Day 1: Ate lunch, late for founder's talk... 3:30

Dedication. it's tough to do, i was emailing my clients, alumni, and business partners, now i need to go talk, i'm late. i'll blog in a bit.

cheers!

Day 1: Keynote delivered 10:45 a.m. Pacific

"Oh wow." was the first and only thing that Malcolm Gladwell said to me personally after I told him I came from Buenos Aires, Argentina to see him speak and absorb this new educational medium (Blackboard), but from all of us here at the Blackboard World in 2006, the 8th such event... we say, "Wow.", yes that is all we can muster, we were all wowed, by Malcolm's enthusiam, wit, charm, humor, and ability to motivate all of us to reach the "tipping point" of online education.

I have learned a few things and made a few connections, i am excited for more and look forward to the podcasting speech at 11:20. i just came from the enrichment of the online course and went back to the HI hostel and changed from the 10 room $23 to a private $50.. the comfort inn is $129 and i have too much media to let it ripped off in a public room.

It is also raining cats and dogs, as a fella said to me last night, "we gonna have more rain in the next 24 hours, then we had all year."

"Oh wow." is all I said.

Day 1

So... This is going to be a bit technical. I sat down with the IT director of Georgetown University and another Blackboard alum SQL or "sequel" programmer and just listen to these guys "go to town" This is going to be a crash course, not unlike our TEFL weekend program, and I am loving it.

I am going to the first of several breakout sessions today and look forward to talking tech some' more. I have to say, this is a strange experience, I certainly seem to be the youngest person here and fella with the longest hair. Stay tuned, i will stop by this "cyber cafe" often, if not to blog, to hit the WIKI and find out what the techies are talking about. Wish me luck.

-Ryan, TEFLocal Rep

BbWorld '06 (aka) Blackboard World: 2006

The reason why TEFLocal was dedicated to this event is that first off Web CT and Blackboard are the industries leaders in online education. This year they combined and so this interactive powerhouse is clearly a formidable player and must be understood in order to bring the best tools available to students and teachers alike in the TEFL / TESOL world.

Is blackboard the future of Online TEFL courses at TEFLocal? The next few days will be telling, although after the events, even then we probabley won't know... you see, we are ALWAYS searching.

So as today is only registration, i will save the goodies for tomorrow and will report if we are the only TEFL / TESOL course that cares enought about you to skip everything else, leave South America, and come here to San Deiago at the convention center to represent you, TEFLocal, and the future of online education.