This post from from ~35,000 ft on an American Airlines flight from Philly to Dallas on the 18th.

On my flight we have a number of American servicemen and women on their way home from Iraq. I can't imagine how happy they must be to be on their way home.

Once again, notwithstanding what one thinks of this or that US foreign-policy decision, I think it's imperative that we recognize and respect the debt we owe these young (and young they are) men and women for the time they've spent in harm's way and the job they continue to do. This fact wasn't lost on the passengers on today's flight.

As we made our final approach to Dallas, the pilot came on the intercom and thanked the soldiers "for all your service" and welcomed them home.

The spontaneous applause following the pilot's announcement made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Welcome home indeed and thank you. Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday, all the best in 2004 and here's to the safe and soon return of your colleagues.

A post from Harrisburg, PA.

Today I had the pleasure of working with faculty, staff and guests of the Penn State University -- Harrisburg during a Train-the-Trainer session for the SMART Board(TM) interactive whiteboard. I learned a lot from this group and thanks to all for making today's session both fun and educational.

This marks the last session for 2003 and I'm looking forward to taking some time off to recharge and regroup. I'm not sure exactly how I'll react to not having any work-related travel, or school work, to do for a couple of weeks, but I'm sure I'll manage somehow ;-)

Greetings from Sacramento. I'm here after delivering a training session on the SMART Board(TM) interactive whiteboard. My trip to Northern California has been good. The weather hasn't been the best, but it is certainly much warmer here than in Calgary and surrounding area.

I'm making this post via a wireless connection from the Sacramento airport -- once again, thanks to Phil. Wireless connections are slick indeed.

On the school front, I've got an essay due by end of business tomorrow. The good news is that I have a substantial part of it already completed. CTL 1000 -- Foundations of Curriculum -- with Wayne Seller @ OISE/UT has been a great course. The subject matter, and the way Wayne presented it, has taught me a lot about the principles at work in curriculum development and how best to apply them.

Some reflections on this year's Winterstart World Cup @ Lake Louise.

It was an extremely interesting year for me in a number of ways. Personally, my involvement as a volunteer and as the "on-site" representative of my employer, SMART Technologies Inc. meant that I was a very busy individual over the course of the two weeks I spent in Lake Louise. That said, it was extremely gratifying for me to be involved in both capacities and I feel that I was truly involved in something special.

I had the good fortune to be able to use our hardware and software to perform the function of scribe for the World Cup Business Forum on Corporate Governance which was hosted by organizers on 28 November, 2003. Attendees and panelists represented a "who's who" of Canadian business and I learned a great deal by virtue of my involvement in the forum as scribe.

I used SMART Notebook software to capture my handwritten notes during the forum and make the conversion to text. Ultimately I used SMART Notebook software to export the contents of the file to PDF for delivery to session participants.

The Canada AM shoot was a lot of fun; notwithstanding the 0300 AM wake-up call participation required ;-)

I also enjoyed working with Kerrin Lee-Gartner to produce a segment whereby we used the SMART Board(TM) interactive whiteboard in the lobby of the Chateau Lake Louise to describe a section of the downhill course the Women were running at the Lake. Unfortunately, bad weather last Saturday meant that two feeds or versions of race coverage were produced -- one for European audiences, and one for domestic delivery.

The net result was that the segment we worked on "ended up on the cutting room floor" as was not aired. Nonetheless, staff at CBC was quite excited by our technology and I fully expect to see SMART Board(TM) interactive whiteboards, and related software, in use by CBC Sports in the future.

Another post from the Lake.

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of working with the staff of Canada AM in the lobby of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Here's a picture of Jeff Hutcheson using the SMART Board(TM) interactive whiteboard during a segment of the show.