I am in Nashvile, TN, for the Quality Matters Conference. The breakfast room is full, and pop music blares from from two tall standing amplifier towers. Two large screens advertise the software companies and products that one's institution can buy. It is like academic NASCAR.
But wait, there's more. There are sausage sandwiches, like at McDonalds, and there are little rolls with piles of vanilla and chocolate icing. It is popular.
Next to the "make your own cinnabon" there is a more healthy option of fruit. However, it might not be sweet enough, so there are six bottles of syrup you can pour on your fruit.
Sugar, fat, and pop music.
We are sitting at a table with people from Lubbock, TX. One nice person was very friendly. She asked where we were from, and when she discovered we were from Blue Ash, she mentioned that she had not heard of Blue Ash. I said it was named for a kind of tree. "Oh," she said, quite cheerfully, "We know ash trees. We call them trash trees. Nobody wants them. My husband just says we don't need those trees, so everybody just cuts them down."
Social commentary.
So, the lights just came up, but the music rocks on. It is time for our KeyNote Panel that will talk to us about Content, Design, and Delivery: the Past Present and Future of Distance Education.
Let me get another cinnamon bun with chocolate icing, tap my foot to the music, and settle my trashy self in for some lovely exhortation about how my distance learning experience can be a matter of high quality.
But wait, there's more. There are sausage sandwiches, like at McDonalds, and there are little rolls with piles of vanilla and chocolate icing. It is popular.
Sugar, fat, and pop music.
We are sitting at a table with people from Lubbock, TX. One nice person was very friendly. She asked where we were from, and when she discovered we were from Blue Ash, she mentioned that she had not heard of Blue Ash. I said it was named for a kind of tree. "Oh," she said, quite cheerfully, "We know ash trees. We call them trash trees. Nobody wants them. My husband just says we don't need those trees, so everybody just cuts them down."
Social commentary.
So, the lights just came up, but the music rocks on. It is time for our KeyNote Panel that will talk to us about Content, Design, and Delivery: the Past Present and Future of Distance Education.
Let me get another cinnamon bun with chocolate icing, tap my foot to the music, and settle my trashy self in for some lovely exhortation about how my distance learning experience can be a matter of high quality.
