Hello, folks.

I arrived in State College yesterday (and as a matter of fact, it is lovely; it’s very foresty, and my hotel room has a view of mountains).  I arrived just barely in time to attend the opening session, which was a good thing, because this is actually a very small conference.  Every other conference I’ve been to that’s been sponsored by as large a group as Educause has been a massive thing, where no one would have noticed or cared if I was a few minutes late.

I made a game-time decision to skip the registration desk and just go into the first session.  However, I did have to pass the registration desk on my way to the session room, I passed the registration desk.  An in-charge-looking woman asked my last name, and when I told her, she said, “Aprille, right?”

Okey dokey.  I guess they are paying attention.

The in-charge woman was very helpful about getting me set up discreetly as the first session was getting started.  I’m glad I made it in the nick of time, though, because some people got stuck in Chicago, and there was much speculation about them.  It would suck to be under such scrutiny before the thing even started.

Oh yes, the thing.  So far it looks like it will be pretty intensive.  We got put into teams right away for this group project we will be working on all week.  The basic premise is that we all work for a fictional university that has had its funding drastically cut, and we have to make a case for an entirely new strategy for learning and assessment.  We have to present our case on the last day of the conference.  Our only task so far has been to find something all the team members have in common and name our team based on that.  We strugged forever, then finally came up with the fact that we all got into technology not through formal schooling, but by some strange series of events.  We called ourselves the Technology Hitchhikers, because we just got picked up along the way.

We had to write our names and our team name on a poster.  I drew a picture of a hitchhiking thumb and hand, though I suspect I didn’t make the thumb stick out enough, and it looks more like a magenta Black Power fist.  My color palette was limited.

There’s wireless in the building, but it doesn’t extend up to my room.  I just enjoyed a lovely breakfast (the food has been great so far, and I hear it’s going to continue; good thing there’s a gym here, so maybe I’ll break even), and today’s first session is going to start in a few minutes.  Cheerio!  (Actually I had a blueberry muffin, some bacon, and some pineapple, but the woman next to me is enjoying some Cheerios.)