Like Barry Dahl, I too will not be attending next week's Desire2Learn users conference in Chicago. My reasons were more run-of-the mill: family time and coaching duties primarily.
In his latest blog post, Barry takes a principled stand (I suppose mine is based on principles too) and is actually boycotting the conference.
I appreciate the issues and questions Barry raises about D2L and their handling of the last (latest?) chapter in the Blackboard-D2L edupatent saga. He speaks for all of us when we ask collectively, WHAT THE HECK D2L?? I think we have all gone on our merry ways tending to the daily fires and to our local projects and have set aside our
I do hope that those attending the conference receive some answers to these questions.
If I were to attend the D2L conference, I would also like to ask a question related to the release of Learning Environment 9.0 that my institution launched this week. "Why didn't you do more to better accommodate the transition of the navigation bars to .NET?" Custom links, customized tool names, and many graphical elements have been hosed by the upgrade.
By not attending the conference, I will certainly miss the UNconference and the hallway conversations with D2L staff and peers from around the world. My biggest regret is missing a great chance to connect with 7 faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who are attending for the first time. For those attending, if you see them in your sessions or at lunch, do make them feel welcome!
