Tales from the Train - Campus Technology Conference

So I blogged some the important things about my recent trip to San Francisco like the journey to the Golden Gate Bridge, Linda and Vincent on Lombard Street, swans, and biscuits and gravy, but I didn't put anything about the reason I went there in the first place.

I went to attend a winter conference for IT leaders in higher education that was sponsored by Campus Technology magazine. It was advertised as an immersive workshop in various areas important for leaders of IT in the higher education industry.

The immersive part was true in that the participants chose 2 daily tracks (out of 8 possibles) and each of the first two days was spent immersed in that subject.

I chose Social Collaboration in Teaching and Learning and Technology in Successful Learning Spaces. Both offered good exploration of areas that are important within my new job role.

The Social Collaboration session provided a good look at the millennial generation and how they differ in their learning styles and overall expectations. There was a great video provided through YouTube that I must locate and link here. The session explored the various offerings for incorporating social collaboration technologies into several institutions with varying approaches.

Duke highlighted their launch of the I-Pod and what cascaded from that starting point. The University of Santa Clara highlighted their support for the variety of Web 2.0 technologies including blogs, wikis, and even Second Life where they created a virtual version (a virsion?) Of their new Learning Commons library that was under construction.

The second day was another good immersion into how to incorporate technology and planning and aesthetics to make great formal and informal learning spaces.

To be continued...