Taiwan!

It’s been too long since I’ve blogged, and I guess I just have to realize that travel and intensive work (and the consequent ‘catching up’) takes more time and energy than I’ve been willing to admit. However, in addition to the great eLearning Guild conference (plan on their upcoming DevLearn/ID conference in fall here in the SF Bay Area), I had an amazing trip to Taiwan.

There for a two-day workshop on learning game design (stretching it into two days let me talk slowly and work in some more material), a one-day on mobile learning design, and a day of consulting for a couple of companies, I didn’t get much chance to look around, but I did a chance to appreciate some of the wonderful elements of the country.

First, the people were delightful. Full of energy, far less formal than I had supposed, they were thoughtful considerate hosts, and very interested in how technology could better support learning. They eat often, and provide plenty of food, much more of it is fruit and vegetables than we typically have. There’s great fruit, owing to the rain (continual during my trip); the afternoon snack the three days of the workshops was always a big container full of fresh fruit. Their dishes are not what you’ll typically see at a Chinese restaurant, though you can order them. I was served kung pao chicken and hot and sour soup one night, in addition to more unusual things: shrimp in a lettuce leaf, tofu noodles with greens, and a broth-filled dim sum are just some of the things I had. Many were very good, a few were too strange for me. I have to say that I’m right off fish for breakfast…

The folks were very gracious, escorting me around, providing the great food experiences, and talking with enthusiasm about possibilities and showing their work for feedback, as well as answering gracefully my many questions about the culture and the country. They’re also quite entrepeneurial, and we we had several discussions about business ideas around games and mobile. All in all, a great time and I hope to return there again.