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BbWorld AsiaPac ’07 begins this weekend in the Gold Coast, Australia, with pre-conference workshops from 9–10 September; the first-ever, dedicated Regional Developers Day on 10 September; and the main conference from 10–12 September.

If you’ll be attending the users conference and plan to blog about your experiences, please let me know at blogfeedback@blackboard.com.  I’d like to link to your blog entries here.

While helping to prepare the program guide, I read all the session descriptions for the more than 50 sessions, led by Blackboard users, partners and staff members. Here’s just a sampling of the diverse set of presentation topics:

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES

• “The Decline of the Public Intellectual and Commercialisation of Knowledge” by Hon. Dr. Barry Jones AO, writer, broadcaster and former minister of the Australian Labor Government (Tuesday)
• “21st Century Global Education Realities” by Blackboarders Gordon Freedman and Zach Johnson (Wednesday)

CLIENT-LED SESSIONS (Tuesday)

“C.S.I. Sydney: Collated Statistics Investigations at the University of Technology Sydney” – Flexible Learning staff members from the University of Technology Sydney will discuss a visual system they developed to monitor and graph the use in real time of various tools and systems within their Blackboard implementation, including Discussion Boards, the Gradebook and online quizzes.

“Doorstops and Suitcases Become Wikis and Blogs” – Two members of Edith Cowan University will explain how they use a combination of wikis and blogs to record a professional learning journal, and expand their teachers’ knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies.

“Designing Effective Games-Based Faculty Training Programs” – The training and development manager at the University of Santo Tomas will demonstrate how they use collaborative and interactive online games to train faculty members.

“Blackboard Greenhouse Grant: Integrating Open Source Social Software with Blackboard” – A project manager for the recent Blackboard Greenhouse Grant recipient Deakin University will describe how they have integrated open source wikis, blogs and social networking software into their Blackboard implementation.

CLIENT-LED SESSIONS (Wednesday)

“An Overview of e-Portfolio Options” – The flexible learning services manager at AUT University will provide an overview of Portfolio products and how they can be used to support and assess higher education students.

“Managing Multimedia Resources with the Blackboard Content System” – The information services manager at Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar School will discuss how they store, manage and catalogue items in the Blackboard Content System.  A classroom teacher’s perspective will be explored, as well.

“Upgrade Testing for Your Learning Management System – Functional, Scenario and System” – A consultant and analyst from Deakin University and Monash University will explain the series of scalable test plans they’ve developed and use before applying upgrades to their production systems.

“MyIvanhoe: From an Electronic Classroom to the Entire School Community” – A project manager from Ivanhoe Grammar School will discuss the development, features and benefits of their new online portal that extends their implementation of the Blackboard Learning System across the entire school community – from staff to students to parents.

Again, if you’ll be blogging during BbWorld AsiaPac ’07, please let me know at blogfeedback@blackboard.com.  I look forward to hearing from you.  And enjoy the conference!