CIT stands for the Conference on Information Technology.  I have attended this specific conference before.  The information received and the contacts made at this particular conference have had immediate pay offs for Lane Community College.  For example, I met Hal Plotkin, the guest speaker for Lane's own Spring 2007 Conference, as the CIT conference.  He presented to over 200 faculty on Open Educational Resources (OER), and Lane has since joined his institution, Foothill-DeAnza Community College District in California, in a both a technology consortium and as a partner on a Federal Title 3 grant.

At the Nashville Conference, the "tracks" are:
I Track - Emerging and Future Educational Technology
II Track - Teaching and Learning
III Track - Student and Community Services
IV Track - Leadership and Organizational Development
V Track - Enterprisewide Systems and Infrastructures
VI Track - Workforce Partnerships and Collaborations
VII Track - Math, Science, Allied Health, and Vocational Education
Of these, in my role as History instructor and Faculty Webmaster, Tracks I and II are the most relevant.

Just a few talks of particular interest to me are the following:
Automatic Lecture Recording and Publishing
Beyond PowerPoint: Using Camtasia and SnagIt to Enhance Online Courses
Create Video Tutorials for Students and Colleagues
Develop E-Learning Content for Any LMS - SCORM
Effective and Efficient Use of Technology to Enrich Learning - Hybrid Courses
First Steps Toward a Podcast Campus: iTunesU and You
How Open-Source Publishing is Changing the Educational Landscape
and Innovations in the Learning College, presented by Terry O'Banion

I believe these to be of interest to Lane's faculty and in support of our current and future direction in Distance Learning.

Where do I begin? I'll give just two specific examples.

Lane instructors have certainly "heard" about podcasting and many are wanting to do this for the students in their classes.  This is an untapped reservoir of excitement, but there is also a need.  Couple this with the recent decision of the Distance Learning department to cancel face-to-face orientations for courses, and you have the formula for technological innovation in the learning environment at Lane.

After a slow start last year, the number of Hybrid courses offered at Lane is experiencing significant growth.  I myself will be offering the first Hybrid United States History course in Spring Term 2008, where 1 credit of seat time will now be "earned" online.  The pedagogical challenges to accomplish this task are profound.  It is not merely taking something you do in class and putting it online.  Sure, a synchronous "live" class discussion can take place asynchronously in an online forum, but they dynamic is completely different.   In a live class, only a few students will speak up, but online, they all will if the assignment is graded.  Among other things, this represents a tremendous increase in the instructor's workload.  I hope to find out how faculty at other institutions are dealing with this and many other issues concerning Hybrid courses.