The Orion conference in Toronto (see http://www.orion.on.ca/2007orionsummit/home.html), and then Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. I took a shuttle service from Toronto to London; otherwise friends and taxi's drove me from place-to-place. Lot of friends! See some of those at Orion conference below (observing a presentation on an anatomy course in 3D).

Now after all these trips let me make some quick observations.

1. E-Learning Leader: The majority of my speaking invites related to e-learning and blended learnig lately are from those in Canada and the UK. This indicates either that they know I like a good beer and conversation or that these 2 countries are assuming leadership in this field or attempting to do so. Perhaps it is both! Notice that Ed Media is back in Canada in 2 weeks (in Vancouver) and eLearn is in Quebec City in October. Maybe there is more government support for e-learning in Canada than here in the States where we lack e-learning leadership from the government. A recent study I did in corporate training departments in 5 different countries showed that government support for e-learning and blended learning was high in the UK and Korea and lagged behind in the USA, China, and Taiwan. We did not study Canada in that one. I guess we should have.

2. Cross-Institutional Collaboration: I notice that in the Canadian higher education workshops I do are typically jointly sponsored and open invite (i.e., anyone can attend for free). As a result, there are often people from many local colleges traveling to another one for a conference or event. Or an event is broadcast using Webstreaming or videoconferencing. The sharing, networking, and collaboration among and between institutions of higher learning as well as the corporate sector in Canada is stunning. I have noted similar things in the UK. People in the UK travel well due to the size of their country and they can use trains (a conference in the middle of the country, say in Leicester, is only 2-3 hours for nearly anyone to travel to by train). In Canada, it may be that share and collaborate well and invite people from nearby places due to its enormous size.

3. Sponsors: As I said, in Canada, there are sponsors for these e-learning conferences. People like Joe Sandercook from McGraw-Hill Ryerson and others have done a marvelous job of sponsoring my talks in Canada. I rarely see the same thing here in the USA. It is really heartwarming when someone calls me up and says "hey, Curt, we have a regional conference in Moose Jaw and we would love for you to be a keynote speaker there." Unfortunately, I have yet to be to Moose Jaw or Yellowknife but perhaps someday. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, like any company is profit-driven, but it is one few companies that truly seems interested in moving the field of educational technology and e-learning ahead. As a former CPA and corporate controller, it is good to see some genuine interest in the ultimate user of their products--the faculty members and the students. Thanks Joe!

4. Inquiry-Based Learning: Only in Canada do I get requests to speak on inquiry-based learning. Most recently, some folks at the University of Guelph (near Toronto) wanted me to speak on it. Unfortunately, we could not come to a date and time. Interesting, back in November 2005, I noted that the University of Calgary has a funded blended learning initiative wherein faculty members can get funded for their blended learning course projects if they include an inquiry component. See success stories at the Learning Commons department at the University of Calgary: http://commons.ucalgary.ca/. Why is inquiry-based learning not more prevalent in the USA or other countries that I visit? Is this a direction we should head? Does online learning provide more rich and powerful opportunities for it?

5. Blended Learning: A hot topic in Canada right now is blended learning. People like Norm Vaughan and Randy Garrison at the University of Calgary are doing a more practical and higher education focused book than my Handbook of Blended Learning which has both higher education and corporate training components. Their book will be coming out soon with Jossey Bass or so I think. Randy and Norm are also currently offering a course on blended learning. I said, a course on blended learning. Wow!!!!!!!!!! I am not sure that would fly here at Indiana. I have had many people in my TravelinEdMan journeys ask my if IU could offer a master's or Ph.D. in blended learning or e-learning and I have to tell them regretfully no.

Dr. Rick Schwier at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon told me last month (he was here on sabbatical) that they are also offering such a course on blended learning. And blended is not just hot at Canadian Universities. For instance, when at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), they had me do a talk on blended learning that they sent to 35 or so sites in Canada as well as to Alaska and Saudi Arabia. I also did a blended talk in Saskatoon a few days before it which is a Google video now (see http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8666613122467962929&q=curtis+bonk&hl=en). Last week, I spoke on blended learning to graduate students at York University, to instructors at Fanshawe, and then to end my trip, I gave an overview of blended learning to Fanshawe administrators.

The Canadians sure seem to like blended learning as much as they do hockey...well, maybe not that much. These are just a few examples. Perhaps it is because, like me, they believe in getting learning out in as many formats to reach as many people as possible. They have a diverse population and significant geography to traverse with their courses. Perhaps the Canadians are simply taking a leadership role. Perhaps one should read Ron Owston and Randy Garrison's chapter in my Handbook of Blended Learning to see what is going on in Canada in the area of blended learning or wait for Randy's upcoming book.

6. Facebook: When I spoke at Concordia University in Montreal a few weeks ago, I showed my Facebook account and noted that I only had 2 friends in 1 year of using Facebook (and one was an acordian player from Germany I had never met). Now, less than a month later, I have more than 20 friends in Facebook and it is growing every day. Seems many Canadians felt sorry for me. Also, I have been told that Facebook has a huge presence in Canada; especially in the Ontario province. Interesting--why are the Canadians fascinated with Facebook? In the past week, however, I have had people from countries such as Australia, the USA, and the UK contact me through their Facebook accounts. So maybe, Facebook is starting to take off among us adults across the planet. Someone should study this!

7. OISE is Poised Again: When I was a graduate student at Wisconsin in the late 1980s, my colleagues and I were always reading information from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. It was always highly grounded in theory and yet had a practical bent to it. People like Marlene Scardamalia, Carl Bereiter, and Gordon Wells have always been welcome reading. Marlene and Carl led the research field on computers and writing and continue to do so. Their psychology of writing papers and books were an inspiration to my own dissertation on computer prompts and writing and keystroke mapping of that writing. Anyway, I have meet a number of people during the past few trips to Canada who have recently completed dissertations at OISE on various collaborative technologies. Once again, it seems that OISE is facilitating many interesting studies (see picture below from Olivia Roberson from OISE who just graduated with a dissertation related to online collaboration processes and stages). Way to go OISE and Olivia!

8. May Day: The past few years I have been to Canada for inservice workshops in May and June. May and June apparently are the months when colleges and universities are in summer session and instructors can come in for some training. Here in the US, this might more often be June and July or never (smile). In Canada, it just seems expected that professors and instructors will engage in retooling during May or June. Many (though not all) realize that the world is changing and they better learn what is possible. Sure, there are still many who are reluctant, resistant, reticent, and hesitant. But, hey, as Bonk is Borg will note, "Resistence is Futile" (see http://www.trainingshare.com/images/BonkasBorg.jpg or http://www.trainingshare.com/workshop.php). Some reading this post will say, well we have training at my campus here in the US. What is Bonk talking about. Well, when you compare the number of higher education institutions in Canada and the US, and realize that I have spoken at 3-4 times as many Canadian colleges and universities than US ones during this sabbatical, you have to at least note it. Ditto the UK compared to the USA. Perhaps US people hate me. Or perhaps they do not like a good conversation and a beer as those in Canada and the UK do.

9. In Canada, E-Learning Friends are Friends for Life: I am on sabbatical now. Been on it for 14 months with a little over 2 months to go. Big sigh and an ug!!! Back in the fall of 1998, I did part of my last sabbatical at Simon Fraser University (SFU) at their Burnaby campus in Vancouver at the top of a mountain. What a lovely place it is. Wish I could go to Ed Media in Vancouver later this month, in fact.

Back in November 1998, I got a chance to hang out with Linda Harasim's research team where the TeleLearning Centres of Excellence were headquartered. Linda had quite a wonderful research team assembled there--Cindy Xin, Brian Fisher, Milton Campos, Sylvia Curry, etc. And she kindly introduced me to many people who came to the TeleLearning conference there that month. People like Ron Owston from York University and Robin Mason from the Open University. They all remain friends today! See pics of Milton and I in Toronto in May. First time I have seen him in years yet he remains a great friend.

I got emails from Cindy, Brian, Milton, and Ron in the past 1-2 days. And there is talk of many of us getting together at Milton's new house near the Vermont border just outside Montreal. My career perhaps had started taking off the year before in Finland, but those weeks in Vancouver were wonderful since I was able to meet many e-learning friends for life. Perhaps I need to move to Canada. I grew up in Milwaukee, so not far in terms of accent.