LearnIT is dedicated to improving workforce skills by capitalising on leading IT education, e-learning, research and recruitment strategies.
Associated Conferences
- Key Competencies in the Knowledge Society (KCKS 2010)
- History of Computing (HC)
- Young ICT Professionals Conference (YoungIT)
Industry Speakers
| Name | Job Title | Organisation | Abstract Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Evan Arthur | Group Manager, Digital Education & Youth Transitions | Department of Education, Employment & Workplace Relations (DEEWR) | Implementation of the Digital Education Revolution |
| Dr Marcus Bowles | Director | Institute of Working Futures | Developing an integrated ICT Competency Framework: Debunking myths to posit a solution |
| Simon Brown | SkillsTech Australia | Success Factors in Online Teaching | |
| Professor Phil Candy Mike Collett Jenny Hunt |
USQ Schemeta, United Kingdom Schemeta, United Kingdom |
e-Learning Readiness |
|
| Alan Chanesman | Principal Partner | Lipman James Australia | Is Australia’s Economic Immigration Program Working for Business Today |
| Dr Yong-Sang Cho | Director of the Korea Education & Research Information Service (KERIS) | Ministry of Education & Science Technology (MEST) | e-Books & e-Learning The Korean Open Digital Publication Forum |
| Professor James Dalziel | Director | Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) http://www.melcoe.mq.edu.au | Web 2.0 Meets Lesson Plans: Sharing Good eTeaching Ideas |
| Sir John Daniel | President & CEO | Commonwealth of Learning | Computers for Secondary Schoolchildren: A busted flush? |
| Steve Hargadon | Elluminate's Social Learning Consultant & founder of the Classroom 2.0 social network www.classroom20.com | School 2.0: Where We're Headed, Why, and What We Can Do About It | |
| Adrian Janson | Director of ICT | Melbourne High School | The VCE IT curriculum and the importance of IT in the National Curriculum |
| Terry Kearney | Executive General Manager – Education and Health | Springfield Land Corporation | Changing Values of the Next Generation |
| Jerry Leeson | Director | Business Solutions for Education Services Australia Limited | Aligning existing digital learning resources and systems with the Australian Curriculum |
| Allyn Radford | Director | Learnilities Pty Ltd | Lessons from an Open World |
| Carol Skyring | Founder and CEO | LearnTel Pty Ltd | Vision of the Future: Where will eLearning be in 2020? |
| Steve Sugden | Editor | Spreadsheets in Education | Revitalizing Mathematics Education with Spreadsheets |
Abstracts and Biographies
The session will outline the history of the implementation of the Australian Government's Digital Education Revolution. It will describe the approach taken to the delivery of the commitment to provide access to a computer to all Year 9 to 12 students in Australia and consider progress to date. It will discuss the actions necessary to ensure that provision of computers is integrated into the wider structure of schools education in Australia and the role which the Digital Education Revolution can play in the success of the Government's overall education policies, particularly the introduction of the new Australian Curriculum. It will also consider the relationship between the implementation of the Digital Education Revolution and the roll out of the National Broadband Network.
Dr Evan Arthur was educated at Newcastle (Australia) and Cambridge (UK) Universities. His doctoral thesis was in the area of Stoic Philosophy. Dr Arthur has been employed as a university tutor and as a public servant. He joined the Australian Public Service in 1981. He has worked in the (then) Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and in the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). He has worked on issues such as refugee policy, labour market programs, teacher professional development, research and innovation policy, recognition of overseas qualifications and the use of information technology in education. His current position is Group Manager, Digital Education and Youth Transitions Group in DEEWR. Dr Arthur is currently responsible for coordinating Australian Government involvement in issues associated with the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in education and managing the implementation of the Digital Education Revolution. He is also responsible for managing the implementation of the National Partnership on Youth Attainment and Transitions.
A long and not too helpful debate has been dominating the formation of information and communication technology competency frameworks in Australasia. This debate has become quite debilitating as vendors, national governments and ‘experts’ argue for their identified approach. Often these approaches lack cohesion, ability to be combined, a scientific basis or relevance to either business needs of the ICT industry or other industries where ICT underpins essential operation. Using latest Australian research in IT, telecommunication and transport and health in New Zealand this presentation will debunk the myths and present a technical solution permitting the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), vendor and national ICT competency standards to coexist in a valid, reliable and integrated competency framework.
Dr Marcus Bowles is an internationally known author, consultant, and researcher specialising in ensuring industries, organisations and individuals acquire, share and apply the capabilities necessary to succeed. Marcus’ interests centre on the converged impact of human and ICT capabilities on economic and social growth. Marcus combines research knowledge with over 20 years consultancy work with the Institute for Working Futures, where he is still Chairman. He currently holds a senior researcher appointment at the AMC a specialist Institute of the University of Tasmania where he is investigating the impact of transformational leadership and ICT capabilities on the trade, transport, health and distribution operations.
Distance education is by no means a new concept, but as more institutions embrace educational technologies to reach learners who are either remote or busy, or both, e-learning becomes more of a mainstream delivery method than just a trendy alternative. At SkillsTech Australia, TAFE teacher Simon Brown is using his online experiences - gained during ten years of teaching trade skills to apprentices - to deliver post-trade training to Queensland tradespeople. In this paper, Simon reveals what keeps online learners (and trainers!) happy.
Simon is a TAFE teacher at SkillsTech Australia, and in his current role of Trade Honours Program Mentor, assists post-trade students to complete their online assignments. During ten years spent teaching his trade (stonemasonry) Simon developed collaboration skills necessary for online delivery by immersing himself in the social Web.
Do you know what impact good e-learning can have? A readiness toolkit quickly and easily identifies where organisations are now, provides links to useful resources and measures progress against targets. It provides a personalised readiness report to support planning and progression. The National Health Service in England (NHS) have an e-Learning Readiness Toolkit which supports organisations working towards delivering teaching and training through e-learning. A readiness toolkit can be tailored to meet a wide range of requirements and comes with an easy to use editor to allow owners to keep information up to date. The presentation to the World Computer Congress will describe the process of developing the toolkit, its advantages and its transferability to other scenarios as well as e-learning.
Professor Phil Candy is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Learning) at the University of Southern Queensland. He is responsible for the University’s Student Management Division (everything from first inquiry through to enrolment, and eventually to graduation.) He is also responsible for the Global Learning Division (the Library, Flexible Learning Services and Learning and Teaching Support Unit.) Under his leadership, the University has recently formally established the Australian Digital Futures Institute (ADFI) with a remit to identify emerging technologies, research their applicability in higher education, and develop or adapt relevant technologies for dissemination within USQ. Prior to taking up this appointment, Phil was the National Director of Education, Training and Development with NHS Connecting for Health in England; the world’s largest civilian IT project. Phil is an internationally recognised academic and guest speaker, with expertise in lifelong and self-directed learning, information literacy, and online or technologically enhanced learning. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including the award-winning book Self-direction for Lifelong Learning: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice and the downloadable report Linking Thinking: Self-directed Learning in the Digital Age.
Mike understands the technical side of e-learning, knowledge management, learning platforms and the application of technical standards. He provides advice, guidance, and strategic management for national, European and international projects and has been active, often as Chair, in the main learning technology standards groups. Mike has successfully managed the development of curricular exchange formats to support interoperability between systems, for example in the ASPECT project. He has experience of developing learning materials for a range of delivery devices and systems including mobile phones and handheld computers. Mike is a key figure in the development of readiness toolkits.
Jenny is an expert in e-learning, training and post-16 learning. At the Ufi (learndirect) she commissioned pioneering multimedia, online, educational materials for a national network of learning centres. Jenny has experience of creating, implementing and delivering national training programmes to enable providers to understand the delivery of new government programmes and support models for effective learning. She has worked on several national health checks and improvement programmes linked to quality frameworks. At the BBC she set up Learning Journeys to support television programmes with follow-up learning activities. Jenny helped produce the model for the NHS e-learning Readiness Toolkit.
The topic questions; ‘correlation or conflict’ linking the pragmatic requirements of business versus an overarching immigration agenda delivered by government. A global mobile workforce is fundamental to organisations as part of their present-day business model in order to progress company development and stimulate industry. A major consideration for organisations today is where to place viable contracts and projects. This requires the capacity for companies to manoeuvre a skilled workforce with relative commercial ease. Therefore, has government policy provided sufficient stimuli for employers to draw on the current skilled immigration program and is it suitably tailored or practical, given employees are less predictable or enduring concerning a selected employer or location of work? If not, have Australian companies decided it’s become problematical to maintain progression through use of a global mobile workforce, deeming the government economic immigration program restrictive, imbalanced and disconnected from the commercial realities of business today?
Alan Chanesman is the CEO and Principal Partner of immigration strategy firm - Lipman James. Alan is recognised as one of Australia’s foremost industry authorities on economic migration policy and legislation and frequently undertakes speaking engagements, presentations and briefings in relation to immigration issues, latest reforms and the ever-shifting immigration landscape, all of which have the capacity to significantly impact business and industry. Alan is also the key immigration adviser to a number of Australia’s most active peak industry bodies, representing these Associations and Secretariats at the highest Government echelons including Ministerial level, at Federal Parliamentary and Senate inquiries, preparation of industry papers, submissions to Government, well as participating on various industry 'think-tanks’.
We should pay attention to the Digital Textbook that is being pushed ahead by Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) of Korea as a convergence model with e-learning and digital publishing technologies from the perspective of textbook digitalization in the long term.
Digital Textbooks contain the learning context of book-typed textbooks while combining multimedia resources and learning tools that legacy textbooks can’t include.
While generalized e-book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle or Apple’s iBooks have digitalized books, the Digital Textbook is similar with an e-learning model that incorporates learning tools and web resources. Therefore Digital Textbook, as a convergence model with e-books and e-learning, is informed by standardization issues and takes into account other important aspects during development. For example, e-books are divided into page units and the divisions are bound by the order of the chapter of the book, while the Digital Textbook uses a hierarchical system which allows for a more complicated chapter-verse-clause structure with segmented and object-based logical topic units than that of e-books.
In accordance with this differentiation, developing a transformation system which corresponds to the structure of e-book to that of digital textbook is very urgent. Standardizing these systems and developing automated transformation tools would be very useful not only for the reusability of content and digital resources but also for extending their life cycle. In addition, we can predict whether or not digital textbook can be successful as conversion model of e-learning and e-book by analyzing the indicators for application and production efficiency, the extention of the cost reductions in development and the connectivity with existing e-learning services.
Dr Yong-Sang Cho is Director of the Korea Education & Research Information Service (KERIS) which is a government institution of the Korean Ministry of Education & Science Technology (MEST) and a member of the Korean ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 committee. He has over 10 years experience in developing technology to support learning, such as information systems modelling, and innovation of content and standards. Prior to his role as key researcher for KERIS, he was engaged in researching standardization efforts to support nationwide e-learning content and services in relevant to K-12 and higher education. Within ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 Yong-Sang Cho has been a project co-editor on standardization projects for metadata and content packaging. He is a member of the foundation committee Open Digital Publication Forum in Korea and a member of Board of Directors of IMS Korea, which is a regional community of the IMS Global Learning Consortium.
The skills required of students in the 21st Century include collaboration, teamwork, problem solving and creativity, but traditional approaches to e-learning are often weak in these areas. Collaboration is one of the hallmarks of Web 2.0 tools, so 21st Century education needs to combine the benefits of the traditional lesson plan with Web 2.0 tools. This presentation will discuss recent developments in the field of Learning Design that support the development of 21st Century skills in online learning environments, and how educators can share good eTeaching ideas. It includes a case study of the open source “LAMS” Learning Design system.
James Dalziel is Professor of Learning Technology and Director of the Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. James leads the open source "LAMS" project - an innovative digital lesson plan system used by thousands of educators across 80 countries and translated into 30 languages. James also is a leader in the fields of identity management, technical standards and open source software/open content for education. He is one of the authors of the Cape Town Declaration on Open Education.
Vendor hype says that computers can transform secondary education. If true, this would be a blessing for the 400 million children in developing countries aged between 12 and 17 who are not in school. But evidence from introducing computers in developing world schools shows that the hype is far from the reality. The paper looks at three projects. One Laptop per Child has been a dismal failure when measured against its original ambitions. The NEPAD eSchools Demonstration Project in Africa never got beyond the demonstration stage. Only India’s Hole-in-the-Wall project achieved success - by avoiding putting computers in schools!
Sir John Daniel served for 17 years as a university president in Canada (Laurentian University) and the UK (Open University) before joining UNESCO as Assistant Director-General for Education in 2001 and becoming President of the Commonwealth of Learning in 2004. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1994 for services to higher and distance education, he has received 30 honorary doctorates from universities in 17 countries. Best known among his 300 publications are his books Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education (1996) and Mega-Schools, Technology and Teachers: Achieving Education for All (2010).
Vendor hype says that computers can transform secondary education. If true, this would be a blessing for the 400 million children in developing countries aged between 12 and 17 who are not in school. But evidence from introducing computers in developing world schools shows that the hype is far from the reality. The paper looks at three projects. One Laptop per Child has been a dismal failure when measured against its original ambitions. The NEPAD eSchools Demonstration Project in Africa never got beyond the demonstration stage. Only India’s Hole-in-the-Wall project achieved success - by avoiding putting computers in schools!
Steve Hargadon is Elluminate's Social Learning Consultant, founder of the Classroom 2.0 social network, host of the Future of Education interview series, and co-chair of the Global Education Conference (links below). He pioneered the use of social networking in education, particularly for professional development. He blogs, speaks, and consults on educational technology, runs the Open Source Pavilion and speaker series for the ISTE, CUE, and other edtech shows,and is the organizer of the annual EduBloggerCon, OpenSourceCon, and the "unplugged" and "bloggers' cafe" areas at both ISTE and CUE. He is also the Emerging Technologies Chair for ISTE, a regular columnist at School Library Journal, the author of "Educational Networking: The Important Role Web 2.0 Will Play in Education," the recipient of the 2010 Technology in Learning Leadership Award (CUE), and a blogger at www.SteveHargadon.com. He has consulted for PBS, Intel, Ning, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, CoSN, the U.S. State Department, and others on ducational technology and specifically on social networking.
With the implementation of the Australian National Curriculum in its early stages, there is much debate about the status of Information Technology within this framework. It is widely acknowledged that technology is integrated into most aspects of our daily lives and so it is in education, with software tools and web 2.0 technologies incorporated into most curriculum areas. However, there is still some discussion concerning the place of the discipline of IT in secondary education and whether we should be teaching it at all. This session will discuss the importance of IT in the National context, especially in light of the increasing demand for employment in the Australian digital economy sector. The VCE IT curriculum has been innovative in that it has kept up with current trends in the industry and has sought to attractive and inspire students into the technology field. The current VCE IT course compares very favourably with global best practice and could itself be a candidate for the National IT curriculum.
Adrian Janson has been a committed IT teacher for 19 years with the majority of his career at Melbourne High School, a select entry school for year 9 to 12 boys. Adrian has developed a number of textbooks that have been successfully used in class rooms around the world. His latest books "Visual Basic for Education" and "Visual Basic.Net for Education" (available through this web site) have sold thousands of copies and are based on teaching software development through the use of game design in order to be relevant and innovative in teaching secondary students.
Adrian was a member of the author team that produced the recent text 'More Than Just Marks: A Manual for Boy's Education'. Adrian contributed a chapter entitled 'Using Computer Programming to Enhance Boy's Learning in Information Technology'. Adrian's educational background includes a Bachelor of Science, Postgraduate Diploma in Education, and a Master of Education (Information and communication technologies).
Adrian is currently the elected President of the Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association (VITTA) and has attended and presented at numerous conferences on IT education both nationally and internationally. He was the project manager and one of the contributors for a recent VITTA project titled 'VB.Net Resource Kit' in which he worked with a colleague to produce an extensive multimedia resource kit for educators.
Adrian was selected to be on a Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA) review committee assigned the role of writing the new Victorian Certificate of Education curriculum for Information Technology and hence he has an excellent knowledge of the curriculum for this subject.
Technology, Education and Social Inclusion have changed dramatically in the last decade, impacting significantly on learning.
Education providers must embrace change to deliver new and reformed education and training for classrooms of the future.
As education evolves to meet a changing market and cope with external factors, Terry Kearney will discuss how we can set new benchmarks for integrated futuristic teaching methodology.
Terry Kearney brings 37 years of experience in the education sector to Springfield Land Corporation, the master planners and developers of Greater Springfield – Australia’s most exciting new city. In his role as Executive General Manager for Education and Health Mr Kearney will be responsible for overseeing the development and integration of Education City and Health City Springfield.
Terry is a passionate expert in the education industry and has spent more than ten years as a highly valued and exciting keynote speaker. His ability to engage with an audience and share his passion for lifelong learning is highly regarded and as a result Terry is a sought after speaker.
Terry began his career as a physical education teacher, moving on to become a School Principal before moving to senior management within the Department of Education.
In his administrative roles, Terry has worked on workforce development, leadership, performance, strategy and indigenous education and training. Terry was also involved and chaired the industry peak body for the decade preceding the Sydney Olympics.
In 2010, the Australian Curriculum will be published for English, history, mathematics, and science in years K-10 by ACARA. Education Services Australia will assist in the implementation of this new digital curriculum by managing the alignment and sharing of existing digital resources under a federally funded program called “Australian Curriculum Connect”. This program will provide teachers and students with digital content by leveraging existing national, state and territory investments in digital content, architecture, metadata and repositories combined with the latest formats and international standards for machine readable curriculum using the Resource Description Framework (RDF).
Jerry is the Director, Business Solutions for Education Services Australia Limited. Jerry's focus is on the application of primarily Web-based technologies in education to support teaching and learning. In this area, Jerry is an advocate for the use of e-Portfolios and particularly the use of e-Portfolio-related services to support the needs of the learner across their lifespan and how such services may complement the services provided by more formal learning environments. Prior to joining Education Services Australia, Jerry worked for a number of IT consultants and technology companies across several industry sectors.
Models for the use of technology to support learning and training are in a state of flux. New tools capable of supporting more open and collaborative approaches are challenging entrenched thinking. This presentation will harmonize the needs being stated by different industry sectors and their implications for the “Intrinsic Relationship” between content, process and practice and infrastructure. Current standards for learning technologies will be compared with the requirements of the next generation in learning architecture and lessons will be drawn from the activities of OER initiatives and Open Education as examples of how new architectures may be approached.
Allyn Radford is Managing Director, Learnilities Pty Ltd. Allyn has been working in technology-mediated learning for over 20 years. He has held positions in private enterprise, higher education and fee-for-service education designing and implementing solution-focused projects for clients in the United States, Mexico, Europe and Australia. Recent clients range from startup technology companies to the largest university system in the US. He has been actively involved in the development of international standards for learning technology and content for more than 10 years and is also active in open education activities. Allyn’s solutions focus on the “Intrinsic Relationship” between content, process and practice, and infrastructure.
We’ve been using visual messages to inform, educate and persuade for thousands of years. Since the invention of the zoopraxiscope in 1879 to the launch of YouTube in 2005, moving images have influenced the way we see the world and have been embraced by educators. Visual communications are developing at an astounding rate. New devices and new software have the potential to change the way teachers and learners communicate. But have they delivered what they promised and have things changed all that much in education? This presentation will explore how teaching and learning may differ in the future and how we’ll need to prepare differently for teaching in 2020.
Carol Skyring is an experienced and inspiring educator who has been involved in the design, application and effective use of technology for teaching and learning for over 20 years. Carol works with uni¬versities, colleges, schools, government departments and large corporations throughout Australia, New Zealand, USA and Europe. As an acknowledged leader in this field, Carol has been published in numerous journals, is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and has authored a number of books and eBooks. You can read many of her papers and articles at http://www.scribd.com/cdltoz Carol is the Founder and CEO of LearnTel Pty Ltd and sits on several industry boards and committees. She holds a Dip T, Grad Dip Dist Ed, B Ed, M Ed (Research) & is currently undertaking doctoral studies on the use of microblogging for professional learning by educators.
Designed to help with Dan Bricklin's business studies at Harvard, the electronic spreadsheet has been with us for 30 years. It is doubtful that Bricklin had general mathematics education in mind when he and Bob Frankston created VisiCalc, however recent research results clearly show the potential of spreadsheets to help young learners understand principles of mathematics, including concepts of algebra. We consider the potential of features such as conditional formatting in Excel 2010 to inject new life into the bedrock discipline of mathematics at all levels of education. An overview of applications plus some live examples will be shown.
Steve Sugden is Associate Professor (Mathematics and Computation) at Bond University. His career has been rather diverse, with several periods in industry: areas as diverse as solar energy, engineering software for Queensland electricity authorities, and cryptographic software engineering. His present research interests are in the use of technology, especially modern spreadsheets, in mathematics education. In 2002, he established the electronic journal Spreadsheets in Education, hosted at Bond. This journal publishes fully peer-reviewed articles plus classroom resources for teachers. In recent years, he has also been active in consulting work and has developed several mathematical models relating to aspects of Keno.
