TTIX 2010

For the past day and a half I’ve been attending the TTIX (Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange). This is the fourth time I’ve attended this conference and each time I come I leave excited about my job. This is primarily a higher ed conference and it’s nice to learn what educators are doing from across the K-20 spectrum. Most of the colleges and universities from around the state are represented and I find it rewarding to network with other instructors and IT folk. Yesterday I was pretty focused on the session I taught – 5 new things from Google (and maybe a couple of old ones), but today I’ve had the chance to enjoy the sessions. If you've always wondered just what exactly my job is you can watch a portion of the video below. It makes me a little self conscious to be filmed presenting, but it's part of my job.



I wasn't sure how my presentation went yesterday - it's a bit hard to gauge the reaction from a room full of higher ed folks. As I was packing up my stuff I had an interesting encounter. A woman approached me and mentioned she was from Michigan. She went on to say that she works with the MRA (Michigan Reading Association) and that she would love it if I could come out and present and their annual conference. Wow, that was out of left field. Even though I do this for a living it's rare to get a request beyond Utah's borders. We'll have to see what comes of this opportunity, but it was fun just to get asked....

One of my favorite parts of TTIX is the Grand Poo-Bah of Social Media award.  Basically, the award goes to the people who use different forms of social media (flickr, twitter, blogs, youtube) to share their ideas from the sessions they attend.  I've always participated, but usually left the conference early because of my work schedule.

This year I was able to attend the entire conference and guess what - I won second place.  It's quite a prestigious honor  (ok, not really) but I got a free t-shirt and a brand new FLIP camera!  I can definitely say it was worth posting my observations for some free stuff.

Thanks to the guys from UVU Instructional Design for putting this conference together.  You’ve definitely got a fan at UEN.