Dark clouds and peanut butter sandwiches

Well, it´s the final day of the ICL conference here in Villach, Austria. It´s clouding over again, and there is a rumour of rain. It pelted down last night, and I was glad that all the events, including the splendid conference dinner (sponsored by the Mayor of Villach, who failed to appear) were located in the same silubrious venue of the Congress Centre and Holiday Inn Complex. They certainly know how to treat you well here - the staff are superb, helpful and friendly, and the rooms are soooooo luxurious.

There are delegates from over 45 countries represented here, and many are milling around the wireless zone, or sitting tapping away at their laptops as I write this blog. Much of the conference content has been highly technical, which pleases the physicists and hard science bods who are much in evidence, but irrates the hell out of people like me. A lot of it goes over old ground I´m afraid to say. I have overheard comments such as ´where are the students in all this?´and ´what about the learning?´ I won´t bore you with some of the titles, as they certainly bore me.... and for me at least, dark clouds are gathering over the conference as it draws to a close. However, here are some of the more interesting titles which I have either sat in on, or plan to sit in on, during this final day: Towards an architecture of participation, The impact of graphics on wiki use, The human side of e-learning, and one to really get your teeth into ... Make a free wiki as easily as a peanut butter sandwich!

Overall, as with many conferences of this nature, there seems to be a shortfall in quality and innovation within the presentations. I´m not disappointed though... I have made several new contacts with some excellent people. It´s been a great networking experience.

Finally, there is one particularly Teutonic title: ´Make engineering students collaborate!´ We leave tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 0600 to catch our train back down to Ljubjlana and thence outwards to Stansted via the big white and orange bird. More reflections later when I have had time to reflect...