KHAKI: it all happened so fast, and now here I am back at work with a heap of stuff piled up, but I wanted to write out a quick "10 things" like Kona did in her post reminiscing about the Khaki1.0.
And if this is tl;dr, let me just say up top: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to Instructure for envisioning a project like this and making it happen. The best part, of course, is that it is not over... we are just getting started on all the projects we adopted!
And so here are my 10 off-the-top-of-my-head not-sure-where-to-start thoughts from Khaki2.0:
1. Meeting Community friends... wow, just wow! That was such a gift. Thank you to Canvas for believing in the Community and helping us to work together in this new way, and thanks of course to @scottdennis and @Renee_Carney who were there and to @biray and stefaniesanders who are "here" every day making the Community such a great place to be.
2. Getting to work together, side by side, with Canvas engineers. I was in the Search group, and we had serious engineering participation at our table. They were amazing! I am really excited about continuing the collaboration via Khaki space here at the Community.
3. And more engineers...! it was so cool to get to talk to even more Canvas engineers at Top Golf! For example, I had a great convo with Mark who has been working on quizzes, so when that launches, I will recognize in that product the work and commitment and vision of someone I connected with in person.
4. Seeing the Instructure space: and what a great space! I loved the way the meeting rooms are named ha ha.
5. HOC STULTUM EST. @G_Petruzella made sure to alert me to the Latin poster on our tour!!! I should have taken a picture! Anyway, those of you who work there know the poster I mean. Maybe somebody who works there ( @scottdennis ...???) could take a picture and put it here! 🙂
6. And Canvas really created some networking magic for Gerol and me: we have been meeting each other in online spaces for Latin and Greek geeks before Canvas even existed... but it took Canvas for us to actually get to meet in person. And @lane_worrall too: we were the Classics triumvirate of Khaki 2.0.
7. Who's got swing? I found out that not only is snufer the master of external tools, he is also the master of golf clubs. The man has a swing!
8. Ladies too! And bogardde was not only the guiding force of our pre-Khaki introductions, she also won the women's golf tournament.
9. The logistics were flawless!!! The travel arrangements, lodging, agenda: everything came together as planned. I don't know how @ckeach was able to get all of that done and at such short notice... but she did!
10. SEARCH!!!!!!!!! I'll carry on with this later because I am SO HAPPY that search was one of the features that got voted up. What initially sold me on Canvas years ago was the open and public dimensions of the vision: open courses, public syllabuses, Commons. In addition to all its other benefits, I believe that a strong search feature will go a long way to help fulfill the promise of those open, public dimensions of Canvas, and I am very eager to contribute to that process as Khaki continues through our collaborative work here at the Community.
Okay, now I have to get back to the work of the day... but again, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to everybody at Canvas who made this happen!
And of course I have a Growth Mindset Cat for this mind-stretching experience:
A mind stretched by new experiences can never go back to its old dimensions. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
