"So now I walk in the midday sun, I never thought that my saviour would come, I think it's amazing, I think you're amazing" - George Michael (tenuous I know but George is Greek)
ICICTE 2007 was a great conference as always. I really enjoyed meeting the familiar faces as new making some new friends. The organization was superb as always and Crete was a welcoming destination. I was very proud to receive an award for being a friend of the conference (which made me so proud that I turned up in a socceroos replica strip). Cheers Ken! I also enjoyed introducing the keynote Rob Koper of the Open University of the Netherlands, who gave an inspiring overview of Learning Design. It was great to catch up with Rob who I met in Bulgaria last year as part of a TenCompetence based special issue I was organizing for Interactive Learning Environments (where I used to be Associate Editor).
My old spar Asher Rospigliosi and I contributed to a paper presented by Sue Greener called ‘The Value of Social Cognitive Theory in Online Discussion: Reflection via a Critical Incident repertory Grid’, which was invited for publication in Interactive Learning Environments. Asher needs a haircut and a shave as always. Aureli Owens and I presented ‘Engaging Colleagues in Personal and Organizational Change via Force Field Analysis’, which was invited for publication in the UCFV Research Review. I think this will be Aureli's first publication. But watch out I think she is a rising star.
The man of the match was definitely Barry O’Grady of Curtin University who presenteda great paper on finance and e-learning co-authored with his colleague Peter Mayall. The best bar conversation was with Steve Wheeler of the Faculty of Education at the University of Plymouth. Steve is the book reviews editor of Interactive Learning Environments. He is something of a rival now of course but as he invited our paper I guess we can live and let live! You can check out his views on ICICTE here.Piers MacLean was in great form, although rarely seen at the bar, and his paper with Bernard Scott 'Researching Requirements, Practice, and Prospects for Learning Design: Some Results and Conclusions' is part of a research program that is really useful to anyone interested in training the next generation of learning designers. Check out their expanded paper from ICICTE 2006. It is good to see these old muckers from Cranfield have started the new JISC funded WALTER project. The future of learning design education is in safe hands!
We stayed in the Creta Sun apartments about 1/2 an hour from the action. The girls did a fine job of controlling the pool and the beach (Michelle did this by remote from her bed until around 4pm each day) while we were hard at work. Our host Dennis was a man in a million and generous with the four roses. I wish we had the time to nip back later in the summer for another dose of fine Greek hospitality. We eat nuff times at a local Greek lunch wagon that served the best dressed chicken in town for a couple of Euro. Nice! No them belly full but we hungry.
Wackies and Studio One was the boys music of choice in the Creta Sun apartments (except when Marian treated us to early morning Robbie Williams or Michelle went for some serious deep Brixton House) where we entertained Emory and Mina Craig from New York. Barry and Peter provided the most exciting taxi service on the island. Next year I hire a Hummer.
