EDUCAUSE in Philly

So, I'm in Philadelphia at the moment for the EDUCAUSE conference. Normally I'd try and blog most of the sessions, but I'm a bit stuck at the moment as I accidentally upgraded my iPad to iOS5 the night before I came away and it's broken the two blogging apps I use! This is a bit of an experimental post as I try an alternative. If you can read it, then it worked, but it's a bit cumbersome and I won't be able to use it to post quickly as I normally do.

The highlight of the trip so far has to be a trip on a Segway. An hour and a half in the late afternoon sun cruising round Philadelphia's parks, just 3 of us and a tour guide. Brilliant, I absolutely love them, so easy to ride, and great fun. I would love one, but they are quite expensive, although the patent runs out in a couple of years so some competition should reduce that, and in the UK you can only use them on private property - so far behind many other places in getting them licensed. Oh well, maybe one day I'll have one!

The Exhibition here is as usual huge. About 300 stands, and it takes a good couple of hours to walk round. I've had a good look at it today, and spent quite a bit of time talking to existing suppliers, and looking at new products. Lots of ways of attracting you to the stand, my favourite was a machine where you strapped something to your head, clipped something else to your ear, and tried to move a floating ball by concentrating on it!

Lots of stands with "cloud" solutions, and a big emphasis on mobility in delivering solutions, especially in teaching and learning.