Keynote Speakers
- 1- Grainne Conole, Professor of E-Learning, Institute of Educational Technology, Open University, UK.
- 2- Detmar W. Straub, J. Mack Robinson Distinguished Professor of Information Systems, Georgia State University, USA
- 3- Niall L. Sclater, Director of Learning Innovation, Open University, UK.
- 4- Cynthia Corritore, Professor of Information Systems and Technology, Creighton University, College of Business, USA
- 5- John Coyne, Professor, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, University of Derby, UK.
1- Prof. Grainne Conole
Grainne Conole is Professor of E-Learning in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University in the UK. Her research interests include the use, integration and evaluation of Information and Communication Technologies and e-learning and the impact of technologies on organisational change. Two of her current areas of interest are focusing on the evaluation of students' experiences of and perceptions of technologies and how learning design can help in creating more engaging learning activities and Open Educational Resources.
Updates on current research and reflections on e-learning research generally can be found on her blog www.e4innovation.com.
She has extensive research, development and project management experience across the educational and technical domains; funding sources have included the EU, HEFCE, ESRC, JISC and commercial sponsors). She serves on and chairs a number of national and international advisory boards, steering groups, committees and international conference programmes. She has published and presented over 300 conference proceedings, workshops and articles, including over 100 publications on a range of topics, including the use and evaluation of learning technologies. She is co-editor of the recently published RoutledgeFalmer book 'Contemporary perspectives on e-learning research'.
Blue skies thinking: innovations in learning and teaching
Abstract:
One of the key paradoxes in education today is the mismatch between the potential of technologies to create innovative and pedagogical effective learning opportunities for students and their actual use in practice. If asked, teachers say they want ideas of how to use technology in their teaching and examples of good practice, however they make little or no use of the myriad of learning object/OER repositories and sites of good practice. Web 2.0 technologies are transforming the way people are finding and sharing information and the ways in which they are communicating and networking. Two initiatives at the Open University, UK are attempting to address these issues - the OU Learning Design Initiative (http://ouldi.open.ac.uk) and the Olnet network (http://olnet.org). The talk will highlight some of the key research activities arising from these projects; including the development of a new and innovative social networking site for learning and teaching, Cloudworks (http://cloudworks.ac.uk).
2- Prof. Detmar W. Straub
The J. Mack Robinson Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at Georgia State University, Detmar has conducted research in the areas of computer security, Net-enhanced organizations (e-Commerce), technological innovation, international IT studies, and IS research methods. He holds a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) in MIS from Indiana and a PhD in English from Penn State.
He is the 2008 winner of the Alumni Distinguished Professor Award at Georgia State University, given annually for high achievement in research, teaching and service in a faculty of 1,050 persons.
Detmar has 152 publications in journals such as MIS Quarterly, Management Science, Information Systems Research, Journal of MIS, Journal of AIS, Decision Sciences Journal, Organization Science, European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS), Communications of the ACM, Information & Management, Communications of the AIS, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, DATA BASE, OMEGA, Academy of Management Executive, and Sloan Management Review.
Detmar is Editor-in-Chief of MIS Quarterly (term runs to December 2010), a journal which, as of June 2008, had the highest impact factor of any journal in the business and information sciences (5.8), according to Thomson's ISI. Detmar is a former Senior Editor for Information Systems Research and Journal of the AIS and Co-Editor of DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems. He is also an Associate Editor for the Journal of International Management. In the past he has served as Associate Editor for Management Science and Information Systems Research, and Associate Publisher/Senior Editor/Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly as well as editorial board member on a host of other journals. Former VP of Publications for the Association of Information Systems (AIS), he has held roles as co-program chair for AMCIS and ICIS and was inducted as an AIS fellow in 2005.
"eCultural Heritage, eTourism and the Arab World"
Abstract:
The Arab world has an abundance of cultural artifacts and a host of institutions that expose the world to these artifacts. Many governments, in fact, have a ministry dedicated to preserving cultural artifacts and cataloguing them for future presentation to the public. Using the Internet and digital imaging for this purpose has sometimes been called eCultural Heritage. This is, in a real sense, a branch of eTourism in that many of these endeavors are being designed to introduce the rest of the world to the rich cultural heritage that resides in ancient Arab civilizations.
What are the information technologies that are now available and will be available in the future to transform the manual processes of the past? What, with the help of these technologies, will the typical tourist experience in the year 2050? How can the Arab world tap into these in order to encourage tourism, enhance user experience with the cultural artifacts, and induce return visits and word-of-mouth recommendations? These are some of the questions that we hope to answer in this presentation. In our view, countries and institutions that incorporate these technologies effectively into their strategic initiative will be on the leading edge of this movement and create for themselves a sustainable competitive advantage.
3- Prof. Niall Sclater
Niall Sclater is Director of Learning Innovation at the UK Open University, which with 200,000 distance learners, is Europe's largest university. He is responsible for pushing forward the development and adoption of elearning by staff and students across the institution. He has been involved in the research, development and management of elearning in higher education since 1992, and has published widely on many aspects of elearning. Previously he directed the Open University's virtual learning environment programme which developed a learning management system based on the open source system, Moodle.
Before October 2005 Niall was Head of eLearning at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He co-founded and managed Clyde Virtual University and the Scottish Computer Assisted Assessment Network. He set up the CETIS Assessment Special Interest Group (assessment.cetis.ac.uk), directed the Technologies for Online Interoperable Assessment project and ran the Web-Supported Learning initiative of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (www.eciu.org). He was also founder and Director of the €4m EU-funded Mediterranean Virtual University. His blog and list of publications are at www.sclater.com
"elearning in the cloud"
Abstract:
Cloud computing enables organisations to deploy web-based services without having to host them themselves. Utilising powerful, geographically dispersed networks of computers provided by organisations such as Amazon, they can improve availability and save costs by avoiding having to maintain hardware and software. Sudden increases in demand can be dealt with by rapid, flexible scaling of computing resources so organizations pay for what they use rather than having servers which are generally underutilised.
The benefits of cloud computing for educational organisations are now becoming evident. Google and Microsoft provide packages of free services to universities which include email, document storage and online editing facilities. While most universities continue to host their own learning management systems, this paper proposes that online services for learners together with elearning content and activities will increasingly migrate to the cloud. It outlines possible future architectures for learning systems and examines the changing balance between locally based and cloud-hosted services.
4- Prof. Cynthia L. Corritore
Cynthia Corritore, Ph.D. is a Professor of Information Systems and Technology at Creighton University College of Business in the US. She holds a Ph.D. in computer science, with a focus on Human?Computer Interaction. Her current research interests focus on two areas: how humans are interacting in a technology?enhanced world, and how technology and learning are intersecting. She has published and presented hundreds of refereed research papers, conference proceedings, and international conference presentations as well as serving as a guest editor for IJHCS.
She has focused on the topics of online trust in ecommerce and eHealth (including virtual worlds), mobile computing in business, and eLearning. She is also active in the business world, and does consulting in the areas of user experience, humancentered design and processes, and online learning pedagogy. She holds a US patent pending (2nd round) for a mobile technology. In her spare time she enjoys competitive equine events and beta?testing new technologies.
Full Circle: Is technology the new humanity, and so what if it is?
Abstract:
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (1839). In English, "The more things change, the more they remain the same." As professionals in technology?related fields, we know this perhaps better than most. Every year, the game changes. In the midst of all this change, many argue that technology is making the world a cold, dehumanized, impersonal place. In fact, that technology has already done this.
Perhaps this was somewhat true in the early days of technology, as it slowly permeated all aspects of our lives. But what about today, now that technology has moved into the mainstream of our society? I argue that we have come full?circle; that is, while technology may have been isolationist in the early days, as it becomes more ubiquitous it is moving us back to our human roots that are rich with interactions and relationships. It is doing this by creating a more connected, collaborative, creative environment for our human endeavors. While this is happening on all fronts of our lives, I will focus on these trends as they are happening in ecommerce and higher education.
5- Prof. John Coyne
I joined the University as Vice-Chancellor in August 2004.
The University of Derby has over 20,000 students and operates across the county of Derbyshire with principal sites in Derby and Buxton and a new centre in Chesterfield which opened in 2007. With a turnover approaching £120m and 2,700 employees the University is not only a major institution of higher education it is also one of the areas largest businesses. The University was shortlisted for The Times Higher 'University of The Year' in 2007 and has won widespread recognition for a number of its innovative programmes and approaches.
It is important that this University is engaged in the broader economic life of the region and to this end I serve on a number of regional bodies including Derbyshire Economic Partnership, Derby City Partnership, Derbyshire Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Regional Learning and Skills Council. I am Chairman of Cfe Research and Consultancy Ltd, a company that specializes in the development of policy and application in the fields of enterprise, skills development, and the delivery of public services. I was a co-founder of the company in 1997 and just after its tenth birthday it now employs approaching 50 staff.
Prior to joining the University of Derby as Vice-Chancellor, I was Pro Vice-Chancellor of De Montfort University responsible for academic operations, the Leicester Faculties, Marketing, Recruitment and the external promotion of the University. I joined De Montfort University as the founding Director of the Leicester Business School.
I am an economist by original discipline and have worked extensively in the fields of Small Business, Business Policy and Human Resource Management. My early career was at the University of Nottingham, where I was variously a member of the School of Management and Finance and the Department of Industrial Economics and Warden of Cripps Hall. I was a founder and Co-Director of the Centre for Management Buy-out Research. I have consulted for a diverse range of companies, banks, venture capitalists and institutions and contributed widely to academic journals, edited volumes and the professional press and been a regular contributor to business conferences and events and an economic commentator.
"Putting simplicity at the heart of complexity and building student centred academic delivery for the contemporary age. One view of the 'University Challenge'."
Abstract
In this presentation Professor Coyne will look the role that e-technology and system platforms can play in underpinning the university mission. He will explore both the business processes that must underpin academic delivery platforms and the way academic delivery must meet the expectations of learners. Universities have always had to be 'relevant' to the society in which they operate. Academic programmes have always had to be sensitive to the learning styles and needs of participants. They have also had to ensure that they understand the way students live their lives outside the classroom and the life aspirations that they have. In the current context, of communications technologies, social networking and computer games the technological context of new generations of students is very different. How can universities adapt? Do they need to? Is this an opportunity or a threat? In this increasingly complex and competitive world how do universities bring simplicity and focus to this potential complexity?
Professor Coyne will give a personal view of some of these issues rooted in his experience in leading a 'new' University in the UK. The University of Derby has forged a distinctive mission and built recent success through a student centred approach to learning supported by a clear recognition of the need to run a University with leading edge business processes.
