Following the AARE conference I moved hotels to the Wrest Point Casino Hotel to attend and present at the ASCILITE 2011 conference.
The conference theme for ASCILITE this year was Changing Demands, Changing Directions, with three sub-themes: equity of experience; engagement; and evidence-based practice. The conference was preceded by workshops on the 4th December followed by the opening of the conference on the 5th December 2011. Professor Gilly Salmon, former Executive Director of the Australian Digital Futures Institute (University of Southern Queensland) presented an inspiring opening address.
Water side view from my hotel room at the Wrestpoint Casino Hotel, venue for the 2011 ASCILITE conference, Hobart
I co-authored two papers with two of my PhD students. The first paper, titled “Facilitating the ability of graduates to articulate their employability skills through the use of a 3D virtual learning environment“, was co-authored with Frederick Stokes-Thompson (PhD candidate) and Sheila Scutter who is also a co-supervisor of Frederick’s PhD research.
I presented the second paper on behalf of my PhD student, Amal Hanna. This paper, based on one chapter of Amal’s thesis, is titled ” Bridging the gap between OER initiative objectives and OER user needs in higher education” and presents a framework for considering the differences between open access and open content educational resources.
I also had the pleasure of participating in a lively panel presentation with Sue Gregory, Scott Diener, Brent Gregory, Suku Sinnappan, Lisa Jacka titled Myth busting education in a virtual world – changing demands and directions. You can download the presentation from the ASCILITE site if you are interested in viewing our Powerpoint show.
Sue and Brent did a wonderful job presented another paper on virtual worlds, of which I was one of several co-authors, titled How are Australian higher education institutions contributing to change through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds?
I finally got to meet my ASCILITE mentee, Maria Spies, who presented a very well attend paper title Engaging the online learner: Student reactions to the use of audio podcasts in off campus courses and also co-presented with me at the Community Mentors’ Symposium.
