IDEA 2007
Integrated Education Infrastructure:
Innovation and use of technology in education
8 - 11 October 2007
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre
PROGRAM Information by Speakers, Judges and Panel Members
** Please note the speakers, judges and panel members are in alphabetical order, not program order.
Speakers
Arthur, Dr. Evan
Dr. Evan Arthur Group Manager - Innovation and Research Systems Group, Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST)
The Systemic Infrastructure Initiative: Impact and Future Directions
The Systemic Infrastructure Initiative has achieved some outstanding successes across a raft of projects and resulted in significant developments of Australia's research infrastructure. This talk will highlight some of the initiative's major achievements and the continuing impact that the SII is having, particularly in the context of NCRIS, it's Platforms for Collaboration capability area, and beyond technology, in our greater understanding of the legal and regulatory contexts of conducting e-Research.
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 Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and in the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). He has worked on issues such as refugee policy, labour market programs, teacher professional development, research policy, recognition of overseas qualifications, and the use of information technology in education. His current position is Group Manager, Innovation and Research Systems Group in DEST.
Evan is responsible for coordination of the Australian Government's involvement in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in education, including the development of the national Action Plan for the education and training sector under the auspices of the National Strategy for the Information Economy. He is the Chair of the principal cross sectoral body advising the Federal, State and Territory Government Ministers on issues associated with the use of ICT in education, the Australian Information and Communications Technology in Education Committee. He is also responsible for research policy issues in the higher education sector. In that capacity he is directing the implementation of two major Australian Government initiatives, the Research Quality Framework and the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.
Beale, Timothy
Timothy Beale BEcon, LLB Qld, MPubLaw ANU, GD Taxation CQU, FTIA. Solicitor (Qld and NSW); Solicitor and Barrister (Vic & ACT); Barrister (High Court).
Short Biography
Timothy Beale is a former Federal Treasury economist. His career to date has traversed the disciplines of law and economics in both the private and public sectors.
Tim has practised in the areas of commercial and government law. He has been involved in the development of many Commonwealth, State and Territory Bills such as the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and Cooperatives Act 1997 (Qld). From 1994 to 2001, he represented the Queensland Government at senior officer level on the Ministerial Council for Corporations. During this period, he was involved in the referral of the States' corporation powers to the Commonwealth Government.
More recently, Tim has been a Senior Tax Writer with CCH Australia and now is a Director in the Australian Taxation Office.
Tim teaches part-time at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in the units: Internet Law; Electronic Commerce and Technology Contracts; Corporate and Investment Regulation; and Electronic Commerce Law.
Tim's research interests include Internet Law, Intellectual Property Law, Taxation Law and Company Law. He is a regular contributor to law publishers and legal seminars.
Bell, Margot
Margot Bell Director, Innovation and Research Branch, Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST)
Short Biography
Margot is the Director for Educational Information Infrastructure in DEST and is involved in developing the policy landscape and operation environment to support the adoption of technical standards and to manage intellectual property issues. Since 2001 she has managed the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative (SII) which has helped to deliver much of the technical and information infrastructure to support networked education and research in Australia. Prior to SII work Margot worked in the Higher Education and International Groups on e-learning initiatives, the assessment of overseas qualifications and on Commonwealth and State government activity to support the mutual recognition of occupations. Before joining DEST, Margot worked in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in a number of social welfare related positions.
Bevan, Allan
Allan Bevan Cross-sectoral Advisor Australian Access Federation
'The Australian Access Federation - an opportunity for collaboration'
The Australian Access Federation Project (AAF) will develop and deploy an infrastructure to facilitate trusted electronic communications and collaboration. Established through Australian Government research infrastructure funding, it provides a case study in the opportunities and challenges for national cross-sectoral collaboration.
Short Biography
Alan has recently been appointed to the position of Cross-sectoral Adviser for the Australian Access Federation (AAF). In that role he is working to leverage benefits from the Australian Government investment in the AAF for the schools and VTE sectors. Previously, Alan was the Chief Operating Officer for The Le@rning Federation, the major national school sector ICT content and infrastructure initiative. In that role he successfully guided the initiative through the completion of Phase Two targets and the transition to the third phase of the project.
Alan has also held other national collaborative roles, including General Manager at education.au (a national Ministerially owned ICT agency) and Project Director for the award winning Australian career information service: http://www.myfuture.edu.au.
Blackmon, Dr. Bill
Dr Bill Blackmon Chief Technical Officer, Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative
Short Biography
Bill has been involved in the successful adoption of SCORM and the design and development of the ADL Registry. As the Systems Architect for the Learning Systems Architecture Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, Bill was the co-author of the "SCORM Best Practices Guide for Content Developers," and co-leader of a successful series of workshops on the basics of SCORM for instructional designers.
Blinco, Kerry
Kerry Blinco e-Framework and Standards Manager, Link Affiliates, University of Southern Queensland; and Technical Standards Adviser to the Department of Education Science and Training (DEST).
Short Biography
Kerry Blinco is the-Framework and Standards Manager for the Link Affiliates standards capability, and Technical Standards Adviser to DEST. She participates in a range of national and international technical standards activities with Standards Australia, IMS, ISO, NISO, OASIS and the IEEE LTSC and in her current role works closely with the UK JISC. Kerry's particular focus is on frameworks and architectural models, and the intersection between research, education and information environments. She has been involved in a number of national and international collaborative projects.
Craig, Sue
Sue Craig University of Southern Queensland, RUBRIC Project Manager
Short Biography
Sue holds the position of Manager, Strategic Planning & Development for the Division of Academic Information Services at the University of Southern Queensland, and is currently seconded to the role of RUBRIC Project Manager for the RUBRIC project (http://rubric.edu.au/). Sue has worked in the higher education sector for over 19 years and has significant senior experience in academic libraries in Australia and the Middle East, particularly in library administration and the management of information services. She specializes in strategic planning and quality processes; integrated information literacy and curriculum development; process reviews and project management.
Croger, Peter
Peter Croger Managing Director, Croger Associates Pty Ltd
Interoperability across Australia's education sector: opportunities for improvement
Australia's education sector comprises many thousands of institutions which face growing requirements for collaboration. Interoperability between and within institutions is becoming more important but there are many barriers. AICTEC, the inter-governmental Australian ICT in Education Committee, is examining ways to enable improved interoperability across the Australian sector and recently engaged Peter to undertake a research project. The presentation will highlight the findings of the project.
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.
de Byl, Daniel
Daniel de Byl University of Southern Queensland - Integrated Content Environment for Research and Scholarship (ICE-RS) Project Manager
Short Biography
Daniel de Byl is the project manager for the DEST funded project "The Integrated Content Environment for Research and Scholarship" and the Open Source project called ICE at the University of Southern Queensland. Daniel has experience in the higher education and private sectors with publishing of education material as well as the development of associated software. He has also been involved in the implementation, support and training of university content management systems for the publishing of course material.
Fitzgerald, Dr. Anne
Dr Anne Fitzgerald QUT Law School and Oak Law Project
Standards and Intellectual Property: A Creative Tension
This presentation considers the role of standards and the objectives of the main systems of intellectual property protection, in particular, copyright and patents. It considers the ways in which conflicts can arise between standards and intellectual property and the responses that have been developed by standard setting organisations and others to reduce or remove these conflicts. Some recent examples of the interface between standards and intellectual property rights will be discussed to illustrate the issues that arise.
Short Biography
Dr Anne Fitzgerald is a Brisbane-based intellectual property and e-commerce lawyer. She is an Adjunct Professor at QUT Law School where she works as a principal researcher on the OAKLaw project (www.oaklaw.qut.edu.au). Since 2003 she has also been a Senior Research Fellow at Macquarie University Law School where she teaches an intensive intellectual property subject each year. Anne has an extensive background in the areas of intellectual property and electronic commerce law. She has taught subjects in these areas, since 1991 at several universities (including University of Tasmania, Griffith University, QUT and Macquarie University) and has published several books, numerous articles and book chapters on intellectual property law (particularly as it relates to digital technologies), and electronic commerce law. Her most recent publications are: Internet and E-Commerce Law and Policy, (with B Fitzgerald, and others), Lawbook Co/Thomson, 2007; the Copyright, chapter in D Butler & S Rodrick, Australian Media Law, Lawbook Co/Thomson, 3rd ed, 2007; and Intellectual Property: In Principle (with B Fitzgerald), Lawbook Co/Thomson, 2004. Anne has a JSD degree from Columbia University, New York (2002) and an LLM degree in International Business Law from the University of London (1989). She is a a member of the Queensland Bar with a current practising certificate; she has also been admitted to legal practice in Victoria (Barrister and Solicitor, 1990) and Tasmania (Practitioner, 1985)
Krause, Kerri-Lee
Professor Kerri-Lee Krause Chair in Higher Education and Director of the Griffith Institute for Higher Education
The teaching-research-technology nexus: Implications for engaging the net generation
The higher education sector continues to grapple with defining the essence of academic enquiry in the 21st century. The relative role and status of research and teaching in academe is a highly contested area as the competition for international university rankings, research dollars, and national teaching accolades escalates. But what does this mean for the student experience in higher education and how might ICTs bridge gaps between learning, teaching and research for the digital native student? This presentation, informed by recent empirical studies, will examine some of these questions and will consider implications for enhancing the quality of the changing student experience in higher education.
Short Biography
Professor Kerri-Lee Krause is Chair in Higher Education and Director, Griffith Institute for Higher Education, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Her research expertise and experience spans broadly across higher education policy areas. Her particular research focus is the student experience in higher education and implications for policy and practice. She currently directs a national Carrick-funded project examining teaching-research linkages across the disciplines and at the institutional policy level. Kerri-Lee is also a member of a Carrick project examining the implications of emerging technologies for learning and teaching among the 'digital generation'. She is particularly interested in the role of ICTs in facilitating the teaching-research nexus. A significant part of her work involves providing policy and practical advice to university academics, policy-makers, administrators and student support staff on implications of her research for managing and responding to the changing student experience in higher education settings.
Leach, Murray
Murray Leach Senior Manager Ministry of Education, New Zealand
Domain modelling and the e-Framework in New Zealand
The presentation will highlight a novel and pragmatic approach to the problem of high level domain modelling of the Education Sector in NZ currently being undertaken by the Ministry of Education.
The primary goal of the modelling work is to identify areas where interoperability can be improved and shared services can be implemented.
The international collaboration through the e-Framework is a pivotal component in the work being done in New Zealand.
Short Biography
Murray Leach is a senior manager in New Zealand's Ministry of Education with the responsibility for developing ICT strategies, frameworks and solutions that enable education sector-wide collaboration. As one of the partner representatives on the e-Framework Partners Group Murray is at the forefront of New Zealand's education sector international ICT involvement.
Murray is also the chair of the New Zealand Education Sector ICT Management Committee - a group whose vision is to raise achievement in an innovative education sector, fully connected and supported by the smart use of ICT. Murray is also the chair of the New Zealand Education Sector ICT Connectivity Committee - ensuring that the education sector has access to a robust, open standards-driven ICT infrastructure for education. His involvement in these, and other forums, places him in good steed to contribute to the continued growth and development of ICT to support education, research and educational administration in New Zealand.
Lovegrove, Bill
Professor Bill Lovegrove University of Southern Queensland Vice Chancellor
Short Biography
Professor William, or 'Bill' Lovegrove is an innovative and internationally renowned researcher and a highly respected member of the Australian Higher Education sector.
Since his appointment as Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in October 2003, Professor Lovegrove has strengthened the University's reputation as an international leader in e-learning and distance education. During his tenure, Professor Lovegrove has also developed a strong corporate direction, increased alliances with communities and industry and developed a more innovative approach to research and teaching.
Prior to his appointment at USQ, Professor Lovegrove was Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research, Internationalisation and Commercialisation) at Griffith University, where he was at different times, responsible for teaching, learning, strategic planning and quality and academic staff issues, research strategy and internationalisation.
He has also held senior positions at the University of Tasmania and the University of Wollongong.
Professor Lovegrove's qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts, First Class Honours and Doctorate in Psychology through the University of Queensland and completion of an Advanced Executive Program from the Kellogg School of Business at NorthWestern University in the United States.
Throughout his career Professor Lovegrove has developed a high-level international research profile in the areas of visual information processing and dyslexia.
His research demonstrated that many dyslexic children experience a specific difficulty in processing visual information through a system known as the "magno-cellular system" responsible for combining information from successive fixations during reading. Until this work it was thought that most dyslexics experienced a specific language difficulty but no visual processing problems. The remedial implications of this work are still being investigated internationally.
Professor Lovegrove is also well-recognised for his record of strong leadership in developing international programs, building staff performance and creating extensive commercial links with industry and government.
He is a member of many professional bodies, has been a key note speaker at a range of conferences and has represented the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee on many occasions.
Outside the world of academia, Professor Lovegrove is equally talented, keeping superbly fit with down-hill skiing and competing in triathlons.
Mackie, Christopher J.
Christopher J. Mackie Associate Program Officer in Research in Information Technology (RIT) - Mellon Foundation
Cyberinfrastructure for the Arts and Humanities: A Pathway to Institutional Sustainability
Currently, cyberinfrastructure (CI) projects in higher education are sustained by massive infusions of government and private capital. History suggests that these contributions will eventually dry up, forcing CI projects to seek institutional support for their continued operation. Unfortunately, the projects are usually poorly designed for institutional sustainability, suggesting that the costs of the transition are likely to be high for both the projects and the institutions, and that the failure rates and lost productivity may both be substantial. A better strategy would be to build CI projects from the beginning with institutional sustainability as a top priority, developing in the process an enterprise services architecture for higher education institutions that can accommodate new scholarly or scientific projects at minimal incremental cost. This presentation will discuss one strategy for accomplishing this objective, using examples drawn from software projects for the arts and humanities supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and highlighting both the opportunities and the obstacles that are being faced. Arts and humanities CI, while distinctively challenging, offers an excellent starting point upon which to build a sustainable, CI-friendly enterprise services architecture for the entirety of higher education.
Short Biography
Associate Program Officer in Research in Information Technology. He holds Ph.D. and Masters degrees from Princeton University, a Masters degree from the University of Michigan, and an A.B. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A computational modeler and social complexity theorist by training, he has also published in the fields of regulatory theory, social research methods, and energy, education, and health policy. His most recent work involves the application of advances in cognitive and affective neuroscience and psycholinguistics to symbolic interactionist theory, in order to model the emergence of human identity at the intersection of individual discourse processing and social information flows; in the furtherance of this project, he has spent the last several years teaching computers how to feel.
Prior to joining the Foundation, he held management positions in corporate healthcare and higher education information technology, and served as an I.T. consultant to domestic and international not-for-profit agencies.
Nevile, Liddy
Liddy Nevile Adj. Associate Professor, La Trobe University
Short Biography
Liddy has been working on standards for the Web for more than 10 years. Her particular interests are in accessibility (inclusive access including for people with disabilities) and metadata. She has been working in the field of educational technology since the mid-seventies and has experience in teaching with and about technology, building educational portals, and is currently working on educational technologies for students in developing countries. She is a member of the ISO JTC1 SC36, Advisory Board and Community Chair for the DCMI (accessibility and social tagging), and has worked with the European Standards organisation (CEN), Australian Standards, IMS Global Learning Consortium, and AGLS.
Nguyen, Chi
Chi Nguyen RAMP Project, Macquarie University
Muradora: A Turnkey GUI for Fedora Repository Supporting Federated Identity and Flexible Access Control
Research Activityflow and Middleware Priorities (RAMP) is a DEST funded project from the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative. RAMP is developing a flexible authorisation module for repositories (using the XACML open standard) and implementing this as the core of a new, fully open source front-end for Fedora named Muradora.
Short Biography
Chi Nguyen holds a BSc from University of Sydney and a PhD in Computing Sciences from the University of Technology Sydney. He has over 10 years of IT experience both in academia, and in commercial R&D companies such as IBM, Lucent and Nortel. He joined MELCOE in 2004 and set up the first Australian Shibboleth Testbed Federation. He is currently the project manager for the RAMP project which focuses on building a framework for federated authentication and flexible authorization for repositories within the Australian Higher Education sector.
Nicholas, Nick
Nick Nicholas Business Analyst with the DEST infrastructure projects PILIN (Persistent Identifier Linking Infrastructure) and FRED (Federated Repositories for Education).
Short Biography
Nick has a background in Greek linguistics, and has worked with the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae digital library and at the University of Melbourne. His interests include Computing in the Humanities, Natural Language Processing and Character Encoding.
Pearce, Dr. Judith
Dr. Judith Pearce Deputy-Director, Innovation, National Library of Australia
Libraries, learning and knowledge creation in a digital age Abstract
This paper will look at new directions the National Library of Australia is taking to ensure that Australians have access to the information they need to understand themselves and their place in the world.
Short Biography
Judith Pearce is currently helping the National Library of Australia to reposition its digital library services as a single business based on a service-oriented architecture. She is a librarian with an extensive background as a business analyst, IT project manager and strategic thinker. She has served in a range of leadership positions in the Library, most recently as Director, Feasibility and Standards. She is a member of Standards Australia IT-019 and led the development of the new ISO 2146 standard, Registry Services for Libraries and Related Organisations.
Porter, Simon
Simon Porter Information Manager (Research) eScholarship Research Centre, Implementor & Facilitator e-Framework for Education & Research, Link Affiliates
Short Biography
Simon Porter worked on the University of Melbourne's ERP implementation for six years, and has been involved in the selection process for a new student system, and the implementation of university finance, human resources and research management systems. Throughout this time, Simon has developed a keen interest in information management, and in particular the ways in which the same source of information can be used for multiple purposes. In 2006 Simon developed and implemented the University's Find an Expert system, using core information form the University's ERP to produce the a public 'CV' for every researcher in the University. In 2007, Simon joined the University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre to assist with the development of the University's eResearch capabilities. A significant component of Simon's time is seconded to Link Affiliates to assist with the development of the e-Framework to facilitate technical interoperability within and across education and research.
Putland, Garry
Garry Putland General Manager, education.au
Providing flexibility and consistency within the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF)
The presentation will briefly describe SIFA, the internationalisation of SIFA and experiences and learnings from the US, UK and Australia. SIFA is an initiative that originated in the US, that helps schools to manage part of the interoperability challenge through shared data formats and interchange between systems.
Short Biography
Garry Putland works across all sectors of education and training in Australia. He works closely with peak bodies and national/state organisations and has extensive experience in developing strategic services which contribute towards national priorities. Garry develops, negotiates and manages alliances both nationally and internationally where it brings benefit to the Australian education and training community.
Reedman, Tina
Tina Reedman Information Manager for the PILIN Project.
Short Biography
Tina has worked in academic and public libraries for over twenty-five years mostly on devising and delivering training on electronic resources. Most recently Tina worked at the State Library of New South Wales in the Innovation, Education and Development Services Division where she has been based for the duration of the PILIN project.
Saroha, Manish
Manish Saroha Systems Developer for the PILIN Project
Short Biography
Manish has a B.E.(Comp. Science) and Masters in IT from RMIT. His professional experience includes providing technical consultancy in the field of J2EE and related technologies to KAZ [Telstra] and now to USQ for PILIN project. His expertise includes designing and building J2EE systems.
Sefton, Dr. Peter
Dr. Peter Sefton University of Southern Queensland, RUBRIC Project Technical Manager
Short Biography
Peter Sefton PhD Sydney 1995, BA (Hons I) Sydney 1990, Ass Dip Outdoor Education Bendigo CAE 1986 Dr Sefton holds the position of Senior Research Fellow in the Distance and e-Learning Centre at the University of Southern Queensland, currently seconded to the role of Technical Manager for the RUBRIC project (http://rubric.edu.au/). His recent experience is with institutional repository software, through RUBRIC. He is also the lead on an Australian Government sponsored project, The Integrated Content Environment for Research and Scholarship, and an associated open source software package know as ICE (http://ice.usq.edu.au).
Peter has worked in the vocational and higher education sectors both as a faculty member, general staff member and consultant for a commercial educational services provider. His specialty is publishing software and knowledge management systems, and has been the lead on a number of development projects, while also providing strategic advice at a senior level.
Smith, Allan
Professor Allan Smith Division of Academic Information Services DAIS Corporate Services University of Southern Queensland Australia (USQ)
Short Biography
Alan has worked in the Australian higher education sector for over 15 years. 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 & distance education. His latest research interests are in the areas of institutional repositories and standards for interoperability in e-learning.
Alan holds appointments on editorial boards of seven international refereed journals including Distance Education and the e-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology (e-JIST) of which he is the Executive Editor. He is also the current President of the Australasian Council for Open, Distance and e-Learning, the peak Australasian organisation for universities engaged or interested in open, distance, flexible and e-learning.
Spark, Rodney
Rodney Spark Executive Director, e-Works - Member of Society of Information Technology Management (socitm)
Building a national e-learning infrastructure: the role of standards in maximising e-learning outcomes for Australia's vocational education and training sector.
Since 2000, the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector's national e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework), has sought to position Australia as a world leader in applying new technologies to vocational education programs and services. This session will provide a summary of the Framework's achievements and the priorities for national action which will form the next phase of the Framework (2008-2011). This will include a particular focus on how the Framework's approach to interoperability standards has maximised the e-learning outcomes from this national investment.
Short Biography
Rodney Spark manages e-Works, the e-learning development and support agency for Victoria's vocational education and training (VET) system. This includes responsibility for the TAFE VC, a shared online services infrastructure used by more than 80 training organisations (including TAFE institutions) to develop, manage and deliver training. Rodney is the Victorian representative on the VET sector's Flexible Learning Advisory Group (FLAG) which provide advice on national issues related to the directions and priorities for e-learning including Framework implementation. Rodney is also a member of the cross-sectoral Australian ICT in Education Committee (AICTEC) and the AICTEC Interoperability Standards Working Group.
Taylor, Jim
Professor James C. Taylor BEd (Birm), MEd (Hons)(Syd), PhD (Qld) - Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Learning Services) - University of Southern Queensland Australia
Higher Education Futures
The fact that conventional approaches to classroom-based teaching will not be capable of meeting the escalating demand for higher education represents a real leadership challenge. In both developed and developing countries, the Internet will provide the only viable cost-effective means to provide access to educational opportunities, especially for the continuing professional development of working individuals. However, even if students have access to the Internet, the vast majority cannot afford the fees necessary to gain access to courses, assessment and accreditation. The growing influence of the OpenCourseWare (OCW) Consortium and associated Open Educational Resources (OER) movement is potentially challenging the status quo. Will the OER movement have a significant impact on higher education? How should institutions respond in order to maintain and enhance the quality of higher education in this rapidly changing complex environment?
Short Biography
Professor Jim Taylor is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Learning Services) at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Professor Taylor is the immediate past President of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) and was awarded the ICDE Individual Prize of Excellence in 1999 for an active role in ICDE and internationally over many years with significant contributions made to research and development in the field of open and distance learning. His current interests include e-learning, with particular emphasis on the technology-pedagogy interface, associated issues of scalability and cost-effectiveness, and the need for efficacious change management strategies in higher education.
Professor Taylor has wide experience as a consultant for government agencies, international bodies, tertiary institutions, professional bodies and private industry. Professor Taylor has published widely, and has undertaken major consultancy work for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, UNESCO, the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), the Australian Universities Quality Agency, the New Zealand Academic Audit Unit, the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation and the Science Council of Japan. Recently Professor Taylor received an Australian Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for 25 years of sustained leadership in enhancing the quality of open and distance learning in higher education, both in Australia and internationally.
More details are available at: http://www.usq.edu.au/users/taylorj
Ward, Dr. Nigel
Dr. Nigel Ward Technical Director of the Australian Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative Partnership Laboratory and a member of the Link Affiliates standards capability.
Short Biography
The laboratory is one node in the larger ADL Co-Lab network that is working to harness the power of information technologies to support learning, training and job performance. The Australian ADL Partnership Laboratory works to promote and support ADL specifications and technologies such as SCORM and CORDRA within Australia. It also aims to represent Australian interests and requirements to the broader ADL community.
Winton, Lyle
Lyle Winton An independent consultant working with the international e-Framework for Education and Research.
What is the e-Framework?
The e-Framework is an initiative by Australia's Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), the U.K's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), New Zealand's Ministry of Education (MoE), and the Netherlands SURF Foundation to produce an evolving and sustainable, open standards based, service oriented technical framework to support the education and research communities. The primary goal of the e-Framework is to facilitate technical interoperability within and across education and research through improved strategic planning and implementation processes. The e-Framework allows the communities to document their requirements and processes in a coherent way, and to use these to derive a set of interoperable network services. By documenting requirements, processes, services, protocol bindings, schemas and standards in the form of 'service usage models' (SUMs) members of the community are better able to collaborate on the development of service components that meet their needs (both within the community and with commercial and other international partners). This presentation will introduce the e-Framework and some of the core components of the methodology.
Short Biography
Lyle's background is in experimental high energy physics involved in large-scale collaborative international research. He has worked for several years as an IT professional in software design and project management. Most recently Lyle worked as a research fellow with the Experimental Particle Physics group at the University of Melbourne researching distributed computing and deploying Grid technologies. Lyle was also involved with the university's high performance computing facility, the APAC National Grid and the APSR project. He remains in the university as a senior research support officer supporting the e-research and research community.
Panel Members
Bennett, Dr. Sue
Dr. Sue Bennett Senior Lecturer, ICTs in Learning - Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong
Short Biography
Dr Sue Bennett is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong and the Deputy Coordinator of the Centre for Research in Interactive Learning Environments. Sue's research is concerned with understanding the role of information and communications technologies in education. Her body of work encompasses a wide range of research questions relevant to school and university education. Sue has recently completed a project developing an e-portfolio system tailored to the needs of teacher education students and incorporating the standards established by the NSW Institute of Teachers.
Blanksby, Vivienne
Vivienne Blanksby Program Leader, Resources and Innovation - Australian Flexible Learning Framework
Short Biography
Vivienne coordinates a number of projects within the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector's national e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. She has been closely associated with the development of interoperability standards for the VET sector for several years, through involvement with initiatives such as the Flexible Learning Toolboxes, E-standards for Training, the Learning Object Repository Network and New Practices in Flexible Learning. Prior to her current role, Vivienne worked as a promoter of flexible learning strategies in the VET system in Victoria.
Burke, Janette
Janette Burke Director, Central Services Monash University Library - IDEA Panel Member
Short Biography
Janette Burke is the Director, Central Services for the Monash University Library. Janette has been at Monash University for five years and oversees information technology, finance, human resources, communications and facilities management. Janette also manages the library's relationships with the university's international community, affiliates and partner organisations. One of her most exciting briefs to date has been the refurbishment of the Berwick Library to create a Library and Learning Commons and the design of the Monash South Africa and Monash Malaysia Library and Learning Commons. Janette is also a representative on Monash University's Educational Technology Committee which is responsible for recommending policies, procedures and guidelines relating to the application of educational technology to learning and teaching.
Janette has held a variety of positions and worked in numerous universities, including the University of Wollongong Library from 1989 to 1994, and again in 1999 to 2001 during which time she held several positions, including Systems Manager, Acting Technical Services Coordinator and Project Officer. Janette has also been a Faculty Librarian at Wollongong, and at the University of Central Queensland, and she has worked at the University of Ballarat Library as a Systems Consultant and Acquisitions Librarian. In 1994 to 1999 Janette worked at Monash University as the Executive Assistant to the University Librarian, and was Acting Document Delivery Librarian.
Curyer, Suzanne
Suzanne Curyer Manager, Career Services education.au
Short Biography
Suzanne Curyer, Manager, Career Services at education.au manages of a range of projects including Australia's national online career information service, myfuture.edu.au, e-portfolio research and projects, and other education related products and services. Recently, Suzanne co-authored the recently released 'Developing e-portfolios for VET: Policy Issues and Interoperability' report and is organising a National Symposium on E-portfolios in 2008.
Suzanne has over 12 years experience in the employment, education and training sectors in Australia. At a national level she has provided policy advice regarding career development and planning, and vocational education and training (VET). Suzanne has also managed national career and youth transition programs; and VET, flexible learning and adult literacy research programs.
Green, Rebecca
Rebecca Green Master of Design Student - QCA Griffith University
Short Biography
After 10 years working as a designer and art director, I resigned my position to commence studies in Socially and Environmentally- Sustainable Graphic Design. I am the 2007 recipient of the AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association) Gordon Andrews Scholarship for this research. I will complete these studies at the end of the year. I am the Brisbane liaison for the O2 sustainable design network, and have found an amazing group of like-minded designers through this and other forums.
Hallam, Gillian
Gillian Hallam Associate Professor and Faculty Fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
Short Biography
She is currently Project Leader for an cross-institutional research study to investigate the development and use of ePortfolios in education and the professions. Her teaching and research interests focus on the management and evaluation of information services, e-learning and on a range of professional and workforce issues in the library and information services sector. Gillian has won a number of university teaching excellence awards. Prior to joining QUT, she worked as a librarian in the corporate sector, managing business and legal information. Gillian is past president of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and serves on both ALIA's Education and Professional Development Standing Committee and the Education and Training Standing Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Gillian is a Fellow of the Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA).
Harper, Wendy
Wendy Harper Queensland University of Technology - Project Leader of QUT's ePortfolio initiatives Student ePortfolio and Professional Staff ePortfolio, and is an acting Associate Director in Teaching and Learning Support Services.
Short Biography
Ms Harper has more than 20 years experience in the tertiary sector covering learning and teaching systems, IT infrastructure, project management, and systems development. She has co-authored several published papers on ePortfolios, ePortfolio Policy and Privacy, and First Year Experience. Ms Harper is the deputy project leader of the Carrick ePortfolio commissioned grant.
Hendrick, Geoff
Geoff Hendrick Manager, Technical Strategy and Architecture, education.au limited
Short Biography
Geoff has significant expertise and experience in the design and implementation of pragmatic, light-weight, standards-based, production-quality e-learning systems. Particular areas of interest include federated searching, repository interoperability and applying web 2.0 concepts to e-learning systems.
Geoff has published papers and presented at conferences in Australia and internationally on these subjects. He is an active participant in national and international e-learning interoperability standards activities.
Mr. Hendrick's background includes many years in the IT industry as a consultant and with Deloitte, IBM and Telstra. He holds a B.Sc (1st class Hons) in Computer Science from Adelaide University.
Kember, Debbie
Debbie Kember Manager, Smart Classrooms Discovery and Development Initiatives, Department of Education, Training and the Arts (DETA)
Short Biography
Debbie is a teacher by profession and a public servant by occupation, currently managing the Smart Classrooms Discovery and Development programs for the Queensland Department of Education, Training and the Arts. She is the immediate past president of the Joint Council of Queensland Teachers' Associations and served as President of the Queensland Society for Information Technology in Education, Vice President of the Australian Joint Council of Professional Teaching Associations and as an interim board member of the National Institute for Quality Teaching and School Leadership (now Teaching Australia).
Macnamara, Dennis
Dennis Macnamara Link Affiliates
Short Biography
Dennis Macnamara has worked in education for over 30 years in both public and private sectors. 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.
Most recently at AEShareNet Dennis developed approaches to demystify the complexities of copyright, IP management and licensing so that practitioners can get on with business. It is imperative that intellectual property be carefully managed in e learning so that resources can be shared, traded and used as widely as possible.
Currently Dennis is project manager of the PILIN, project another key jigsaw component for successful e business approaches to learning and research.
Dennis presents frequently on these topics and facilitates discussion around complex infrastructure and strategic issues.
ONeill, Owen
Owen ONeill Project Manager, E-standards for Training Project - Australian Flexible Learning Framework
Short Biography
Owen ONeill is the project manager of the E-standards for Training project, which is is funded through the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. The 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. He has worked on e-learning standards and interoperability initiatives in Australia and Europe.
Paton, Bob
Bob Paton Chief Executive Officer Manufacturing Skills Australia (MSA)
Short Biography
Bob Paton is the CEO of the Australia national Manufacturing Industry Skills Council, trading as Manufacturing Skills Australia (MSA). This is the industry body that is funded by the Australian Government for the ongoing development and maintenance of national vocational qualifications for the manufacturing industry. He was appointed in December 2004 after more than 8 years as National Executive Officer of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Industry Training Advisory Body (MERS ITAB). MSA has responsibility for ten national Training Packages that include over 140 vocational qualifications spanning the manufacturing industry as well as cross-industry applications such as the Competitive Manufacturing and Laboratory Operations Training Packages. Bob spent the previous 20 years working in TAFE NSW initially as a teacher of automotive studies and then in various administration roles associated with state-wide and national manufacturing and engineering curriculum development and implementation. Bob also spent several years as a Director on the Board of the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).
Judges
Abel, Rob
Rob Abel CEO IMS Global Learning Consortium
Short Biography
Rob Abel, has been the Chief Executive Officer of IMS Global Learning Consortium, since February 2006. Rob is an education and learning industry researcher, author, and analyst focused on the technological needs of the knowledge age. He founded the Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness (A-HEC) 2004 for the purpose of performing research to uncover and disseminate best practices that enable transformation. Prior to founding A-HEC, Rob was the Senior Vice President of Client Services of Collegis (now SunGard Higher Education) where he was responsible for services delivered to more than 60 higher education institutions. Rob also served as General Manager of Collegis' Online and Academic Services business unit, Chief Marketing Officer, and Senior Vice President of Business Development. Rob has over 25 years experience in high tech general management, business development, marketing, and product development. As Senior Director at Oracle Education in the mid-late 1990s he was a key leader and innovator in the development of online learning architectures and related standards, including the Reusable Content Object (RCO) strategy. Rob is a member of the IEEE, ACM, ASTD, ISTE, and American Educational Research Association.
Dobbs, Graeme
Graeme Dobbs Judge for the Australian round of the Learning Impact Awards
Short Biography
Graeme is an independent consultant working across the areas of educational planning and the application of information and communication technologies to teaching and learning, principally within the VET sector. His background includes extensive teaching, administration and leadership roles within TAFE NSW.
For more than 10 years Graeme managed the learning resource design and production arm of TAFE's Open Training and Education Network (OTEN). He took a particular interest in the design and development of teaching and learning products and services based on new and emerging technologies (and the underpinning national and international specifications and standards appropriate for those technologies). Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Graeme moved from OTEN to head up the statewide "TAFE Online" project. For a number of years he represented the NSW VET sector on the National Flexible Learning Advisory Group (FLAG) contributing to the innovative work of that group and the development and implementation of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework for the VET sector.
Graeme has had considerable overseas experience - running workshops and speaking at conferences on the development and implementation of new and emerging technologies in vocational training in Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. In August/September this year he conducted workshops in Hyderabad, India.
Graeme has written papers on a number of aspects of the use of new and emerging technologies in education and training and the application of standards and specifications for learning resource development. His most recent work has included consulting on the development of planning and resourcing models for TAFE NSW.
McDonald, Dr. Elizabeth
Dr Elizabeth McDonald Director - Grants Scheme, The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education - Judge for the Australian round of the Learning Impact Awards
Short Biography
Dr Elizabeth McDonald took up the appointment as Director-Grants Scheme at the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, in January 2006. The Carrick Institute is an initiative of the Commonwealth Government It has a charter to advance and promote learning and teaching in Australian Higher Education. Prior to this appointment Elizabeth spent a year on loan from the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) to the Carrick Institute to assist with the development of the Institute and was engaged in all aspects of planning during that year. In 2003-04 she was Director, Teaching and Learning Unit, Higher Education, DEST during the early implementation of the higher education reforms arising from Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future. In 2001-02 Elizabeth ran the secretariat for the National Review of Nursing Education. Prior to this she spent time as a senior education officer in the Catholic Education Office, Parramatta and as a science and maths teacher in secondary schools in NSW.
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