My fifth EDUCAUSE conference. Hard to believe. Anaheim, Denver, Orlando, Dallas, and now Seattle. Each year I’ve met extraordinary people and learned a ton.

This year is particularly poignant for me.

I’m on the program committee, which has given me the opportunity to see the event emerge from the ground up, and to work with creative, devoted colleagues to help make that happen. As this year’s EDUCAUSE unfolds, I have an even greater appreciation for all the work that goes into this event, especially all the ingenuity and dedication represented by the folks who are presenting.

I’ll be reconnecting with many of those extraordinary people I mentioned above, and renewing my own excitement and commitment to what I believe is our best hope for genuine educational transformation.

I’ll have dinner with many of my friends from Frye 2005, and draw encouragment, strength, and inspiration from that most marvelous cohort.

At the ELI Advisory Board meeting, I’ll have the chance to review this year’s accomplishments and contribute to the direction of this wonderful group as we move forward into our next phase (see below).

And I’ll have the chance to discuss the topic of “Millenial Faculty” with a small group of conference participants. Since 1990, when I first starting using these technologies as a college instructor, I’ve been hearing about how a generational change will bring the professoriate out of techno-reluctance into techno-fluency, and usher in a new age of IT integration into teaching and learning. Well, the “Space Invaders” generation has their Ph.D.’s and they’re applying for jobs. Has that shift occurred? If so, what are the ramifications of this change?

But the most poignant element of EDUCAUSE 2007, for me, will be a changing of the guard. Brian Hawkins is stepping down as President of EDUCAUSE after ten years of outstanding leadership. And Diana Oblinger, who has brought ELI through three amazing years of growth and innovation, is here for the last time as Vice-President, for she will become the new President of EDUCAUSE on January 1, 2008. Both Brian and Diana are extraordinary leaders. They are also exceptional mentors. It’s difficult for me to express my gratitude to both of them without leaking all over my keyboard and shorting something out. Suffice it to say that I try to channel them in everything I do as a leader and community-builder. I will always be their student.

I’ve been in many learning communities over the course of my career. The dream of a university, a place in which diversity and unity find a common purpose and, even more importantly, a common joy, has come true for me in a variety of ways, from those magic days in which a class meeting takes off for the stratosphere to those days when a conference presentation or even a chance conversation with a colleague propels my own learning into a higher orbit. To my great astonishment, however, it was not until 2003 that I began to see how all these many processes in higher education might be aligned, might realize the synergies that our civilization so desperately needs if we are to address our challenges successfully. If any proof is needed that information technologies are really civilization technologies, as fundamental and as exciting as reading and writing themselves, that proof is here at EDUCAUSE, in abundance.

I wish I’d found this community ten years ago. I’m very grateful and honored to be part of it now.