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Introduction:
I'm spending a few days in Denver physically preparing for my first InstructureCon. I'm having fun here, but my head is buzzing with InstCon plans.
Details:
I'm sending my letter from home from Denver, my home away from home for the next few days. Here's the thing: I live 12 feet above sea level. So, to make sure that absolutely nothing deters me from the awesomeness of what will be my first InstructureCon, I'm spending a few days in Denver acclimating for the next move to over 9000 feet. Drink lots of water? Check. Sunscreen packed? Check.
I'm also taking medication to nip that dreaded altitude sickness right in the bud.
Denver is a great place to stop for a few days. I'm staying downtown, just a block away from the 16th Street Mall. And you can find Pokemon in the strangest places here.
I've got the InstCon app downloaded, I've looked through the sessions, and I have a good idea of which ones I'm going to attend, although that could change! because it was tough to narrow down the choices from so many. (My Google Calendar has so many overlapping rectangles on it this week it is a veritable work of geometric art.)
I packed for yoga too!
Between the sessions, I look forward to meeting face to face all of the incredible folks I've had the pleasure of bantering with in the Community. And I have a mission. As many of you know, CanvasLIVE, the extraordinary Community-driven resource hub, went dark in June, so that it can emerge in an even more awesome iteration. I'm hoping to create connections between like-minded users who will find that CanvasLIVE's just-in-time character fits right in with their needs. For example, last week I had the pleasure of meeting @cbarger from Florida Atlantic University. She and her talented team are in the midst of implementing their transition from a legacy LMS (ok, it was Blackboard) to Canvas. Now, what if I can connect her with other Community members who are either at the same point in their implementation or have already completed it and can help her navigate the pitfalls and dodge the curveballs? QC99.tsilvius just wrote a fantastic document* about how to stage courses to prepare them for a move from Blackboard to Canvas. I hope he is at InstCon and that I can introduce him to Crystal. Better yet, what if they, and a few other Community members, want to engage in a CanvasLIVE chat or screen sharing session when we relaunch next month? And what about people moving from a different LMS? Or stepping away from LMS migrations, what about people with other ideas about the practices they'd like to share in CanvasLIVE? The mind reels at the possibilities. We can utilize this new imagining of CanvasLIVE so hard that it will truly become the heartbeat of the Community.
So, much as I'd like to wear a sandwich board around InstCon that reads, "Getcha CanvasLIVE Here!," I think I'll rely on your enthusiasm to come find me.
Recommendation:
Denver is a great staging area for InstructureCon at Keystone! Of course, the jury is out on whether this will derail the mountain sickness, but I'm an optimist--why shouldn't it? And hey, maybe we sea level denizens can turn this Denver InstCon Pre-Conference** into a pre-Keystone tradition.
Im looking forward to seeing you!
**Pre-Conference in this context means a place to have good food and see the sights.
