An interesting opportunity came my way this past summer.

I received an email from Peter Tittenberger (Acting Director of the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba) asking if I would be interested in participating in a symposium he was planning on personal learning environments on January 26, 2007. To make a long story short I said yes and so Clarence Fisher, George Seimens and I are giving the afternoon plenary session at the symposium this Friday. The keynote address that kicks off the day is being given by Dr. Terry Anderson (from Athabasca University). Full details of the event are online here.

Part of the proceedings involve a series of free wheeling discussions and Q&A sessions with small groups of different kinds of learners: high school students, first year university students, grad students and faculty. Two of my students from my AP Calculus class are on the panel of (3) high school students (Clarence and I are moderating this breakout session). We've decided to make a field trip of it and the rest of the class is coming along to see how teaching and learning is evolving at the university. I think it'll also be a good opportunity for those of them planning to attend the U of M next year to network with faculty that may end up being their professors. ;-)

If you want to participate remotely Peter has arranged for the morning keynote and afternoon plenary to be webcast live which can be accessed from the symposium home page. Since three of us (Clarence, George and I) are co-presenting the plenary we'll each talk for about 15 minutes ... 15 minutes, 50 minutes or 150 minutes, these things always make me anxious. Hope to "see" you there. ;-)

Update - January 28, 2006
If you saw the live webcast you know that I never really got to give the presentation I had planned. Minutes before George, Clarence and I went on we learned that while there was an internet feed for the live webcast there was no internet connection for us. My entire presentation was online. I've decided to "do it anyway" after the fact. I've just finished the video file and will post it here soon. ;-)