CNIE 2009 Ottawa - The Crackerbarrel

My apologies for not blogging sooner, but between a wonky Internet connection (very little wireless in the hotel. Note to self - travel with a network cable...) and a very busy and interesting CNIE 2009, it's been an effort to post.

CNIE 2009 has been a great conference so far and I'll describe it in detail in future posts. The conference got off to a great start with a crackerbarrel - a combination opening ceremony and round table discussions. Some of the tables I sat at included:

• Web 2.0 - The Dark Side - an interesting conversation around what is difficult or bad about Web 2.0 - for me very little, but for many of the K-12 ecucators attending, the issue of cyber-bullying has become a big one. I wonder, is this something that we as PSE eductors have to be concerned about? Hmmm...
• Is Your Avatar Student Better Than the Real One? Learning Opportunities in Virtual Environments - a lively discussion on teh efficacy of Second Life as an educational and learning tool (I think it's an amazing educational opportunity).
• Graduate Study Online - Teaching and Learning Persepctives - we talked about graduate level education online - does the same rigour and scholarly work occur in an online programme - the consensus was that they did (which I agree with having an online graduate degree myself).

A great way to start off the conference and get to start that networking process that I always find so energizing...