This last weekend I attended the annual conference for the International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning (ISETL) in Las Vegas. I was attending as part of my responsibilities as a University employee, but I was amazed at how closely related what I heard in the sessions was to the things that we are reading about and discussing in our 520 class. I was part of discussions about learning theory (mostly cognitivism & constructivism), metacogntion, Web 2.0, and a whole host of other things that I really didn't know anything about before September. It was fun to be able to see the things we are learning in class applying in authentic settings.
Also, we have talked about how with just a little experience in instructional technology, we become "experts" in the eyes of people outside our field. I could see how that was true because about half of the conference attendees (most of whom were university faculty members) had never heard about "web 2.0", situated learning, etc. It helped me realize how valuable the training we are receiving is and will be when we graduate and start looking for jobs.
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