New Zealand Trip - November 2012

Wow, what a privilege to be able to visit New Zealand twice in one year!!

I had the opportunity to return to this beautiful part of the World in November for the ascilite2012 conference.  Educators from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa attend this annual conference and I was fortunate enough to be an invited speaker for a Student Engagement and Blended Learning session as well as a a full research paper on the Sunchild E-Learning Community study.

The conference was held in Wellington on the North Island.  Besides being the political capital of New Zealand this city is also the creative arts capital.  The World premiere of the movie the Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey was taking place at the same time as the conference - so it was a very exciting and engaging time to be in Wellington.

It was wonderful to be immersed in long hours of daylight (compared to the shortened days in Calgary) and the smells of the sea and the spring flowers were overwhelming!!

I made sure I took lots of pictures and a good set of conference notes. The plan is to follow-up with the many new friends I made in order to make sure I can return to this part of the World :)