Instructional Strategies for Blended and Online Learning Conference - Park City, Utah - July 2008

I was very fortunate to have been selected by Tunde Brimah of Academic Impressions to help facilitate a conference on Instructional Strategies for Blended and Online Learning. The conference was held at the New Park Resort, just outside of Park City, Utah, at the end of July 2008. The other facilitators were Chuck Dzuiban from the University of Central Florida, Tom Reeves from the University of Georgia and Margaret Riel from Pepperdine University.

Helping to facilitate this conference was a real "stretch" for me as Chuck, Tom and Margaret are VERY experienced researchers and facilitators. Once I got over my nervousness I was able to become part of the group and I must admit that I learned a lot from the experience (despite arriving direct from the summer cottage with a case of poison ivy).

I facilitated the pre-conference session on Designing Learning Courses for the Needs of Diverse Learners and then followed up later in the day with a session on the Role of a Successful Blended/Online Instructor. The second day I facilitated a session entitled Student Engagement and Web 2.0: What's the Connection. From my perspective, this was my best session (highest personal comfort level and positive reception from the audience).

Besides facilitating the sessions, I had an opportunity to have some wonderful dinners with the "gang" as well as a great evening in downtown Park City. Of course, I made sure that I captured the experience with some photos before jetting back to the cottage on the third day of the conference (just in time to join the rest of the family - next blog posting).