Something I like to do for this blog is to post a review of any conferences I attend. My hope is that anyone who is struggling to find the right conference can look at my reviews as a guide to help find the “right fit” for them. 

This year I attended the SLATE conference in Naperville, IL. This was my second time attending and it had been several years since I last attended SLATE. The first time I went, the focus and content within the conference was very BlackBoard heavy. DePaul uses D2L, so the focus on BlackBoard really limited the sessions I could pick from.

I decided to give SLATE another chance this year to see if they broadened their learning management system (LMS) coverage. Sadly, for me, even though it wasn’t as Blackboard-centric, the only other LMS included was Canvas. I found myself with a limited amount of sessions to choose from, again, because the sessions were heavily based around LMS offerings that DePaul does not use. Despite the limited options, however, I did find some sessions that proved to have useful takeaways.

There also seemed to be a focus on new products, rather than new concepts, this year. Which I should preface with at this point, factoring the amount of conferences I have gone to and what I have already learned by working with my knowledgeable colleagues at DePaul, it’s getting harder to go to conferences and have those “eureka” moments. Continue reading →