I’ve just heard that my proposal has been by the League for Innovation in the Community College for their 2004 Conference on Information Technology.

It’s in Tampa in November, so that’s good, and it’s a big, informative, well-designed and well-organized conference:

The League for Innovation’s annual Conference on Information Technology (CIT) is the premier showcase of the use of information technology to improve teaching and learning, student services, and institutional management. Celebrating 18 years of excellence, CIT features a technologically sophisticated and topically diverse program that enables educators to explore and expand their use of technology.

CIT is technologically sophisticated and topically diverse. Each year the conference attracts participants eager to share in an exhibition of how technology continues to change the art and business of education. The League for Innovation’s annual CIT serves as: A technology showcase for state-of-the-art information technology applications;

• A place to foster globalization in national and international communications among community college educators;
• An incubator and emporium of ideas for enhancing the teaching and learning process;
• A path to support the human side of technology and help break down barriers and fears about technology;
• A venue to create awareness of community college initiatives; and
• An engaging, exciting, and fun time.

So that’s good.
But here’s the bad part…the keynote speaker is…Jeb Bush! 🙁 What kind of ridiculous choice is that? An enemy of public education and the intellectual life for his whole career. It casts a shadow over the whole conference. I mean, if the conference board is going to be this careless in accepting a keynote speaker (or worse, if they actually admire him), just how well-conceived can the conference really be?

I’ll still go to the conference, I suppose (I really want to show people the Digital Poetry Projects–to be discussed in another post), but I do believe I’ll spend the keynote by the pool. My general policy is to skip keynotes, anyway–I’ve never heard a useful or interesting one yet.