Just back from lunch at McDonalds (I had to try the Royale Cheese aka Quarter Pounder) and the morning session was quite okay with some interesting discussions. While the topics at the MMedia 2009 conference are diverse to say the least, ranging from low-level networking to user interface related stuff, it provides a good opportunity to pick up on some new ideas. The presentation of my paper was on the first session during the day and I think I got my message through, at least there was a lot of discussion afterwards which is a good thing. Also I found the virtPresenter presentation quite nice, which basically lets you integrate a learning management system into Facebook. In my opinion there is a lot to gain when applying TEL in environments where the users feel home, and certainly a lot of students feel more at home in Facebook rather than in Moodle or in Blackboard. I’ll post more comments and photos from the conference when I have the time and energy to do so. Over and out.

After a long day of travel my current location is in a strange hotel in Colmar, France. It turned out to be quite tricky to get here; you need to take two trains trips from the airport and on top of that French people are terribly bad English speakers and appear rather annoyed whenever you ask them something in English. It complicates things. When I finally came to Colmar station and started walking with my bags I realised (after 20 minutes of walking) that my hotel was on the other side of town. Just great. So after 30-40 minutes of strolling I found my hotel, phew. So, onward to the registration venue (another 20 minutes of trying to find my way) and then off to eat. Luckily my years of German studies granted me some phrases fit for restaurants so I managed to order a calzone with coca-cola, but again the waitress was kind of rude. Okay, I understand that it is frustrating to not understand your customers but a little politeness is not too much to ask for. Now I will spend some time fixing my slides for the presentation tomorrow before tonight’s welcome event. I sure hope that there are some people in my situation to hang out with during my stay here. I’ll end this post with a beautiful building from central Colmar, enjoy!