ELI 2010

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) annual meeting is being held this week in Austin. The theme of the meeting is: "Learning Environments for a Web 2.0 World," with the conference centered around exploring:

"….models for the future of learning that fuse emerging technologies and learner-centered strategies to yield new learning environments designed for student success."

I'm really bummed to miss the ELI conference this year (spouse/kid schedule), although I'm eager to understand the limits of keeping up with the conference from a distance. This week I plan to pay particular attention to the ELI Twitter stream - and I have subscribed to the hashtag #eli2010. There is also a YouTube channel.

Are you also someone who is a regular ELI attendee but can't make it this year? How do you plan to keep up with the conference?

The ELI Conference Program looks really amazing - it is good to see so much innovation leveraging technology for active learning in these difficult fiscal times. The choice of John Palfrey to give the General Session on "Born Digital" is an inspired one. I would have also loved to participate in the lightning round discussion of the 2010 Horizon Report.

The great thing about the ELI Conference is its scale. The conference is large enough to attract top quality presenters and to showcase vendor innovation. At the same time, the sessions are intimate enough to facilitate productive dialogue and sharing. The ELI focus on learning makes this annual conference the key event for people who work on program and course design and development.

Are you at the ELI conference? What are the main things that you are hoping to get our of the meeting? Which sessions are you looking forward to the most?

Shameless plug for the poster session that my colleague, Susan Simon, and I put together: "A Sociological Video Mashup Story: Lessons from Partnering with the Library, Faculty, and Curricular Computing for Course Projects." Please go by and say hello to Susan.