IDEA Program Committee

The following people have been helping shape IDEA11
Prof. Shirley Alexander Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Teaching, Learning & Equity) University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
Michelle Forbes Project Support Officer Education Services Australia (ESA)
Jerry Leeson Project Manager Education Services Australia (ESA)
Dennis Macnamara Principal/Consultant Unlocking Learning
Ann Muller Director Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)
Bruce Rigby Program Lead/Stakeholder Relations National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP)
Kristi Sheldon Manager – Conferences & Events National Curriculum Services (NCS)
Rodney Spark / Kristena Gladman Executive Director / Manager Technology Solutions eWorks
Dr. Nick Tate Director – Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) Project The University of Queensland (UQ)
Ross Treadwell Director Capital Programs & Asset Services Department of Education and Children’s Service (DECS) – Schools Sector
Heather Watson Program Director Learning Services Education Services Australia (ESA)

IMS at IDEA11

Rob Abel and Chuck Severance will be at IDEA11. A lot of the stuff below will be discussed at IDEA11.

Dear IMS Community-

If you are at EDUCAUSE next week in Philadelphia, please be sure to come to the IMS Update session at EDUCAUSE at 5 PM, Thursday, October 20, in Room 103C.

Chuck Severance, Jeff Kahn, and myself from IMS and Linda Feng from Oracle will be going through the latest demonstrations and progress from IMS. This will include the very latest on LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability), Common Cartridge, and Learning Information Services (LIS). I will also be covering how K-20 institutions and districts are adopting IMS standards to achieve a better IT environment for students and faculty. Hear how IMS is playing a key role in accelerating the transition from print to digital and enabling actionable outcomes and analytics. And, there are several new and exciting projects you can get involved in that will create the next generation learning infrastructure.
2011 has been IMS’s most successful year ever and we are expecting 2012 to be even better — the EDUCAUSE session will help you ramp up to getting more involved in 2012!
Also, we are expecting record attendance at the IMS quarterly meetings and special summit on “The Global Imperative: Preparing Students for an Interconnected World”, at Texas A&M Commerce, week of November 7. Come and join us and help create the future! http://www.imsglobal.org/nov2011texasam.cfm I’ll be giving a special keynote there on The Future of Education: 10 Things That Are Coming Worldwide.
Yours truly,
Rob Abel
CEO, IMS Global

Speaker Spotlight: Dan Ingvarson National School Interoperability Program (NSIP)

Daniel grew up in a family where education was the central theme with his grandparents, parents and extended family working as either teachers, School Principals or in Tertiary Education Departments. Daniel started working in IT and education in 1987 and built the first Education Internet Service Provider in Australia in 1993. He designed and built the first school specific Internet gateway in 1995, and in 1998 the first Internet portal to link logins with Internet based learning activities in a centralised infrastructure. This development changed the way Internet was managed in Australia. Daniel’s software was used by over 50% of Australian students and was built on Open Source – before it was fashionable.

In 2000, Daniel went on to conceive, design, and develop an e-learning platform that included a Personal Portal, Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Learning Content Management System, Federated search, and an e-portfolio for students with WYSIWYG publishing. This software, called myclasses, won the National Australian Internet Association Innovation award, a major software award. Myclasses was arguably one of the top k-12 e-learning platforms in the world, with over a million users in five countries, including the UK where it is part of the BECTA Learning Platform.

Daniel is currently Program Lead, Projects and Architecture for the National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP). NSIP is an initiative of the State, Territory and Commonwealth Ministers of Education that commenced in July 2010, incorporating the “Towards SIF AU Program,” to provide leadership and support in the delivery of e-learning projects and manage the Systems Interoperability Framework (SIF) specification in Australia. Under Daniel’s leadership, NSIP has completed 12 pilot projects across Australia, demonstrating the value of SIF to solve interoperability issues in the Australian education sector.

Speaker spotlight: Pauline Farrell

Pauline Farrell is the Executive Manager of Blended eLearning Solutions (BeLS) at Box Hill Institute. Pauline project managed both the GPS Learning Pathways and Student Web project which has created significant change within the organisation. Pauline has won numerous awards and fellowships  including the TRIP Fellowship, PhD scholarship, SARC leadership award (2008) and Innovations Award (2008 and 2009).

In 2011 Box Hill Institute launched its new student portal, StudentWeb, which integrates Moodle and Mahara ePortfolios. This systems also integrates social collaboration tools, learning disability tools and an extensive professional development for both teachers and students. BeLS staff needed to train over  800 teachers and 3,500 students in an eight week timeframe. Come and learn about projects designed to embed StudentWeb, our learning analytics and some of our challenges.
 Pauline’s presentation will explore the following:

• GPS Learning Pathways – a blended approach to student induction
• Mahara ePortfolios implementation strategies and evidence of uptake
• Moodle customisation including a centre view and social collaboration tools
• Migration tools to transfer content from Blackboard to Moodle

eWorks joins !dea as sponsor

We are very pleased to announce that eWorks (www.eworks.edu.au) has joined !DEA as one of our sponsors.  eWorks has a long association with the event and has been one of its strongest supporters now for a long time.  eWorks leads the eStandards for Training initiative in the VET sector and in addition to sponsoring the event, will be participating with a number of staff presenting and participating on panels, showcasing some of the initiatives it is involved with and sharing its experience and expertise in interoperability and technologies advancing education in the VET sector.

Speaker spotlight: Mike Seyfang

In this series of posts we hope to give you a bit of an insight into the speakers at !dea and the sessions they will be participating in.  Kicking the series off we are going to look at Mike Seyfang and the work that he is doing with iPads at the University of Adelaide.  Mike is one of the presenters on Day One in the session “Learning Practitioners Learning Futures, how we are and can seize the moment”.

One Day One we really want to set the scene for the rest of the conference – lay out the challenges and opportunities and start to explore some possibilities.  Mike is doing just that with his work at the University of Adelaide and we will see that as he discusses the rollout of iPads to first year science students as part of the “Enhanced Learning First-year Sciences” (E.L.F.S.) project.

Mike is well-known for his ability to adopt and exploit new technologies and in particular has gained a reputation in helping organisations leverage the transformational nature of Web 2.0.  To find out more about Mike visit his WordPress blog or Learning with the Fang.  You can also follow Mike on Twitter.

 

Register early for your chance to win your conference accommodation at Hilton on the Park

Register on or before 15th October 2011 for your chance to win your conference accommodation at the conference venue, the Hilton on the Park, East Melbourne. This includes 2 nights accommodation with breakfast at the luxurious Hilton on the Park, East Melbourne. Don’t miss this opportunity – register now