Pardon me, boy! Is that the...? Why, yes, it is! The Chattanooga Choo-Choo!

Yes, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo is one of the conference hotels for SIGCSE 2009. It's about a 10-20 minute walk to the Chattanooga Conference Center, or you can catch one of the free Electric Shuttles.

The Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel is located at the site of the original Chattanooga train station. In 2009, the Chattanooga train station will be celebrating its 100th anniversary. In May, the Glen Miller band will be visiting and performing as part of the celebration. (I'll be that you can guess at least one of the songs that they will be playing!) The lobby and front desk of the hotel is under the dome of the original train station, and it's really lovely.

One of the attractions of staying at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo is staying on a real rail car. Besides lots of traditional rooms, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo hotel has a number of rail cars that have been converted into hotel rooms. (Sorry, all the authentic, uncomfortable, tiny bunks have been removed and replaced with full-size comfy beds.) The train/hotels sit on the original tracks of the trainyard. When Sue and I were there in August, the gardens in the pedestrian areas between the trains looked terrific. Free Internet is available throughout the site, though it's wired (not wireless) in some of the train cars--hard to get the wireless signal to pass through the steel cars.

Craig Mundie on Cloud Computing

Our keynote speaker for SIGCSE 2009, Craig Mundie, just had an interview with Technology Review on his vision for cloud computing -- pretty exciting stuff!

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21422/?a=f

Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software

There was a really nice article in the Wesleyan last week about the use of Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) to engage and inspire computer science students:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/newsletter/campus/2008/0908hfoss.html

HFOSS is such a great example of engaging students in computer science education. Some students aren't excited about computers themselves--they're excited about what can be done with computers, and how computation can offer new solutions that help real people in challenging situations. HFOSS provides students the opportunity to contribute using their developing computer science knowledge. That's a great tool for recruitment and retention of students.

There will be an HFOSS pre-conference event on March 4 in Chattanooga. Watch the conference website for further information on the HFOSS and other pre-conference activities that will be available to SIGCSE 2009 attendees!

Chattanooga, City of WiFi

When Sue and I visited Chattanooga a couple weeks ago, we were pleased to see how much WiFi access there is around the town.

First, we were assured by all the hotel representatives that we met that free WiFi access will be available in all three conference hotels.  We told the hotels that they could expect SIGCSE attendees to be serious WiFi users, so they might want to see what they could do to increase their capacity.

Then we met with the Chattanooga Conference Center folks in charge of their WiFi network.  We gave them the report for how Portland configured their WiFi support to deal with the demands of the SIGCSE participants.  We were told that they would do all they could to meet Portland's capacity, and maybe do a bit better.

As we wandered Chattanooga, we kept finding surprising access.  When I opened up my laptop in the visitor's center, just across from the Tennessee Aquarium (that's the Aquarium on the left in this picture, and the visitor's center is behind the tree on the right), I found that I could get WiFi access from the Aquarium! 

 Free access -- just had to go through several pages of caveats and agreements.

The most unusual one was on the Electric Shuttle, a free shuttle that connects all three hotels, the Aquarium, restaurants, and other attractions around Chattanooga.  Yup, there was a sign 

right on the front of the shuttle -- free WiFi on every shuttle!  It worked, too!

So bring your laptops to Chattanooga in March, and stay connected all over the city!

What does it mean to be engaging?

Last week, I was at Steven Dow's thesis defense. Steven was studying "embodied narrative engagement" -- storytelling in an augmented reality. As any good Ph.D. student should, he offered definitions of all his critical terms, including "engagement."

Given our theme for this year, I thought that it might be useful to share some of the quotes that he offered on "engagement."

• Coleridge, 1817: Engagement is a "willing suspension of disbelief."
• Nell, 1988: It's to be "lost" (as in a book).
• Janet Murray in her 1997 book Hamlet on the Holodeck: Engagement is to "confront questions of human existence."
• Bolter and Grusin in their 1999 book Remediation: Engagement is an "authentic emotional experience."
• Green and Brock, 2000: Engagement is to be "emotionally involved."

How many of these correspond to our notion of "engagement" in the classroom? Do we aim for students getting "lost" in the "authentic experience"? Do we reach for students being "emotionally involved"?

I look forward to seeing your definitions of engagement in your SIGCSE 2009 submissions, due this coming Friday, August 29!

Re-Visiting Chattanooga

Sue and I spent last Thursday and Friday re-visiting Chattanooga. We had last been there in December 2006, when we selected Chattanooga as our site for SIGCSE 2009. It was time to go back, meet our contacts, and start making lower-level plans for SIGCSE 2009.

We had a great visit. The weather was picture-perfect. We took walks around the city, to enjoy the city and to time the walking commute between hotels, the Conference Center, and the Aquarium. We met a Southern Belle telling us about riverboat trips available on the Tennessee River, pictured here with Sue.

On Friday, we visited potential caterers for the reception. What an interesting experience! At first, we couldn't understand why the visitor's bureau put long, two hour gaps in our schedule between visiting caterers. Then we realized: taste testing! Each caterer wooed us with tastes of wonderful food that might be served at the reception, and even napkins already monogrammed just for us. Even if you only "taste" each of the wonderful goodies, how many small meals can one eat in one day?!? We needed those hours between to simply digest all those goodies.

You can expect more blogs with pictures over the next few weeks. There were lots of good things to see in Chattanooga!

Thinking about Chattanooga

"Wow -- that SIGCSE deadline sure is early this year! AUGUST 29! I dunno...what's in Chattanooga anyway?!?"

Got these thoughts here in early August? Wipe those thoughts away! Get those submissions in!

Chattanooga is a really fun city. They just opened up a new website to highlight some of the excitement of Chattanooga. Find it at http://www.discoversceniccity.com/

Looking forward to reading your submission soon!