Greetings and aloha!

With this message, the conference officially opens.

On behalf of the staff, I'd like to welcome you to the Second Annual Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference: Trends and Issues in Online Instruction. Over 1700 have registered, and the energy that's emanating from all of you tells me that these first three days in April will be exciting and rewarding.

In the next few minutes, I'll be emailing to you welcome messages from Kenneth P. Mortimer, President of the University of Hawaii system, and Dr. Bert Kimura, Coordinator of the Kapiolani Community College Naio Educational Media Center.

I'll also be emailing the first of two keynote addresses: Crawford Kilian's will be distributed this morning, and Jay Wootten's, on Thursday.

Crawford, in his keynote, asks the tough, sobering questions that many of us would rather not hear. He asks us to remove our rose-colored glasses and face, not avoid, our challenges. Ultimately, he offers us an opportunity to assess exactly where we are in this brave new classroom that we've ventured into.

To comment on Crawford's keynote or on other welcome messages, please write to CFORUM-L@hawaii.edu.

Following the keynote, please be sure to attend some of the MOO sessions, featuring presenters, that have been scheduled for today. MOO schedules and help files can be found on the conference web page

http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/tcc-conf

The Open Forums will also kick off today. To join a forum, please see the earlier announcements for directions. (An archive of all announcements can be found on the web.)

Bert will be announcing, in his greeting, multimedia web tours of Hawaii. When you have a break in your schedule, please spend a few minutes on one or more of the virtual tours.

Finally, be sure to visit The Coconut Cafe for a tropical drink and some informal live chat with fellow conference participants. The cafe is in the MOO, and it will remain open throughout the three days of the conference.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to write to me and the staff.

Aloha,
Jim
jamess@hawaii.edu

Welcome by James Shimabukuro quicktime (3mb) readaudio

Return to Keynotes and Greetings