DTLC 2010 – Madison, WI


Just returned yesterday from the 26th Annual Distance Teaching & Learning Conference hosted in Madison, Wisconsin at the lovely Monona Terrace Conference and Convention center. As always, it was a great conference. I met a lot of interesting people, had some great dialogue, and enjoyed learning about what other institutions are doing with distance learning. I also presented a demonstration on behalf of a Moraine colleague and held a roundtable discussion. Overall, it was a great time.

I enjoyed the conference, but I am looking forward to being able to focus more on research and theory. Though I have relied on the research literature to inform my work and practice over the past 2+ years, I feel like I’ve been away from it in terms of being able to think carefully about theories and ideas and formulate new ideas. I miss that type of intellectual work and I am thrilled to be able to get back to it (and to the classroom) when I start my teaching position at The Ohio State University this fall!

This was my last conference as a member of the Moraine Valley family, so it was very meaningful to have a great colleague, Martha Mazeika, along with me during the conference. Though I was quite tired from all my job-change preparations over the last few months, her energy and enthusiasm were infectious and she made a terrific conference buddy. I plan to return to this conference next year and I’m hoping to reunite with my Moraine colleagues at that time. To learn more about the conference, please visit the conference research library at: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/ – you can search for presentation materials and other resources. Enjoy!