Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday I arrived in Chicago for the Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference.  What originally started as an invitation only workshop for about 30-40 people in 2003 has grown into a conference of about 300 people.   Many fine colleagues (Mary Niemiec, Karen Swan, Chuck Dzuiban, Karen Vignare) of mine have been part of the planning for this conference and it should provide a lot of useful information for faculty, administrators, and instructional support people.    Joel Hartman at the University of Central Florida will be giving the keynote.  Norm Vaughan, Mount Royal College (Calgary, Alberta) will be doing an afternoon workshop on student assessment in blended learning environments.  I am part of a panel discussion on “The Blended Learning  Ecosystem” which is defined as “the weaving of practice, technology, support, design, pedagogy and community into a harmonious environment capable of adaptation, evolution, and  self-sustaining growth”.   I am also hoping to spend some time with colleagues from City University of New York (George Otte, Jennifer Sparrow, Howard Wach) who are also participating in this conference.  For several years, it has been my position that blended learning has an enormous potential for mainstream academic programs in higher education (it is also beginning to grow in K-12 especially at the high school level).    In the not too distant future, it is quite possible that  blended learning environments will be the common mode of instruction for most academic programs.

More information about this conference can be found at:  http://www.sloan-c.org/blended

Tony