Given I’m attending an eLearning conference (DevCon), I decided to "practice what I preach", and do a podcast from last night’s reception. My setup is fairly simple … my Dell laptop and a Samson USB condenser microphone (Northstar Nerd’s Podcasting Tutorial).

Listen to my podcast comments (1:52 running time). Each name below links to their interview. Everyone also had to answer the age old question … What’s the nerdiest thing you’ve ever done?!

My three victims were:

• Edwin Garcia from the University of Texas
  (3:36 running time)

I interviewed Edwin due to the phenomenal speed he applied the lessons learned in an afternoon session on how to use the Video iPod as an eLearning device. Within two hours of a session provided my Mark Henry on how to use the iPod Notes feature to create custom eLearning, Edwin had applied the lesson for a different platform than the one reviewed. I hope to link the Powerpoint slides for Mark’s presentation soon.

See this separate post which includes Mark Henry’s source files!

• Garin Hess, the CEO of Rapid Intake … the conference host and sponsor
  (5:40 running time)

Hear Garin’s view on Rapid Intake’s views on technical conferences and Web 2.0. Having never attended eLearning DevCon before, I have been impressed with the openness this conference has to having presentations on "competing" ideas and technologies.

• Michael Weiland from Arizona State University
  (3:10 running time)

Michael’s comments include his impressions of Devcon, and also an explanation of Knowledge at W.P. Carey. This web site / service of Arizona State’s business school is provided in conjunction with Knowledge@Wharton. Quite frankly, I had no idea Knowledge@Wharton was building a network.

Learn more from some of my prior posts on Knowledge@Wharton:

• Management and Strategy Podcast Search Engine
• Knowledge@Wharton … Around the Globe
• Other Posts …

Beth Weber over at TechSmith (SnagIt, Camtasia) has announced a screencasting group on Facebook. DevCon eLearning attendees … you should join!

Link to her blog for details, or Create a Facebook account and search on screencasting. (click upon thumbnail for expanded view)
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As promised, here is my report from Devcon – Day 1. This conference has already lived up to my expectations. The event is located at the University of Utah; my lodging is a dorm room which was part of the 2002 Winter Olympics Athletes Village. Thus, in between sessions, or if I need a longer break … it’s just a five minute walk back to my dorm.  Although I have a "single", other attendees are in my dorm’s suite. Thus, I’ve already enjoyed some hallway conversations! Over lunch in the campus dining hall, I talked with some eLearning experts from San Diego, and a Utah PhD student doing medical research into the structure of DNA. Although she had nothing to do with our conference, it was a fascinating talk.

I’ll make more information available later, but here is some preliminary information which relates to two great presentations which I attended this morning:

• Mobile Learning – A Reality: A.J. Ripin from Moving Knowledge
  (A.J. took us on a wild, and extremely useful ride through some of the newer development tools for mobile devices. Links to some of those tools are given below.)
  • GCast (mobile learning podcast application)
  • Impatica (create content for Blackberries)
  • GotZapp (mobile social network
  • Mooobl (sim for mobile devices)
• Why Wikis Wrule: Tom Reinartz from the University of Minnesota
  (Tom can only be described as an expert where it comes to using wikis in education. Use his presentation as a base point for exploring the world of wikis)
  • Master Presentation (all kinds of useful links!)
    (user ID and password = new6)
    • Two examples of learning … one serious … and ??
    • YackPack (sharing via audio)
    • Father Guido Sarducci’s Five Minute University

Finally … two photos of the campus!
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My daughter asked me last night: "When are you going to blog about our big news?". 

In answer to Karen’s question … now!

This has been a busy week … with a unique (and fun) lunch on Thursday with my future son-in-law. He met with me and Molly (my wife) to ask our permission to marry Karen. Although I expected to say "yes", I still had a large list of serious questions and issues I wanted to discuss! Friday night he popped the question to Karen.

Since this is a "knowledge management" blog, what would you ask a future son-in-law? While I won’t embarrass Matt by listing the specific questions here, I did cover these subjects:

• meaning of marriage
• religion
• children
• careers
• finances

We had some nice discussions. Matt answered first, and then Molly and I gave examples from our 24 year marriage. Click upon the thumb nail image to see the photos and announcement!
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This afternoon I leave for eLearning Devcon in Salt Lake City. My schedule normally only allows me to choose one technical conference each year which does not have a direct relationship to a current work project … so why Devcon? I’ll answer that question in this blog over the next few days, but it meets some of my key requirements:

• Focused … with hard core presentations
• Participants live in dorms … allowing for better intellectual interaction

With those comments … it’s off to the airport. I’ve just downloaded some podcasts from the Burton Group, including a recent interview with IBM Fellow Carol Jones on the topic of Social Software and the Future of Work (all podcasts). If you’re not familiar with the Burton Group, they describe themselves as a "vendor-independent research and advisory services focused on enterprise IT infrastructure technologies. Known for our principle-based architectural approach and technical depth, each of our six highly-focused research services provide practical insights and direction for enterprise technologists and executives."