Learning Innovation

Close your eyes. Now answer the question, what pops into your mind when you hear "Desire2Learn"? Okay, you can open your eyes.

Did you check out the Pearson's OpenClass booth at EDUCAUSE? If not, it is worth spending some time on the new OpenClass site www.openclass.com.

Every job is in some way fascinating. I'm particularly interested in how you earn your living. Those of us who are in some way associated with higher ed, and who gather in this community to learn and share what we know. Jeanne Marie Laskas is one of us, an associate professor and director of the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh. Maybe in her next book she will turn her attention closer to home (or maybe your campus or office), but the lack of higher ed people in Hidden America should not dissuade you from reading this terrific book.

What are your big takeaways for EDUCAUSE 2012?

The 2012 EDUCAUSE Exhibit Hall (the vendor floor) features 270 edtech companies. From Aastra (booth #669/671 - audio and video conferencing, business continuity, disaster recovery, emergency planning, cloud computing and services, enterprise information systems, wireless) to Xirrus (booth #627/691 - hardware, identity and access management, network infrastructure, network security and applications, wireless) - with anyone and everyone in the edtech space (except Apple) in between.

What are your goals for EDUCAUSE 2012? What do you hope to learn at the conference? What insights and information do you hope to take back to your campus?

If you are reading Nate Silver's awesome book The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't you know that: a) The track record of forecasters for predicting future events is abysmal. b) There is no correlation (and indeed an inverse correlation) between the confidence that one makes predictions and the accuracy of these prognostications.

If I could choose one theme that I hope resonates with EDUCAUSE attendees this year it would be around productivity.