The Location for an Invaluable 2011 eLearning DemoFest!…read more SITREP As part of my role as a trainer in the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Central Training Section (CTS), I have opportunities to conduct trainings and take trainings myself at various local and out-of-area facilities. Recently on Friday, September 23, the E-Learning training community of Sacramento Valley coordinated a very diverse and beneficial 2011 E-Learning DemoFest held at the Rancho Cordova City Hall offices in their adjoining American River Rooms. This involved: * 10 main eLearning vendor presentations & demonstrations on various software, platforms and "bells & whistles" one may use to *pop up* webinars and other online-training modalities. * Both Mike Hodge and Tyler Wade - very talented trainers we use for State of California "Master Analyst Program (MAP)" trainings - were responsible for organizing this event and are respected officers in the local eLearning community. RANCHO CORDOVA CITY HALL FACILITIES The adjoining American River Rooms and lobby area provided an extremely friendly and workable environment for putting on this DemoFest. The Registration began promptly at 11:30am in the lobby-entry area of the rooms and was sizable enough to provide enough room for the long, but quickly moving line. Just inside the room entry, was a sizable ante-way that was an excellent set up for lunch tables where the Rancho Cordova City Hall and E-Learning teams provided a great finger-friendly lunch of selected sub-sandwiches as well as diverse pasta salad offerings, with sodas, waters and juices. [During the afternoon break, ice cream sandwiches, nutty-buddies and ding-dongs were also provided.] ;^D The American River Rooms themselves were sizable enough when the partitions are fully open so that all the rooms are grouped together in one large conference room. When break-out sessions are scheduled, the rooms could be repartitioned. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS The Rancho Cordova City Hall facilities provided more than ample electrical hook-ups, online internet connectivity, and broadband width support to conduct the demonstrations for all of our vendors. There actually were no glitches on the facility end of things. Whatever technical mishaps that did occur were entirely the responsibility of the vendors and their equipment configurations. E-LEARNING TRAINING The only downside to this DemoFest is that there were only six (6) scheduled segment-sessions and there were 10 vendors. So you had to pick and choose which sessions you wanted to sit in on, making an educated guess as to which ones would be the most valuable to you. * Cooperative Program Service (CPS) - Melissa Asher on "Cost Savings & Accessibility thru Online Learning: CDSS". * CSUS Continuing Education - Geoff Herbert on "Nurturing and Growing Your Moodle". * Dark Horse Consulting - Jeannette Monahan, SPHR Consultant on "Using ANGEL and Blackboard as tools for long-distance asynchronous learning." * Growth Analogy - Amelya Stevenson on "3D Avatars Bring Training to Life" * ARTICULATE - Ed Crosen and Angel Nazir on "Taking E-Learning to a New Level with Articulate Studio". * Los Rios College - David Wyatt & David Hyde on "Building Engaging Technical Training." * People Development Services - Dennis Wade (fyi- Tyler Wade's father), Principal Consultant on "Converting Existing Instructor-Led (IL) Courses to e-Learning Courses". * Sacramento Superior Court - Linda Shafer, Workforce Development Officer on "Creating a Captivating Customer Service Training in a Virtual Learning Environment". * Shaw & Pratt - Tina Shaw & David Pratt on "Developing e-Learning from the View of a Novice Developer". * The Knowland Group - by Bill Cushard, Chief Learning Officer on "The Self-Made Leader" * UCDavis Medical Center - by Lisa Eckels, Training Analyst on "Using Captivate to Create Engaging E-Learnings". It was a mixed bag. In hindsight, there are two (2) sessions, possibly (3), that I felt were a complete waste of my time in terms of "useful information and tech" that would be helpful in upgrading our training modalities here in CTS. However, each was still a useful presentation in gauging what available tools are being used out there for eTraining. THE LOWDOWN The Rancho Cordova City Hall facilities, and specifically the adjoining American River Room(s) complex is an excellent venue to hold the most demanding E-Learning seminars and conferences.

I have been coming to Rancho City Hall the past several years for meetings, to get different…read morelicenses and attend art shows. There is nostalgic photo historic items, around the building to Oooo and Ahhhh at. Come and check out how RC has come so far and made amazing changes to the community. RCCH has a large meeting room. If you are a business and are a part of the Chamber, you can utilize the meeting and conference rooms for your own staff meetings. They hold cool art themed shows once a quarter highlighting local artists. RC park and Rec is upstairs. They are available to sign children up for local classes, camp or rent a park space for an event. Stop by if you are looking to see what is going on in the community, considering opening a small business or meeting some local leaders. Everyone is really friendly and helpful.

Super helpful lady walked me through a complicated process. So grateful! Keep up the good work!read more

This event was a type of searching for spirits, a ghost hunt event. As simple as it was it was also…read morea great experience a bit complex as well but also the environment really made it. The castle itself is historic with some insanely horrific history to it. I'm not going to say much more it's a great experience. The castle does all different types of events throughout the year, they're most popular is the haunt during Halloween season or throughout October. I went one year it was pretty amazing. My family has gone a few times and loved it. Look forward to this year!! Get your tickets quick because it sells out fast.

Came here for the haunted house event about a week ago and I'm not sure if I would come back again…read more Tickets were $35 each (purchased online) and you have to park and walk about 10-15 minutes to the castle or you can take the little van that drives you there which also takes the same amount of time. We took the van to the castle but they don't drop you off directly in front of the castle so you still have to walk down through security and then to the castle. Porte potty's are available right before security and once you walk up the hill to wait in line to enter the castle. There were a couple food trucks when we went, we were expecting a few based on what was said online but not sure if it depends on the time. We waited over an hour in line to enter the haunted house and if you do really believe in ghosts this place is pretty haunted. The event itself wasn't scary, the actors aren't able to touch you but there's obviously loud screaming and they may be a bit too close for comfort to get a reaction out of you. You do have to climb up and down quite a few stairs and then there's a second part lead outside and back in the castle (barely any lighting and it's a dirt road so you have to carefully walk). Many strobing lights as well so do avoid if you are triggered by that. The energy throughout the castle was not pleasant or welcoming, I was very excited for it to be over as the haunted house itself was not very good and I was mostly tired from all the walking. There's a merch truck outside at the end of the castle as well. We also decided to walk back instead of waiting for the shuttle but there absolutely no lighting and many ditches with uneven flooring so you have to be very careful. Overall experience was not my favorite and I wouldn't come back again.

We enjoyed visiting this really neat, fun, educational, & free experience in a lovely nature area…read more We found ample parking in the lot on a Sunday morning. Park at the far end from the lot entrance to be situated closer to the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is small, but clean, organized, & packed with lots of facts & information. Some areas offered hands-on experiences. They also had coloring sheets for kids. Giant fish heads offer a listening experience teaching about the Chinook Salmon & Steelhead Trout. We enjoyed wandering around. Restrooms are available & were maintained. Just watch out for some spiders on the ceiling above. We went out to the hatchery early enough to get to scoop up some free fish food by the gate with available containers. It ran out while we were still there. It was a very cool experience to see the fish go into a feeding frenzy! Do keep the gate closed, which is posted on a sign. Some people weren't being attentive. There are observation points & a lovely trail to walk along the river with some informative signs here & there. It was so pleasant to take in the pretty, peaceful scenery & watch birds. We hope to return to see more action with the salmon & trout from November to February. Do check their website for up-to-date visitor information as they close the facility to the public after Memorial Day until Labor Day & times may be subject to change.

The Nimbus Fish Hatchery is a great family friendly place and it's all free! It's a nice place to…read moreenjoy some nature and fish. There's free fish feeding which is my favorite activity here. The feeding area closes before the visitor center so plan to do that first. Be sure to check their Facebook page for the latest updates on hours and closuresThe visitor center is also worth a stop, with educational displays about fish spawning. There's restrooms available inside as well.

This is a fascinating old stone structure that was originally built about a hundred and forty years…read moreago! To get to it you will need to hike on the Mokelumne Coast to Crest trail. It's about 2 miles east on that trail. Keep in mind that in the summer, that trail can be boiling hot, so be sure to take plenty of water and use lots of sunscreen. After you visit this Landmark you can continue on for quite a few miles along the trail. You can get very close to the building, but you are not allowed to go inside, and the front door is locked. But still it's a fascinating place to visit. At the front of the house are some flyers that explain the history of the building. They're also some out houses nearby. In the front yard of the stone building is a hose. I don't know if that's potable water or not.

If you are an individual who loves to learn about the California Gold Rush and subsequent mining in…read morethe Foothills, then stop by Miner's Bend Park in Sutter Creek. Just a short walk from downtown, the park is small but has a lot of cool old machinery and more importantly, lots of great information on Mother Lode mining and the miners who risked their lives daily to extract the precious metal.

Miner's Bend Historical Park, is down the road from the old downtown of Sutter Creek, on old route…read more49. The park is very, very small. One can walk at the pace of a turtle ( figuratively speaking) and probably still do a whole turn in less than 5 minutes. It's at the end of a road of homes and extra city parking spaces. It has no restroom, no play area, and no BBQ pits. It has a couple of picnic tables under a big beautiful sprawling low branching tree. So what does the park actually have and why the heck would anyone go visit it?!?!! Well, the park is actually an outdoor display of historical mining equipment with information boards full of historical facts and archive photographs. Basically a free outdoor museum! Awesome use of open public space and retired mining equipment. It's worth a stop if you are already in the area and appreciate history. Actually the small country town of Sutter Creek is itself a California historical landmark. The old town is a modern refined tourist trap with modern posh boutiques, shops, and eateries; it has a historical charm of the 19th century gold mining California town. The Main Street has its wooden sidewalk and Americano turn of the century look. I call it Main Street but it's officially called old route 49. Nearby homes are older beautifully refurbished Victorians maintained by private residences. Sutter Creek still flows through old town, site of the gold panning days of yore. The Main Street is on the old route 49. The new route 49 was built about 10 years ago that rerouted it away from driving through town. #suttercreekminersbendhistoricalpark

Got to do a field trip here today! Incredible! Thank you for keeping us pilots safe in the air!!!…read moreWe really appreciate you all!!! What an amazing experience!!!

In this world, we have travelers who fly to destinations all around the world. Inside those…read moreplanes, are the pilots who we trust to get us off the ground and to our destinations safely with as little turbulence as possible. And even though pilots are a huge part of safe and successful flight operations, their success and jobs wouldn't be possible if it weren't for the air traffic controllers who talk and walk those pilots through bad weather, maintain aircraft separations and keep a watchful eye on the planes from take off to landing. Some of these great controllers work here at the Northern California Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility or NorCal TRACON for short in Rancho Cordova. When the opportunity arose to meet and talk to some these controllers came up, I jumped at the chance to visit them at their place of work. The facility and the folks at NorCal TRACON are nothing less amazing and professional. And I can't stress enough how important they and their jobs are to aviation and its safety. If the chance ever arises to visit a TRACON, an airport tower or an Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), you'd better jump at it.