So today has been a very full day. We started off with David Pogue’s presentation. Poor guy woke-up to a dead hard-drive. He said he had to throw together the presentation – and minus some small technical issues, it was a great presentation.

David Pogue focused on a few technologies that are going to be big or bigger. There was Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) or the idea of using a phone through a wireless connection – it already exists, but he sees a lot of potential. He talked about some other technologies – one in particular that is here and now is what Google is doing with information on the phone.

If you’re not familiar with Google SMS – I’ve made a quick Jing video to shows of how it works and how you can use it (Check out the Jing Project from TechSmith). http://screencast.com/t/NTesNX2a10o — Oh yeah, and it’s free (both Google SMS and Jing)

I also like Google 411. You dial 1-800-goog-411 (1-800-4664-411). You say you’re location, what you’re looking for and they will connect you. You can also get a business address as well. If you want you can get a text message of the information as well – super handy if you don’t want to write down the number.

Check out the Google video:

Ryan and I taught a Camtasia Studio session that went pretty well. We’ve talked about tightening up the presentation a little, and making sure we dig into the content faster – even if that means we pause at regular intervals to present information we normally give up front.

We also participated in one-on-one sessions. It’s a good opportunity, although pretty limited since we are only doing 2 sessions, with each session having two people participate.

It’s interesting to hear what different folks in the industry are doing. Of course there is a lot of buzz about simulations and needing to do simulations. I heard this at the e-Learning guilds DevLearn conference last November as well.

It’s funny in Grad school 4 years ago I was looking at this. So I was on the bleeding edge, looking at this opportunity coming down the pike… and I actually walked away from it. Partly because I was worried it wasn’t going to be something that I could build a career on, and honestly partly because I had family and friends that ribbed me about the games side of it (What? You’re playing games in grad school?)

So I probably missed one of those opportunities of a life time- but then again – is the simulation trend here to stay, or is it another tool that will go in the tool boxes and only pulled out when the hammer and duct tape won’t cut it?