeches), so I cannot vouch that this was all I said…

Blogging at the League for Innovation conference got a wee more difficult as the Wi-Fi went AWOL, 404. The word is even the wired network here in the Midways Airport Convention center due to a blaster type worm banging out of a machine in the exhibit area. Last I saw, the techies were yanking machines off the net one by one to find the offender.

It could not be my computer 😉

So here, post sessions is a quick recap….

Okay, first session at the League for Innovation conference, this one from Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College titled “Weaving Critical Thnking into Online Courses”.

Okay, we wade through the cheeese-head jokes, a lot of background on WITC, their mission, their learning acadamies… still waiting 30 minutes in to get to the Critical Thinking.

The college does have a plan for every course to have online ‘component’ by 2006 (current system in Blackboard).

Developed a critical thinking curriculum through their Facilitating the Future Gathering, an online course for faculty.

Oh, apparently all the content is inside Blackboard, so nothing the world at large can benefit from. Damn CMS padlocked silos.

Well here I am in Milwaukee, for the 4-day 2003 Conference on Information Technology Presented by the League for Innovation— this is te big daddy conference on technology on community colleges. You can count on about 30 simultaneous sessions, enough to make you dizzy, and interaction with a few thousand other community college types. I […]

Finally. This is the last of four conference presentations assembled this month, the dog and pony show marathon is almost done. Supporting Faculty Innovation with Maricopa Learning Grant$ is a second presentation I am involved in at the League for Innovation Conference on Information Technology in Milwaukee. Wow this one was finished with almost 36 […]