USS Midwaaaay awesome

The party aboard the USS Midway was awesome, you know that you are dealing with good people when the CEO is handing out ipods in a crowd of people yelling into the mic, " get your ass on the dancefloor." For real, thanks for the party, the drinks, the flight simulators, the Cluny whiskey, and throwing a kick ass party with over 1000 of America's most interactive minds. ciao.

Intel outside: the web wide world.

Yes,

i just attened a panel discussion presented by Intel and it went very well. Chris Thomas was introduced by a Blackboard employee who read from notes and said that the keynote's alma mata was walkeeshow, which I immediatley called out to clarify things for my Wisconsin brethern, Waukasha.. in any case...

The presentation was great, we started with a brand new commercial of kids saying interesting and peculiar things like: "I remember hot spots,", " I remember when computers weighed 4 pounds", etc. the reason that people clapped after the commercial/introduction was aired in the conference room was the irony and the beauty of our future. Children are always our future and for them to be talking about things, ourselves are more than liklye going to be saying was fun.

The presentation had little to do with Blackboard itself, but that didn't matter, I learned about bigger things. Fopr instance, i now realize that intel is going to try to make wi-fi world wide, like cell phones are used today. The speaker, Chris, spoke about architechure and enery issues regarding programs and how he sees the future. he also invited up some colleagues and a Bb Student to give a quick quip about what he sees at the future.

It was cool. but...

Coming from an Argentine American perspective, it seemed bold, brash, and rude at times. One person from the audience talked about $100 computers, which i assume they mean the UN mandate which is a gesture and no real answer to anything. How about pencils? Intel and silicon valley can make computers as cheap as they want and may get their global wi fi, but China is producing pencils which are cheaper and just as good for communicating... So my point is that the commercial, the presentation, and all our dreams in there take money to run and govenments to accomodate commercialization of products, this is money that most governemets do not have. I have to say that i am a little disgusted and amazed at this company, i really like the simple idea of a dual processor, it is the basis of communication i can't believe for the life of me why no one ahd thought of this idea before.

regarding pradigm shifts, ( implentation point aka "tipping point") i think that cell phones is an intersting example however, they are global, and perhaps with open-source phenoms like Fon things will change, we will see.

Mardi Gras last night... No class today.

Yes, it is true. I will not be attending the Blackboard sevices event today. But tonight... oh yeah.

That's the main reason for coming anyway, the party on the USS Midway.

hehe ( just kidding)

Well, I wish this blog could be more forth telling about the conference, overall i am very impressed with the product and apparently many people are impressed by podcasting, at times, in two separate events, i almost felt like I was a presenter.

So I met most' everyone, got a book signed by the incredible keynote speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping point. (One of my favorite parts about the tipping point of paul revere was later expalined to me to be a romantisized example by a professor from Concord) rubbed elbows with the founders and traded business cards, to my surprise, and met many people with suffixes at the end of their name, PhD, MBA, Doogie Howser MD, you name it they were there.

I am pretty glad that i came and had fun (a little too much) with the University Hardford Conn Tech Department last night.

WEll, I could still go, there is penty of time, but the thing is, I don't have blackboard, I don't use it blackboard, I am here to find the best services for my company and to give it the foundation it needs to grow. I only really wanted to come to the first two days anyway, but now as life would have it, will have to stay for the third and so I suppose it all works out.

p.s. I now know what it is like to be at a teaching conference with America's brightest minds at the forefront of interactive education... it is marvellous and I hope to bring this to the world of teaching in my own mavellous way. Cheers.

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.