Second Day at the Teaching Professor Conference -- Technology, in Atlanta

I think this is the first conference I have been at where the majority of attendees are indeed faculty who are here because they teach, they want to learn about new ways to teach, new tools.  Quite exhilarating.

The topics from yesterday ranged from the commercial perspective (we can do it all for you) that textbook companies have moved towards to the collaborative perspective (with limited resources, what can we do jointly?).  From we provide the content (MOOCs) to we provide the guidance (active learning in a flipped classroom).  From small tools focusing on isolated tasks (interactive white board apps) to online help for tasks students do not want to learn (http://www.citelighter.com/ for citation management) to adaptive learning (platform that guides students individually through learning process).

And all the questions and discussion, here at the conference and on facebook with my friends center pretty much around one thing:  control.
Who has control over the academic content -- I am not just talking ownership but potentially more importantly about what is chosen to be learned?
Who has control over the students' approaches to this content?
Is it the textbook company that will develop the adaptive learning platform?
Is it the higher administration that, through their process of implementing online courses as templates, does not give adjuncts the choice of what they can or cannot teach?
Is it the students who choose what is important to them about a particular topic?
Is it the faculty member who teaches the course?

All of these options are on the table, and they all have some merit.