I attended OpenEd 2008 @ Utah State the last couple of days. Even though I missed the last day of the conference (today) it was one of the best, most inspiring, thought-provoking conferences I’ve attended in a long time.

Here are some highlights /observations:

• Seeing Yale’s OCW demo and being reminded that sometimes quality is more important than quantity. They have seven (yes, 7) courses online that have been viewed by 500,000 people. Not too shabby.
• David Wiley’s declaration: “If my students can Google it, I don’t need to teach it.” The new knowledge economy is much more about what you can do with information than it is what you can memorize. (See my recent post RE ChaCha.)
• Interesting observation by Yoshimi Fukuhara of Keio U that OCW sites are too focused on content and not enough on the learner experience.
• Tusk Project at Tufts U facilitates “personal knowledge management” for students.
• Terry Bays of OCWC suggests it’s critical for institutions to be clear about the goals their pursuing via Open CourseWare, i.e. what benefit(s) will it bring to the institution? Without such clarity, OCW efforts will be difficult to sustain over time. Jacque du Plessis made a similar argument in his presentation on the OCW lifecycle.
• The hike up Logan Canyon. A very nice, refreshing break in the middle of the normal conference grind.
• Finally meeting Brian Lamb after bumping into each other on Twitter and blogs for several months.
• Confirmation from several folks after my presentation that a standalone, CMS-independent gradebook is a critical missing link for the creation of more open, flexible learning networks.
• General mood / ideology / philosophy permeating the conference that learning and learners are much more important that institutional niceties, systems, vendors, etc. etc. etc.

Great conference! Thanks to the organizers, presenters and participants!