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Keynote Speakers
"Designing technology-enhanced university programmes and courses in the 21st century"
By Professor Carmel McNAUGHT, Professor of Learning Enhancement, CLEAR - Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
Bio
Carmel McNaught is Emeritus Professor of Learning Enhancement and former Director in the Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since the early 1970s, Carmel has worked in higher education in Australasia and southern Africa in the fields of chemistry, science education, second-language learning, equity in education, eLearning, and higher-education curriculum and policy matters. Current research interests include evaluation of innovation in higher education, strategies for embedding learning support into the curriculum, and understanding the broader implementation of the use of technology in higher education. She is actively involved in several professional organizations and is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education; is a university quality assurance auditor for both Australia and Hong Kong; is on the editorial board of 13 international journals; and is a prolific author; recent publications and activities can be viewed at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/people/Carmel.htm
Abstract
In most universities worldwide the use of e-Learning is now almost ubiquitous; and this is certainly true at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) where I have worked for over a decade. However, while the challenge of supporting teachers to naturally include technology when planning their courses has been met, we must acknowledge that many teachers use technology in a didactic fashion; our learning-management systems (LMSs) are full of notes and PowerPoints, and we have sub-optimal use of interactive functions such as discussion forums, quizzes, online tutorials, role-plays, simulations, etc. We also are underutilizing the potential of student-generated content that can be shared and become educational resources for all students in the course. In the presentation, I will emphasize the potential of the web for the enhancement of learning communities and provide examples that can assist teachers to revitalize their course learning designs in order to make them more learner-centred, more engaging and, hopefully, more likely to support students in achieving desired learning outcomes.
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"Communities, Networks, Individuals: place, self and everyday life By Professor Matthew Allen, Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University, Australia |
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Bio
Matthew Allen is Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University. Matthew has worked at Curtin University since 1994, establishing and sustaining a program of Internet research and education from 1999 onwards after working in Social sciences teaching history and critical thinking. The Internet Studies department has flourished since that time and now has several hundred students undertaking either a BA (Internet Communications), web media stream in BA (Mass Communication) or in the Master of Internet Communications. The Department also has many successful doctoral graduates whose work emphasises the transdisciplinary nature of effective internet research. Matthew is principally a critic and researcher of the social uses and cultural meanings of the Internet, interested in and writing on issues as diverse as the domestication of the Internet, the experience of connectivity and the role of Facebook in online education. Most recently, he has been analysing the development of Web 2.0, particularly as an historical marker of change in the way we think about the Internet. Matthew has served as President of the Association of Internet Researchers from 2005-2007 (being on the executive 2001-2009) and was Chair of the Association’s conference in 2003. Matthew is an innovative educator, being awarded an Australian Award for University Teaching (2000) and was a Teaching Fellow of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (2008-2010). He is the author of many articles and papers on things Internet, as well as online learning, television, popular culture and Australian history, and will be publishing his third book,Web Presence: Staying Noticed in a Networked World (co-authored with Dr Tama Leaver) in 2013. He can be found online at http://netcrit.net and followed @netcrit.
Abstract
In this paper, I review the long-established use of the concept of ‘community’ which attempts both to perceive and analyse the experience of human interaction, mediated by networked computing. Ever since this form of communication commenced, it was clear that it was no ‘bloodless technological ritual’ (Rheingold, 1994), but something much more deeply human and expressive. For many years, the conceptual apparatus of ‘community’ served as the primary means for understanding the limits and potentials of this activity. However, the recent rise of social networking and social media might cast doubt on the legitimacy of this contested term’s continued relevance. Thus, I move from community to self, via the network notation that has come now to dominate our terminologies. I seek to demonstrate that, as the Internet has become interleaved with everyday life to the point where there is no distinction, for many people, between online and offline, we need to think again about how and what community might mean. In doing so, I suggest that the relationship between self and others, mediated or otherwise, is always one of shared ‘place’ but that contemporary practices of social networking differ significantly in how that place is shared and the degree of collective effort required.