This last year has seen some very significant changes for ADETA that have important implications for the future direction. All of these changes contribute to the redefining of the association to better meet the needs of our members and all professionals working in this part of the educational sector.

1. Increase in Membership

We have successfully reached 500 members this year due opening up the membership process and eliminating the annual membership fees and making it easier for members to sign up.

There are two conferences that will interest ADETA members that are taking place this Spring in Alberta.

Canadian Network for Innovation in Education annual conference in Banff at the Banff Park Lodge April 27 to 30, 2008. Call for proposals at http://www.athabascau.ca/CNIE-RCIE/english/program/
ADETA is an organizing partner for this event. This is the new organization that was formed when CADE and AMTEC merged. ADETA has partnered with CADE on the last two conferences held in Alberta.

Here is a fun little test to take. It tests your awareness abilities.  It is easy to take, just watch the video.
http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

Rod

This is what has been happening in March so far on the ADETA front:

• We received 20 proposals for presentations for the June conference in Calgary. The program is coming together nicely and we have negotiated overlap times with both the Blending Learning conference in the UK and the CANHEIT conference in Calgary, so we will be sharing some presentations.
• Also for the June conference, we have set the registration fees to $250 + tax for early bird and secure very affordable accommodations for attendees right on the UofC campus.
  

ADETA is poised and prepared to take on a larger leadership role within the distributed learning community. Recent support for ADETA to be the umbrella organization leading up to the Alberta Distributed Learning Symposium in March 09 challenges the K-12, Post Secondary and Workplace learning communities to align and connect over the next 14 months. Building awareness of both current and future programs, professional learning, resource development, and research brings a common purpose and mutual support for learning across the province. Alignment of learning communities will require strong communications linkages as well as identifiable benefits.

E-Learning 2.0: What It Means, Where It's Going

This is a presentation Stephen Downes did for Mzinga  (the result of a merger between KnowledgePlanet and Shared Insights). Stephen looked at what e-learning 2.0 means to him personally, then what it means to students in general, and how it shaped learning. He also talked about trends in learning - especially as these new technologies come up against traditional environments. He finished with a quick summary of the underlying technologies.