. Speakers - IDEA10



PROGRAM Information by Speakers and Judges

** Please note the speakers and judges are in alphabetical order, not program order.

Speakers

Agarwal, Preety

Preety Agarwal - Education Services Australia

Scootle - Past, present and future

Scootle (http://www.scootle.edu.au) is a secure school's online teaching and learning environment for teachers developed by The Le@rning Federation to provide access to thousands of curriculum based digital resources. Scootle allows teachers to create unique learning paths using the resources. They can share these learning paths with other teachers nationally and invite students to use these resources. The new collaborative environment for students and its unique features will be the main focus of this presentation.

Short Biography

Preety Agarwal is a well educated and seasoned professional with a passion for cutting edge and innovative technologies especially in the area of eLearning. She has more than 18 years of experience in management, engineering and software development which spans across multiple industries. During this period she had led and delivered a number of outstanding products utilizing global development methodologies for a number of organisations in various countries including Comline Systems - Malaysia and Monash University - Australia.

She is currently working with Curriculum Corporation as a Senior Manager - Information Systems Development and is responsible for development of key national systems which include Scootle, Sharing Exchange, Metadata Exchange and most recently Improve.

Ainley, Dr. John

Dr. John Ainley - Australian Council for Educational Research

Short Biography

John Ainley is Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of the Research Division at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). He is also Research Director of the National and International Surveys Research Program which conducts the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) as well as Australian components of PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS. John has been the project director for the two cycles of the Australian National Assessment of ICT Literacy in 2005 and 2008 and one of the coordinators of the forthcoming IEA International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS).

Arising out of these interests John is a member of the Technological Issues Working Group of the International Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills project. He was the Australian national research coordinator for the IEA Second International Technology in Education Study (SITES) Module 2 and 2006 and is the international coordinator of the IEA International Civics and Citizenship Education Study, involving 38 countries. In his career at ACER John has directed a range of other research studies in schools including: a longitudinal evaluation of the Literacy Advance initiative for the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria; a survey of the achievements and attitudes to school of students in Victorian primary schools (Primary Schooling in Victoria) and a national study of how schools provide for the social development of students (Schools and the Social development of Young Australians).

Appleby, David

David Appleby - WestOne

Short Biography

David Appleby is the Director, Product Design and Development for WestOne Services. In this position he responsible for managing the production of all of WestOne's VET and K-12 products, including print, online and audio visual resources. As a crucial part of this work is ensuring standards compliance for these products, David represents Western Australia on the national eStandards working group. Another major part of David's role include overseeing the administration of WestOne's content management system, Equella, which is part of the national LORN group.

David's background is in instructional multimedia and has been working in the Training sector for 13 years. Since 2003 he has also been involved in resource development for the K-12 sector as well.

Armstrong, Robert

Robert Armstrong - Motorola (sponsor)

How Wireless Technology is Changing the Way Students Learn and Teachers Teach

Wireless broadband technology solutions are crucial for keeping gaps in high-speed access from leading to gaps in student performance. Choosing the right wireless solution is not just a technology decision anymore, since it can significantly impact instruction quality in the classroom and influence student recruitment and retention. Gain valuable insights during this session into the factors that are driving this digital shift, and explore examples of how the newest wireless technologies are improving student outcomes and campus operations.

Short Biography

Robert (Rob) Armstrong is the Global Lead for Emerging Verticals and Industry Operations within Motorola's Industry Solutions Group. He joined Motorola in 2004 in a product development role for the company's Government & Public Safety business. He was then nominated by senior leadership for the Business Leadership Development Program (BLDP). During his two year BLDP experience, Robert worked in both Europe and Asia and held various strategic and go-to-market roles within the Government, Mobile Devices, and Enterprise Mobility Solutions businesses. Prior to joining Motorola, Rob worked for Commonwealth Edison, a major utility provider in the northern Illinois area.

Rob initially joined the Industry Solutions Group in 2008 in an Operations and Marketing role. Now, he is responsible for the development and implementation of revenue-focused strategies and initiatives in Motorola's high-growth vertical markets, including: Healthcare, Education and Finance/Banking. The team of professionals that Rob leads is not only tasked with supporting growth in these specific markets, but also is accountable for strategic industry support across all verticals for revenue attainment and analysis. His team also creates industry sales tools and communications.

Rob and his team work closely with Motorola partners to bring to market solutions that leverage all aspects of Motorola's enterprise product portfolio; including: advanced data capture, mobile computing, wireless communication and RFID technologies, with a special emphasis on leveraging the high-value assets from Motorola's Government & Public Safety product portfolio, such as mission-critical two-way radio and broadband network connectivity. By delivering best-in-class hardware through an industry-leading channel, Rob and his team are poised to help the company capture market share in these high-growth markets.

Rob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, and recently completed a three-year term on the President's Advisory Board for the University.

Arthur, Dr. Evan

Dr. Evan Arthur - Group Manager, Digital Education Group, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), Australia

Short Biography

Evan Arthur was educated at Newcastle (Australia) and Cambridge (UK) Universities. His doctoral thesis was in the area of Stoic Philosophy.

Evan 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.

Evan 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.

Black, Greg

Greg Black - The William Light Institute

Short Biography

Greg Black has just taken up the post of President of The William Light Institute a new tertiary education provider. Greg is also director of Smartfutures Group a leadership and education and training consultancy. Greg recently completed 3 years as Chief Executive Officer of education.au limited, a national ministerial company that provides leadership and direction in the development, enhancement, standards and use of online distributed and managed national education network services. This work involved oversight of a number of major national education and business projects. Education.au limited has merged with Curriculum Corporation to become Education Services Australia Ltd.

Greg was a Chief Executive in the Western Australian and South Australian governments from 1987-2004. He has been the Director General of Education in Western Australia and head of the Department of Further Education Employment Science and Technology in South Australia. His Board memberships have included that of education.au, Curriculum Corporation, Australian University Quality Authority, state Higher Education Councils, Australian Education Systems Officials Committee and Australian National Training Authority CEOs. Greg has advised governments in the UK, Malaysia and UAE on their education and training systems. He has also worked on futures thinking in education, business strategies and leadership development, and international education and executive coaching.

Greg is passionate about the potential of ICTs and emerging technologies to benefit our Australian education and training system, not only in classroom use, but also in the professional learning of educators.

Bray, Paula

Paula Bray - Powerhouse Museum

Short Biography

Paula Bray works at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney as the Manager of Visual & Digitisation Services that includes: Photography, The Image Resource Centre, The Photo Library and Rights and Permissions and the Audio Visual team. She has worked in imaging sections for other cultural organisations in Sydney including: Art Gallery NSW, State Library NSW and the National Maritime Musuem and studied photography at the College of Fine Arts doing a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Art. Paula manages the Museum's photostreams on Flickr including the Commons project, showcases work done by the Museum photographers, licensing them under Creative Commons and runs the Photo of the Day blog. She is committed to making the Museum's content accessible and is passionate about the role photography is playing in social media particularly with community sites such as Flickr.

Candy, Prof. Philip

Prof. Philip Candy - University of Southern Queensland

Short Biography

Philip Candy joined USQ as Deputy Vice-Chancellor in April 2009. Philip is responsible for the leadership, coordination and effective operation of the Learning and Teaching portfolio, the Student Management Division, and the recently formed Australian Digital Futures Institute.

Philip is well known for his work in adult, continuing, and higher education. He is the author of an award-winning book on self-directed learning, and has written and presented around the world on lifelong learning, self-directed learning and information literacy. In 2002, he was a National Research Fellow with the Department of Education Science and Training in Canberra, where he examined the field of self-directed online learning. His Fellowship Report, entitled Linking Thinking: Self-directed Learning in the Digital Age, is available online.

Philip has a varied background. After starting work as a management accountant in industry over 30 years ago, he moved to the Training and Development Branch of the then South Australian Department of Further Education. He later worked for a number of years in Further Education Teacher Training at the South Australian College of Advanced Education (now the University of South Australia), before moving to the University of New England, Queensland University of Technology, and the University of Ballarat, a regional Victorian university with both Higher Education and Further Education Divisions, where he was a Professor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Philip has also occupied various senior roles in the National Health Service (England); first with the proposed corporate university for the NHS as Director of Research & Development and as Director of the NHSU Institute; and secondly, as National Director of Education, Training and Development for NHS Connecting for Health, the largest civilian IT project in the world. He holds an honorary professorial appointment at the Open University.

In addition to his work in self-directed, lifelong and technologically-supported learning, Philip has a particular interest in the skills required of graduates and knowledge workers to operate in the 'knowledge society,' especially their skills of information retrieval and use. He and Dr Christine Bruce of the Queensland University of Technology produced a checklist entitled 'Developing information literate graduates: Prompts for good practice,' and later co-edited a book of readings entitled Information Literacy Around the World: Advances in Programs and Research. Philip is particularly interested in the relationship between learning in formal settings (such as schools, colleges and universities) and in other contexts such as home, community or workplace. For five years, he was the Chair of the Ballarat: A Learning City initiative, designed to place learning at the heart of an entire community of 80 000 people.

Croger, Peter

Peter Croger - Croger Associates Pty Ltd

Short Biography

Peter Croger is the principal of Croger Associates, a consulting firm that specialises in policies, strategies and management for ICT in education and government. His clients include many government and education organisations throughout Australia and internationally. Peter's previous roles have included being a government executive, a CIO and an ICT practitioner.

Peter's recent work for a number of governments has been about strengthening collaboration amongst different organisations on ICT and interoperability.

Dalziel, Prof. James

Prof. James Dalziel - Macquarie University

LAMS: Sharing Good eTeaching Ideas

LAMS is an open source system for creating, running and sharing "good eTeaching ideas". These ideas can be templates for generic pedagogical methods (such as role plays, problem-based learning, webquests, etc) where teachers add their own topic to the template, or they can be digital lesson plans that combine topic and teaching method together for immediate use. This presentation will discuss the growing adoption of LAMS, which is used by thousands of educators in over 80 countries and translated into 28 languages, together with the sharing of good ideas through the LAMS Community, which contains hundreds of freely available ready to use digital lesson plans. It will also discuss the use of LAMS integrated with Learning Management Systems such as Moodle, Blackboard and Sakai.

Short Biography

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 LAMS (Learning Activity Management System), including roles as a Director of the LAMS Foundation and LAMS International Pty Ltd. He has worked in several areas of technology for education, such as identity management, systems integration, technical standards, open source software and open educational resources. He was one of the authors of the Cape Town Declaration on Open Education.

Dolphin, Ian

Ian Dolphin - International e-Framework

International perspectives of interoperability and the benefits of standards

This presentation will outline the interoperability work of the e-Framework Partnership from both the technical, social, and strategic perspectives. It will touch on the importance of openness and collaboration, and pose a series of questions around the standards needed by education and research - and how interoperability might be achieved, in practice.

Short Biography

Ian Dolphin is International Director of the e-Framework Partnership for Education and Research, a strategic partnership of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK, the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR), the New Zealand National Library, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Research, Science and Technology. Further details of the e-Framework Partnership is available here (http://www.e-framework.org/AbouttheInitiative/tabid/688/Default.aspx).

From 2003-2008 Ian was Head of e-Strategy at the University of Hull, where he was responsible for advising on Information & Communications Technology strategic direction, and managing the University Digital University Project. Other activities during this period included a range of national and international collaborations exploring the relationship between portals, learning objects and environments with the perspective of providing a personalised experience for the learner and educator. As the result of this collaborative activity, Ian became the first non-North American member of the Board of Directors of the Java Architectures Special Interest Group (now JASIG), and the Sakai Project and subsequently, Foundation. He was also a founding member of the Board of the Curriki Foundation, resigning all these posts when moving to the e-Framework Partnership.

Ian has a background in teaching, having taught Special Educational Needs English and Information & Communication Technology in Secondary schools for fourteen years. Initially motivated by the power of emerging technologies to help educationally disadvantaged children, in 1989 Ian was seconded to a regional agency under the UK Government Technical Vocational Educational Initiative, where he helped establish a curriculum resource development unit. This unit worked collaboratively with teachers and business partners to produce curriculum-focused learning resources for secondary education. The unit transferred to the University of Hull in 1996.

Douch, Andrew

Andrew Douch - Wanganui Park Secondary College

Short Biography

Andrew Douch is a practicing teacher of 20 years, and is currently the ICT Innovations Leader at Wanganui Park Secondary College, in Victoria, Australia.

He has won a number of awards for his work with emerging technologies in education, including a 2007 Australian Government Highly Commended Award for Quality Schooling, the 2008 Victorian Education Excellence Award for Curriculum Innovation and the 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teacher of the Year.

Andrew is in demand as a keynote speaker, locally and internationally and is sought as a consultant by schools and Education Departments on the use of online tools in schools. He is also in demand to provide professional learning workshops in schools - showing teachers how they can use freely available tools to transform their classrooms into learning communities, which not only engage Generation Y students, but lead to significantly improved learning outcomes.

Fruth, Dr. Larry

Dr. Larry Fruth - SIF Association

Emerging Technologies to Address the Information Generation, Impacts of a Global Approach to Interoperability

There is a need to reframe our collective view on emerging technologies from the current "systems or functional-centric" to a more "citizen-centric" conversation. From governments down to schools there is continuous usage of the phrase "lifelong learning" and yet typically we use technology to address the learning process at a set time in the cycle - snapshot solutions. Stealing from the healthcare sector and their usage of the term "failure to thrive", this session will ideally be an exchange on how participants are looking at technology to make sure all learners are enabled to thrive. Focusing on the needs - and not necessarily the solutions - this session will hopefully change the "lens" we look through when addressing the learner and their needs.

Short Biography

Larry Fruth is currently the Executive Director of the Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIF Association). The SIF Association is an independent non-profit membership organisation comprised of over 2,200 international educational institutions, government agencies and software vendors whose community mission is the development of a global platform independent, vendor-neutral XML Specification to enable data sharing among software applications in education internationally. The Association has three established communities (US, UK and AU) who are leveraging each other's work and sharing best practices to address the needs of the educational data marketplace. Larry comes from a long line of educators with over 25 years of experience in teaching and learning as a classroom teacher/professor, curriculum and professional development designer and state and federal policymaker. Most recently Larry served as an Associate Director for the Ohio Department of Education where his oversight role included institutional strategic planning and alignment, development of Academic Content Standards in Technology, State Educational Technology Director designee, the development of eSchool Operating Standards, lead for various federal programs as well as pointing various pK-16 partnership initiatives.

Gladman, Kristena

Kristena Gladman - e-Works

WCAG 2.0 briefing

This session will consider the implications of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.0 (WCAG 2.0) for the education sector in the context of current and forthcoming Australian policy. An introduction to WCAG 2.0 will provide a foundation for the discussion of the requirements for transitioning from WCAG 1.0 to 2.0 and work that has been undertaken in the school and VET sectors to date.

Short Biography

Kristena Gladman is a senior consultant for the E-standards for Training Project, which is funded through the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. The project is the primary driver in the collaborative adoption of technical standards for e-learning content and systems in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system. She has worked on content development, e-learning standards and interoperability initiatives in the school and VET sectors. Prior to joining e-Works. Kristena spent 6 years at Curriculum Corporation managing the content development technical standards/specifications and technical quality assurance/testing for 'The Le@rning Federation' project.

Gruen, Dr. Nicholas

Dr. Nicholas Gruen - Gov 2.0

Short Biography

Nicholas Gruen is trained in History, Statistics, Law and Economics and has published internationally on a range of economic policy issues including intellectual property, fiscal policy architecture, industry policy, economic liberalisation and innovation in government.

He served as advisor to Industry Minister Senator John Button and Treasurer John Dawkins. He was appointed to the Productivity Commission in 1994 and again in 1995 before he joined the Business Council of Australia in 1997 and ran their New Directions program. In 2000, he founded and remains CEO of Lateral Economics and Peaches, a discount finance broker.

He is chairman of www.onlineopinion.com.au, a popular Brisbane based internet site of political and cultural opinion. He has been a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review and is a substantial contributor to Australia's thriving policy blog scene at www.clubtroppo.com.au.

Nicholas was appointed as a board member of the Government Authority Sustainability Victoria in November 2008.

Nicholas was a member of the Panel reviewing Australia's Innovation System chaired by Terry Cutler. Lateral Economics has been involved with the Commonwealth, Victorian, South Australian, NSW and Queensland governments in the areas of innovation in government and continuous improvement in regulation. He was recently part of a steering committee guiding innovation in the Victoria Public Service.

In 2009 Nicholas was appointed to chair the Federal Government's Government 2.0 Taskforce and was also involved in the Federal Government's Management Advisory Committee inquiry into public sector innovation.

Harper, Wendy

Wendy Harper - QUT

Short Biography

Wendy Harper is Director of eLearning Services at QUT. Wendy has more than 20 years experience in the tertiary sector covering learning and teaching systems, IT infrastructure, project management, and systems development. She has been a driving force in the development of QUT's Student ePortfolio and Professional Staff ePortfolio. Wendy's work in the field of ePortfolios has acquired international standing and she has been invited to speak both nationally and internationally in government, tertiary secondary forums.

Higgs, Peter

Peter Higgs - TAFE Tasmania

eTools for "on the job" training, assessment and recognition - The QTImPlayer, GURU - a report on the Tasmanian Polytechnic experience at the Barcelona 2009 IMS Impact Awards and developments beyond.

On-the-job training and assessment allows learners to be trained in a practical, hands-on environment and to complete their qualification, having attained real-world work experience.

The use of on-the-job e-learning assessment tools, such as the QTImPlayer, GURU and camera glasses, realistically contributes to Australia's skill shortages by allowing workers to fast-track their learning. The QTImPlayer and camera glasses enable teachers and assessors working in the field to download assessment tools, assess students and then upload the results with attached evidence such as photos, videos and audio. They can also document files to their organisation's IT system for recording. The Camera Glasses used by students when teachers and assessors are not present, allow students to video record a work activity and forward it to their teacher assessor for assessment.

GURU enables teacher and student to negotiate online RPL claims by identifying only the critical evidence required and the student submitting the same. Once the process is complete GURU provides a process to create a training plan to fill the needs gap.

Peter Higgs, Manager Learning Technology & Copyright at the Tasmanian Skills Institute and Tasmanian Polytechnic, will take you through the benefits and options for on-the-job e-learning, assessment and RPL, focusing on how you can access the free QTImPlayer e-learning resource.

Short Biography

Peter manages Learning Technology in TAFE Tasmania, supporting teachers and teams to develop and implement educational technology solutions for their teaching & learning. Peter also has been instrumental in TAFE Tasmania providing eLearning Strategies for staff and students through Learnscope and other professional development opportunities.

Peter holds a Dip Teach and Learning (Adult and VET) and a B Ed from the University of South Australia.

As a Flexible Learning Leader in 2002 he undertook research, including visiting Canada, and reported on Learning Objects, Metadata and Digital Rights Management with Tim Hand and Sam Meredith see http://toolboxes.flexiblelearning.net.au/documents/pdfs/final_hand_higgs_meredith.pdf. In 2003 the same team worked on a New Practices Project further researching Digital Rights Management. This resulted in the publication "Framework for Rights Enabled learning Object Exchange Trial" which is available at http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/projects/resources/rightsenabled_report.pdf.

From 20003 to 2008 Peter has continued researching Learning Objects and Digital Rights Management (DRM) including the DRM implementation needs of the "Learning Edge" in TAFE Tasmania (The Learning Edge). Many of the Learning Objects were also trialled in a Flexible Learning Framework project known as Access to Bandwidth or A2B. Learning Objects are being developed to SCORM and IMS packaging standards for the Framework Toolbox LO Re-Packaging Project, the Learning Object Repository Network (LORN see http://lorn.flexiblelearning.net.au/ ) Project as well as populating the Learning Edge. Peter's work has contributed significantly to LORN outcomes. The Learning Edge is both a repository and an assembler of Learning Objects for re-use by teachers in TAFE Tasmania. The Learning Edge has the capability of providing teachers with a harvesting search facility that enables searching of multiple repositories globally. The Learning Edge also provides elementary DRM overcoming continuing concerns about IP & Copyright thus supporting teachers to develop current learning materials tonight for delivery tomorrow.

In 2007 Peter successfully managed a New Practices Project that designed and developed the QTImPlayer, see http://qti2007.flexiblelearning.net.au/. The QTImPlayer enables teachers and assessors working in the field to use Next G to download assessment tools, assess students and then upload the results with attached evidence such as photos, videos, audio and document files to their organisations IT system for recording. In 2008 Peter managed TAFE Tasmania, Australian Flexible Learning Framework projects "Emerging Technologies" which includes the QTImPlayer and Camera Glasses, Toolbox LO Rapid Development Tool" and partnering with Dairy Australia in their Industry Integration Project see http://industry.flexiblelearning.net.au/. In TAFE Tasmania Peter has headed up the development of GURU a recognition tool that integrates with TAFE Tasmania's SMS, Assessment Repository and TLE as an ePortfolio.

The QTImPlayer was selected in the Australian IMS Learning Impact Awards and attended the IMS Global Learning Impact Awards in Spain during May 2009. At the awards the QTImPlayer was awarded an IMS Leadership Award acknowledging the leading research and development achieved in this project.

Peter has delivered similar research outcomes to provide practical teacher expertise in the use of Learning Objects at the WebCT Asia Pacific Conference in 2005, 2007 and Merlot in Ottawa Canada 2006.

Jesukiewicz, Paul

Paul Jesukiewicz - Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL)

The Future of SCORM

SCORM, the de facto international standard for e-learning content interoperability, is now 10 years old. Driven by world wide adoption patterns and evolving technologies, ADL has embarked on a major effort to update SCORM: defining a set of core capabilities applicable across domains. ADL's role is to help coordinate activities of various organizations to produce, in a transparent, open process, with a known release schedule, a collection of specifications and collateral material that form the basis of SCORM. Using a maturity-based approach to evaluate components, SCORM will become a profile of mature components and specifications. This model will also enable other organizations to create their own community-specific SCORM profiles.

Short Biography

Paul Jesukiewicz is the Director of the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL) for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In this position, Paul is responsible for directing and implementing the ADL Initiative within the Department of Defense as well as other government organizations, academia, and industry on an international basis. Paul provides direction for the development and refinement of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM®) and for the continued expansion of the ADL Initiative.

Paul returns to the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative from private industry where he worked with MTS Technologies as a Division Director for Human Performance. Prior to his work in private industry, Paul was with the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) as the Deputy Director for the ADL Initiative from 2006 to 2008. From 1998-2006 Paul also held the position of Director of the ADL Co-Lab as a Research Staff Member for the Institute for Defense Analyses. Paul also has more than 11 years of experience working with the federal government as a Program Manager for various training, education, modeling, and simulation programs within the OSD, Department of Defense Education Activity, and the Naval Air Systems Command.

Paul's experience and dedication to the ADL Initiative is evident during the presentations and events he attends throughout the year. His knowledge of the program's past and his vision for its future make Paul well suited for the position.

Kirby-Lewis, Michael

Michael Kirby-Lewis - University of New South Wales

Short Biography

Michael Kirby-Lewis, who prefers "Kirby", has worked in the IT industry for over 30 years. He studied Computer Science at Canterbury University, Christchurch (NZ) in the 1970s and his Masters in Business & Technology at UNSW. Kirby has also undertaken Executive programs at Harvard Business School.

Kirby worked in the Health, Manufacturing, Distribution, Consulting and Education industries within both the Public and Private sectors.

Kirby has worked across the spectrum of the Education industry for the past 18 years. This includes VET (TAFE, NSW), Schools (DET, NSW) and Higher Education (UNSW).

For the past seven years Kirby has worked at the University of NSW; the last three of those years as the Director of IT (or CIO). Kirby is overseeing the establishment of shared IT services, updating the underlying IT infrastructure, modernising UNSW's Core Systems (including Student Administration and e-Learning) and establishing improved governance and structures to better align IT with the core Teaching and Research needs of the University.

Leeson, Jerry

Jerry Leeson - Education Services Australia

Short Biography

Jerry is the Director, Business Solutions for education.au limited where he has worked for the last six years. He has an interest in Internet technologies in general as well as Web-based technologies applied to education. Jerry is also interested in the application of standards and specifications that support the implementation of education related solutions such as e-Portfolios. Prior to joining education.au Jerry worked for a number of IT Consultants and technology companies across several industry sectors.

Macnamara, Dennis

Dennis Macnamara - Link Affiliates

Can we build it? - Response from Infrastructure Practitioners

Infrastructure to support Teachers can be considered as two interdependent layers - 'Foundation' Infrastructure and 'Value-Add' Infrastructure.

Foundation Infrastructure must be driven by the needs of Teachers but can be developed by IT to meet the overall needs of an institution. This encompasses Networks, Storage, Identity Management, Portal Frameworks, Technology interoperability standards etc. As the term 'Foundation' implies - it is needed before delivering the Value-Add Infrastructure. If it's not stable, robust and reliable then the 'Value-Add' Infrastructure will not meet the high expectations of students.

The Value-Add Infrastructure must be developed in a partnership between Teachers and Infrastructure practitioners. The Infrastructure component encompasses the e-Learning Systems, the integration of Administrative systems with Technology Enabled Learning & Teaching, Wikis, Blogs, Assessment tools etc.

Integration of these different Technologies is a key success factor as is the management of the continuous review and technology adoption process. The delivery of this Value-Add Infrastructure must encompass the interrelated activities including the development of skills for Teachers and those developing Learning materials. This training and support not only needs to cover how to best use the Technology but also Pedagogical change that is needed when successfully utilizing that technology in the Teaching practice.

Short Biography

Dennis provides overall management input and leads the communication and engagement with the sector. Dennis has worked in education for over 30 years in both public and private sectors and across schools, vocational education and higher education. He has expertise in both managing the development of content and the delivery of services and has been responsible for designing successful business models for the design and delivery of flexible and innovative learning services whilst in employ at AEShareNet and in his involvement with the PILIN (Persistent Identifiers) and LIMF (Learning Identity Framework Management) projects.

Makela, Harri

Harri Makela - Lappset (sponsor)

SmartUs - An Internet-Connected Outdoor Play, Exercise and Learning Environment

SmartUs by Lappset (Finland) is an Internet-Connected Outdoor Play Environment that in a fun way supports school work whilst offering physical activity and stimuli for both mind and body.

In many Western countries children are under pressure from an early age for a variety of reasons and the fun of learning is often forgotten.

SmartUs seamlessly combines outdoor-based learning and exercise, utilizing the techniques and interfaces the children are already accustomed to. SmartUs not only gets the children outdoors, but also connects children and schools around the world through its online feature.

SmartUs supports the school curriculum by offering both standard and customised game modules covering mathematics, humanities etc.

SmartUs is today benefiting school children in nineteen European countries.

Lappset is a leading innovator in playground equipment design and manufacture and the largest family owned business in its field worldwide.

Short Biography

Harri has held senior executive roles in American and Australian public companies, born in Finland; lived in Melbourne for 20 years, established Lappset in Australia in early 2009.

Miller, Allison

Allison Miller - TAFE SA

Short Biography

Allison Miller is the Business Manager for the E-portfolios business activity for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework). Her previous Framework roles include being the South Australian Innovations Coordinator, and the Project Manager for the Inclusive e-Learning (Youth) Project. Allison has also been the E-Learning Development Co-ordinator for TAFE SA.

Allison has been involved in the VET sector for more than eight years in areas of Business Finance, Administration and Small Business Management and has over six years experience in creating e-learning environments for students and staff.

Nicholas, Dr. Nick

Dr. Nick Nicholas - Link Affiliates

Short Biography

Nick contributes expertise to data modelling and repository interoperability projects. His major involvement has been in the successful PILIN (Persistent Identifiers), FRED (Repository Federation) and LIMF (Student Identity) projects. He has a background in Greek linguistics, computing in the humanities, natural language processing and character encoding. He is based at the University of Melbourne's e-Scholarship Research Centre.

O'Neill, Olivia

Olivia O'Neill - Brighton Secondary School

Short Biography

Olivia O'Neill is Principal of Brighton Secondary School in Adelaide, South Australia. Brighton is a high demand school with special interest programs in Music, Volleyball and International Student Programs. Brighton is the first school in Adelaide to use the DER funding to implement wireless infrastructure for an Apple 1:1 Program across the school. Olivia's vision is to transform the pedagogy of the school with laptop technology so that the community recognises all areas of study as centres of excellence in teaching and learning.

ONeill, Owen

Owen ONeill - e-Works and Link Affiliates

Short Biography

Owen is based at e-Works in Melbourne where he has overall responsible for the E-standards and E-portfolio activities funded through the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. The E-standards project is a primary driver in the collaborative adoption of technical standards for e-learning content and systems in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system. Owen also works with the Link Affiliates team on the Federally funded Technical Standards for Digital Education project, and has previously worked on various e-learning standards and interoperability initiatives in Australia and Europe.

Reushle, Dr. Shirley

Dr. Shirley Reushle - University of Southern Queensland

Short Biography

Shirley Elizabeth Reushle is Senior Lecturer and Manager of Technology Enhanced Learning Projects at the Australian Digital Futures Institute.

Shirley is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at USQ, works with Masters and Doctoral level students and has taught online for 12 years. She is currently on secondment as the Manager of Technology-Enhanced Learning Projects in the Australian Digital Futures Institute (ADFI), a cross-institutional, research and development Institute with two work-streams - one pertaining to eLearning and the other to eResearch. Shirley recently developed a model for the evaluation of technology-enhanced projects based on design-based research methodology (eValuation model). At USQ, she has held the positions of Senior Lecturer in Online Pedagogies; Program Co-ordinator for the Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Learning; Principal Advisor, Learning and Teaching, with the USQ Division of ICT Services; Instructional Designer in distance education; and for the University's Learning and Teaching Support Unit recently developed a number of self-paced online professional development modules in learning and teaching.

Shirley's doctoral research was in the professional development of online educators. She frequently represents the University at national and international events focused on open, distance and elearning and is on a number of University committees and projects relating to these areas. Shirley was the recipient of the Australian College of Educators Prize for Outstanding Postgraduate Student in 2006, received a citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in 2008 and in 2009 was a national finalist in the Lecturer of the Year competition. She also provides consultancy advice and conducts workshops in designing and facilitating online learning and in the provision of professional development for teachers in higher education.

Reynen, Katrina

Katrina Reynen - Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Victoria

Short Biography

As Assistant General Manager of the Innovation and Next Practice Division, Katrina's role is to identify and manage innovation projects to address complex system issues in education. Research and design work ensures that innovation trials in Victorian schools are disciplined, coherent, well informed and ultimately scalable.

Katrina's major responsibilities include:

Rigby, Bruce

Bruce Rigby - Dept of Education and Early Childhood Devpt

Short Biography

To be updated

Salmon, Prof. Gilly

Prof. Gilly Salmon - University of Leicester, UK

Evolving Learning

As we enter the second decade of the 21st Century, we need to make learning (and ourselves) fitter, flexible and faster. Professor Salmon asks: how is it possible that the most enterprising and creative creatures on earth (humans) could possibly see change as a significant problem? And...the challenge is: the purposes are shifting fast. She explores the evolvement of learning across the world and different sectors of education. And her own university's responses as one example. Not for the faint-hearted!"

Short Biography

Gilly Salmon is Professor of E-learning and Learning Technologies at the University of Leicester, UK, and head of the Beyond Distance Research Alliance <http://www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance/> and the Media Zoo (on campus, online and in Second Life). Gilly's research interests span strategies for enhancing learning with and through new technologies, the future for learning in Higher Education and innovation through learning design. She is a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, and a member of the Academy's Council and Board.

Gilly's role at the University of Leicester includes: development and implementation of e-learning and pedagogical innovation strategy across the University; student centred pedagogical development and support processes for distance and campus based learning across the institution; and establishment of high level dissemination and research to practice, innovation to mainstream processes at Leicester and throughout the sector through the Media Zoo concept.

Gilly has two research degrees in Change Management and ICT and pedagogy.

SIF AU Program Team

SIF AU Program Team

Short Biography

Reliable exchange of data between the many information systems used by schools and school authorities is essential to the provision of enhanced learning environments as envisaged under the Digital Education Revolution (DER) and to the provision of accurate information to parents and policy makers. Achieving effective and secure "interoperability" between information systems presents a significant challenge for schools and jurisdictions over the coming decade.

To address this challenge State and Territory education chief information officers (CIOs) have been collaborating together with representatives the non-government school sectors and the Commonwealth since 2007 under the auspices of MCEECDYA to evaluate the Systems Interoperability Framework (SIF) as a technical standard to enable information exchange across the Australian schools sector. SIF is widely used in the United States and has been endorsed for system wide use in United Kingdom. Operating as the SIF Australia (SIF AU) Interim Board and supported by funding from DEEWR as part of its DER program this group has overseen the development of an initial release of the SIF specification for use in Australia and a program of pilot projects.

The SIF AU Program is represented at IDEA Lab by -

The team can be contacted via info-au@sifassociation.org

Smith, Prof. Alan

Prof. Alan Smith - University of Southern Queensland

Short Biography

Alan has worked in the Australian higher education sector since 1993. He is an experienced senior academic and administrator with strong credentials in flexible delivery, curriculum development and distance and e-learning systems. He also has considerable experience in the area of information management. He is currently the Professor of Distance and e-Learning at the University of Southern Queensland as well as the Executive Director of the Division of Academic Information Services.

Alan also has significant international consulting and project management experience in collaborative program and systems development. He is also an active participant in research and development work in the areas of flexible delivery, quality assurance and open and distance education. His latest research interests are in the areas of benchmarking eLearning and mobile technologies. Alan holds appointments on editorial boards of seven international refereed journals.

Soccio, Debbie

Debbie Soccio - e-Works

Short Biography

Debbie has worked in the vocational education sector, both in industry, with private RTOs, in the adult literacy sector and within TAFE and university for 18 years. Her time has been spent as teacher, educational leader and manager during this time. In her current position, she works as a consultant focussing on the embedding of e-learning into businesses and training.

Her particular interests are in the field of supporting teachers to develop programs and e-Learning resources for students. She is particularly interested in assisting staff to incorporate the use of multimedia to document the journeys that students are taking in their own lives and in their formal learning Debbie is interested in using new technologies (including audio based activities in online learning and using digital stories to provide interactive multimedia materials for students.)

Debbie Soccio is a senior eLearning consultant at e-Works and the Victorian e-Learning Coordinator for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. She is also co-Vice President of the Australian Council of Adult Literacy (ACAL). Debbie was an Australian Flexible Learning Leader in 2004, investigating what was needed to assist the adult literacy learner in going flexible.

Tait, Stuart

Stuart Tait - Education Services Australia

Short Biography

Stuart Tait has extensive experience in teaching and developing online content. His current position provides an overview of developing, licensing and distributing online school resources, including the infrastructure required to manage large-scale deployment. Recently, Stuart has managed the work of The Le@rning Federation licensing digitised content from cultural and public institutions for Australian and New Zealand schools. The Le@rning Federation has now worked with 30 institutions and is managing an innovative pilot to establish sustainable practices and processes with museums to provide access to their collections for teaching and learning. Integral to this work is the understanding Stuart has gained in the business requirements and capacity of cultural and public institutions when responding to the requirements of schools education.

Wakelam, Harriet

Harriet Wakelam - e-Works

Short Biography

Harriet is a creator, user and explorer of knowledge networks. She currently manages e-Learning content development at e-Works in Melbourne, and the development of Flexible Learning Toolboxes for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. Her main interests lie in the transformational potential of technology rather than in the technology itself. She is fascinated by the use of technology to connect virtual teams, and the strategic, communication solutions which enable virtual teams to work in rich connected ways.

Her experience includes the development of Blended Learning Strategy, innovative approaches to professional development including a 'genius bar' approach to the delivery of new technology skills. She has also run projects as diverse as hip hop via video conference in Western Deserts Indigenous communities and the West Coast Connect project, which is about using new technologies and 'connectedness' to increase retention and participation rates.

Ward, Dr. Nigel

Dr. Nigel Ward - Link Affiliates

DER technical standards project briefing

The Technical Standards for Digital Education project is a program of work to support the Digital Education Revolution, funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). The project is working with the Australian school education community to create technical standards relevant to the Australian schools digital environment and to provide mechanisms for the Australian school education community to influence the development of global technical standards. This presentation will provide an update on progress within the seven sub-themes of the project: 21st Century Curriculum Content, W3C Accessibility Guidelines, Curriculum Description, Lesson Plans, Learning Content Discovery and Exchange, e-Portfolio technology, and Integrated Learning Environments & 21st Century Learning

Short Biography

Nigel Ward is a standards and interoperability expert, business analyst and project manager working across education and research communities.

His current role with Link Affiliates involves working with communities to analyse business requirements and to develop, adopt and adapt I.T. systems to specific needs. He provides advice to Australian e-learning and e-research policy makers and advocates for Australian requirements in international standards development processes.

He has worked on interoperability issues with all government education and training sectors: Schools, VET and Higher Education.

Prior to his work with Link Affiliates, Nigel was an interoperability analyst at The Le@rning Federation, an initiative of state and federal governments of Australia and New Zealand that develops online interactive curriculum content for Australian and New Zealand schools.

In previous roles Nigel lead research teams investigating context sensitive access to information, socially mediated information exchange, metadata for the recordkeeping community, and architectures for resource discovery.

Nigel has technical expertise in distributed systems architectures, service oriented approaches, persistent identifiers, usability, accessibility, and formal specification. He has managed agile software development projects and has chaired conference program committees.

Warner, Colin

Colin Warner - Glen Waverley Secondary College

Short Biography

Colin Warner is an assistant principal at Glen Waverley Secondary College located in Melbourne, Australia. Colin has responsibility for professional learning and ICT leadership in a large and innovative learning environment for nearly 2000 students. He is also a Navigator Schools Consortium (Navcon) Educator who has, since the mid 1990's worked extensively with schools and leadership teams in utilising ICT to enhance learning and approaches to transforming schools. Colin understands that effective integration of ICT into learning environments is a complex, multi-faceted and dynamic strategic planning process that extends far beyond the provision of infrastructure alone.

Watson, Heather

Heather Watson - Education Services Australia

Short Biography

Heather Watson is the Director of the National Digital Learning Resources Network project, which is extending activities initiated by The Le@rning Federation (TLF). TLF was a project of Curriculum Corporation which developed and licenced digital curriculum resources to support student learning for all Australian and New Zealand schools as a collaborative initiative of all governments from 2001 - 2009.

Heather has held senior positions in Australian education focussed on managing both business and strategy associated with ICTs to support improved education delivery and access. This has included working across Asia Pacific within IBM's Business Consulting Services and nationally in major technology business and strategic education priorities since 1990, typically associated with professional learning, curriculum and strategic change. Previously she was a curriculum policy and project manager for the Education Department in Victoria, an education manager at the ABC and a teacher in Victorian schools.

White, Gordon

Gordon White - Shared Services, TAMS ACT

Short Biography

Gordon White has 20 year's experience as a classroom teacher, 10 of which teaching computing. He has a long history of IT innovation in Canberran schools. In 1984 he began teaching graphics programming to year 9 and 10 students. In 1988 he wrote a basic CAD program for teachers to use for free on low powered Apple II computers. As early as 1989 he found funds to provide all Canberra schools with a single 2400 baud modem and gave a free email account service to vanguard teachers. He initiated the first student-owned laptop program in an Australian government school in 1996. That same year, even before Microsoft's Internet Explorer was released, he had his students creating web sites using raw HTML code. He also appeared that year on the Sunday television program talking about the potential threat that the internet was being prortayed as, to education.

In 2000 Gordon made the move from the classroom into the Department and has since then had an instrumental role in bringing some of the best IT facilities to government school students in the country. His main role these days is in Education ICT projects and Business Integration, bringing together the possibilities. It is clear that he has a strong passion and commitment for both IT and education.

Wilkinson, Dr. Ross

Dr. Ross Wilkinson - Australian National Data Service (ANDS)

Short Biography

Ross Wilkinson is the executive director of the Australian National Data Service, dedicated to ensuring more researchers re-use data more often.

His research career commenced with his Ph D in mathematics at Monash University before researching in computer science at La Trobe University, RMIT and at CSIRO. Some of his areas of research have been document retrieval effectiveness, structured documents retrieval, and most recently on technologies that support people to interact with their information environments. He has published over 90 research papers, has served on many program committees and was a program co-chair for both SIGIR'96 and SIGIR'98.

He is now leading the Australian National Data Service creating tools, information, frameworks and the skills to enable Australia's researchers to more effectively use and re-use research data, wherever it comes from.

Wyatt, Liam

Liam Wyatt - Wikimedia Australia

Short Biography

Liam Wyatt is the Vice President of Wikimedia Australia and info-philanthropy advocate. He received the UNSW university medal in history for his thesis on the Academic Lineage of Wikipedia. He works to try to find the common ground between the museum, education and Wikimedia communities.

Judges
Australian Regional Finals of the Learning Impact Awards

Abel, Dr. Rob

Dr. Rob Abel - IMS Global Learning Consortium

The IMS GLC Learning Impact Awards Australian Regional Finalist Showcase (LIA10)

For over three years now the IMS Global Learning Consortium has conducted a global competition of technology used in context to enhance learning, known as the Learning Impact Awards (LIAs). Expert judges, using a stringent set of criteria, have evaluated over 150 entries from around the world. What have we learned about the future of digital support for education and learning? What innovations have led to significant learning impact and why? This presentation will address these questions within the context of our most significant educational and learning challenges of the 21st century.

International perspectives of interoperability and the benefits of standards

As we transition from "technology as infrastructure" to "technology as teaching and learning facilitator" a new collaboration to develop "standards" is needed. Interoperability standards enable the mixing of a wide variety of products and technologies to achieve a seamless teaching and learning experience. Lowering the cost of seamless teaching and learning experiences is key to spreading innovation in the education segment. Adoption practice standards focus on the processes required to successfully implement new technologies at scale. Collaboration on interoperability and adoption practice standards among suppliers and education institutions and local authorities is a critical component that will help increase the opportunity and results for all.

Short Biography

Rob Abel, Ed.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of IMS Global Learning Consortium, the world's leading non-profit member consortium focused on standards for development and adoption of technology-enhanced learning. Under Rob's leadership IMS Global has introduced the Learning Impact program, which is setting new benchmarks for high impact applications of technology in achieving improvements in educational access, affordability, and quality worldwide. Rob is a recognized expert on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for learning, as well as an education industry researcher focused on the impact of education in society. As Senior Vice President at Collegis (now SunGard Higher Education), the leading provider of ICT services to US higher education, he was responsible for online and academic services provided to over 60 US institutions. As Senior Director at Oracle Education he was a leader and innovator in the development of online learning architectures and related standards, including the Reusable Content Object (RCO) strategy. Rob holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change from Fielding Graduate University, a Masters degree in Management from Stanford University, a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a Baccalaureate degree in Computational Physics from Carnegie Mellon University.

Hamilton, Deborah

Deborah Hamilton - Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)

Short Biography

Deborah Hamilton has worked on policy and programs relating to the use of technology to enable teaching and learning and eGovernment in the Australian Public Service since 2000. She has worked in areas relating to online curriculum resources and tools, broadband, copyright and cross-sectoral education issues in the education sector. In eGovernment she worked on international policy issues and better practice strategies. Deborah is the Director of the Curriculum Resources and Copyright Unit, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, which is responsible for implementing the curriculum resources element of the Australian Government's Digital Education Revolution initiative.

Moyle, Dr. Kathryn

Dr. Kathryn Moyle - University of Canberra

Short Biography

Dr. Kathryn Moyle is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Canberra and and for the past three has been the Director of the Secretariat for the Australian Information and Communications Technology Education Committee (AICTEC). Kathryn's work includes investigating issues about technologies in education at local and whole system levels. Her primary roles involve undertaking research into education and training issues involving technologies in learning in Australia and overseas; teaching post-graduate students; and providing national policy and strategic advice about learning with technologies.

Kathryn has published and is regularly cited concerning her work researching issues pertaining to software and infrastructure issues in education. Kathryn has recently completed an Australian research project listening to students' voices about their views and expectations of learning with technologies that straddles schools, vocational education and training and pre-service teacher education. Prior to taking up her position at the University of Canberra, Kathryn worked for 25 years at state and national levels in school education undertaking a range of roles including production management and digital materials development for use by academics, teachers and trainers.

Spark, Rodney

Rodney Spark - e-Works

Short Biography

Rodney Spark is the Executive Director of e-Works, which provides a range of e-learning advisory and support services for the Victorian training system and manages a range of major ICT change projects to increase participation and improve learning outcomes in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. This includes managing the TAFE Virtual Campus and undertaking a range of other state and national responsibilities on behalf of Skills Victoria.

Rodney is currently the Victorian representative on the VET sector's Flexible Delivery Advisory Group (FLAG) and the cross-sectoral Australian ICT in Education Committee (AICTEC).

Rodney's FLAG responsibilities include Chair of the Management Committee for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework's Leadership Program and Chair of the E-Standards for Training Expert Group, which is the national VET sector's ICT standards endorsement body.

Rodney's AICTEC responsibilities include being the VET representative on the AICTEC Executive and two AICTEC sub-committees, the National Interoperability and Digital Architecture Advisory Group and the Edu Domain Advisory Committee.

E-Works is responsible for managing the following Framework Business Activities on behalf of FLAG:

Treadwell, Ross

Ross Treadwell - Education Works Department of Education and Children's Services (DECS), South Australia

Short Biography

Ross Treadwell is the Assistant Director for Education Works in the Department of Education and Children's Services, South Australia. He is currently involved in the development of 6 new birth to year 12 private public partnership (PPP) schools, and is also working with a number of schools developing new facilities throughout the state through the DECS Education Works and Building Education Revolution initiatives.

Prior to his current appointment, Ross was the Assistant Director, Learning Technologies (DECS), the foundation Principal at Seaford 6-12 School (the first purpose built middle school in SA), the Technology Curriculum Officer for DECS and was also a foundation manager responsible for establishing the SA Technology School of the Future at Technology Park.

He has taught at a number of schools and universities in South Australia and the Northern Territory and is passionate about the use of technology to improve teaching and learning for all groups and in developing flexible learning spaces that enable the delivery of contemporary methodology.


Supported by:

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations logo University of Southern Queensland logo IMS Global Learning Consortium logo

Sponsors:

Education Technology Solutions logo Aarnet logo Motorola logo

Uecomm logo Lappset logo framework estandards logo