Wednesday in Vegas

Wednesday was really quite boring for anyone not intimately concerned with online education or learning management software. I was “in session” from 8am until after 6pm, and despite the potential for some major snoozing, it was actually really informative and useful. Not only was I able to learn a lot that would be very useful to my job, I was able to meet a number of “internet” people that I frequently encounter online and folks from other schools and companies that I routinely collaborate with. I sometimes forget the power of the spoken word and the face to face when so much of my world is RTFM.

The keynote of the day was by Blackboard’s own CEO. Among other things, he was showing off the direction of Blackboard’s product over the next 2-3 years. The upside? The product will eventually contain the things we want now, like ajax interaction, mobile delivery, full CSS styling and easy inclusion (integration is a strong word) of other web applications like flickr and youtube. The downside? Migration, time, and money.

Here’s some pictures of the trip.