I come to bury, not to praise...

I'm here at ALT-C - The 16th annual Association for Learning Technology Conference - at the University of Manchester. It's not a bad place actually, and the campus is fabulous. Student accommodation - boo hiss. My room leaves a little to be desired as always - I couldn't find a connection or a socket last night, so this is the first time I have had the opportunity to get online. The coffee and tea sachets will go unused in my room too, because there is a distinct lack of kettle. I was told to look in the wardrobe as this was where kettles are usually secreted, but all I found was a lion and an old witch. Never mind.

ALT-C is very much like the gathering of the clans, with people popping up all over the place that I haven't seen for a year or two. It's great to catch up with all the news, talk over projects, ideas and debates around e-learning with people who are passionate about the topic - you learn a lot like this.

Names are too numerous to mention right now, but I'm going to present a symposium entitled 'The VLE is Dead' later on, along with Graham Attwell, James Clay and Nick Sharratt. Josie Fraser will be refereeing (sorry, chairing) and we expect a large audience, going by the Crowdvine sign up numbers. I will give a eulogy on the VLE - I come to bury it, not to praise it. The session starts at 1.40 British Summer Time (ooh, that's a joke). Please join us, even if you are not in Manchester, live on u-stream. We look forward to your comments...

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