ASCILITE NEWS
2019 ASCILITE Conference begins
Almost 300 delegates have made their way to ASCILITE 2019 in Singapore with many attending pre-conference workshops today followed by the conference welcome reception Monday evening. Visit the conference website for more info and updates as the conference progresses.
ASCILITE 2019 Conference Proceedings
The 2019 conference proceedings are now available from the conference website here. The forward to the conference proceedings, written by Prof Cheah Horn Mun, Chairperson of the 2019 Conference Committee is reproduced below.
“Whenever significant technological advances are made that have the potential for use in teaching and learning, the imagery of the human educator being replaced by one form of technology or another would inevitably make its appearance. While this ‘replacement’ has not quite taken roots, the role of the educator has certainly evolved as each introduction of relevant technology nudges and re-shapes teaching and learning practices. In fact, the response of the educator to effectively embrace available technologies represents one of the key challenges, and dare I say, ‘joy’, in our endeavours to make learning meaningful and integral to each learner.
If we cast our minds back to the impact technologies have on education, from the use of paper to the introduction of computing machines, it is not too difficult to recognise how each major adoption has significantly changed the way in which we interact and learn. However, the spread of these changes tended to be slow; that is, until the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) redefines what pace of change means. Specifically, over a short period of time from the early 90s to the present, there are at least three recognisable paradigmatic shifts. First, the easy availability of information provided through the Internet largely means that the educator no longer has a monopoly on factual knowledge. In fact, the individual educator simply cannot compete with knowledge repositories embedded within technology and human networks made accessible through the Internet. Second, the interactivities brought about through Web 2.0 have shifted the interactions from between human and machine, to human and human through a machine. This has greatly increased the ability of the individual to connect with others beyond the space limited by geography.
The impact on the way teaching and learning interactions need to be re-designed is palpable. Third, and perhaps the most challenging to date, is that the machines are now capable of learning about the learners, and through such knowledge can potentially customise learning at the individual level. The possibilities opened up by this capability is still under-explored. Within it lurks considerable dangers, and yet also tremendous possibilities that can definitively change teaching and learning interactions.
The theme of this conference recognises these possibilities, and also that it is not just about the use of technology in education. The social dimensions and impact of using technologies in teaching and learning are important aspects that need to be taken into account as we explore and deepen how technologies can support this most human of endeavours – learning.
On this sober and exhilarating note, welcome!”
ASCILITE 2019 Conference App
The ASCILITE 2019 conference will be supported by a dedicated mobile app that is ready for downloading. The app will provide key information and interactive features to help delegates get the most out of their time at the conference. The app with download instructions is available on the conference website here.
New Issue of AJET Published
The AJET Lead Editors and their Associate Editors invite you to read a new issue of AJET that is now available on the journal website here.
OTHER NEWS
Invitiation to research in to the current state of Open Educational Resource (OER) repositories and use within Australian higher education institutions.
ASCILITE members are invited to participate an important research project that is being conducted as part of a joint German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funded project (EduArc), by the University of Oldenburg (Center for Open Education Research), the University of Duisburg-Essen, the German Insitute for International Educational Research (DIPF) and the Leibniz Information Center for Economics (ZBW). In order to develop infrastructure that is internationally comparable, a number of comparative country studies are being undertaken by members of the Center for Open Education Research, including the present research on Australia (Ethics approval: Drs.EK/2019/068).
The major aims of this project are:
- to undertake an investigation of OER infrastructure, quality, policy and change agents within Australian higher education.
- to investigate Australian higher education educators’ OER understanding, use and professional development.
Further information about the study is available in the attached abstract, which is for a presentation at the upcoming Strategies Beyond Borders conference in Berlin.
All surveys are anonymised and all answers are confidential. There are 32 questions and it will take participants approximately 20 to 30 minutes to complete. Some of the questions have been adopted (or adapted) from previous OER studies, to allow for comparison. Please note: all research results and data will be published under open license CC BY 4.0, and will be made accessible via Mendeley Data.
The link to the survey is: https://www.survey.uni-oldenburg.de/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=878567&lang=en
