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Over the past couple of years, I've had the opportunity to plan some events that are focused on teaching and learning with technology (lower case since it is about the topic, not the TLT organization). These include the 2007 and 2008 TLT Symposiums and the Learning Design Summer Camp as well as some smaller events.

Ball State's Emerging Media Initiative (EMI) is a planned $17.7 million investment in focusing the university's historic strengths in this area, accelerating benefits to the state of Indiana with media-savvy human capital. Our students will have access to innovative and entrepreneurial opportunities in emerging media across the curriculum. Our growing emphasis on new ideas, technology transfer, and commercialization will provide the support faculty need to bring their ideas to market.

Opening up the institution may seem like a counter-intuitive way of protecting it, but in an era where tremendous value is being created by informal and self-organized groups, sharing becomes the simplest and most powerful way of connecting with external learning opportunities.

Registration for the 2009 Summer Faculty Institute -- the premier event for faculty who want an in-depth, hands-on opportunity to work on their technical skills and address their classroom and online instruction needs -- is open until midnight Wednesday, April 15.

A PLN isn't a particularly new idea; learning networks have existed for a long time. What's new is the reach and extent that's now possible for a PLN, with technology and global interconnectedness providing the opportunity for a much wider, richer and more diverse PLN than ever before.

Future generations of learners will no doubt look back at the global economic crisis of 2008-9 and reflect on which institutions were agile enough to make a difference by bringing the wisdom of their scholars together with the acumen of their technology officers and the ingenuity and determination of their university leaders.