Keynote Speakers
The keynote speakers for the NACCQ Conference 2007 are:
The CITRUS Invited Speaker for the NACCQ Conference 2007 is:
 Dr Eli Cohen
Informing Science Institute
Eli Cohen founded the Informing Science Institute (ISI), an international organization of over 500 members from over 60 countries. The institute publishes 8 journals and, so far, a dozen books, all of which are available online to everyone without charge. The organization also holds two international conferences each year. ISI is an organization of colleagues mentoring fellow colleagues. It draws together people who teach, research, and use information technologies to inform clients (regardless of academic discipline) to share their knowledge with others.
Dr Cohen's background is multi-disciplinary. He holds degrees in and has published research in Management Information Systems, Psychology, Statistics, Mathematics, and Education. He has taught in Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Australia, and the US. In addition, he has conducted seminars in Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cyprus. Eli Cohen attended (and taught at) Purdue University Calumet many, many years ago.
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 Murray Brown
Manager, e-Learning
Ministry of Education
Murray is responsible for managing the delivery of programmes associated with e-learning in schools and also has a wider range of sector responsibilities, both within the Ministry and across the business units, particularly in curriculum and technical infrastructure.
He views the work that the ministry is doing with HiGrowth NZ to develop ICT programmes for Year 11 to 13 students, including electronics, as strategically important. Earlier this year an Request for Proposals was issued for 'Facilitating the implementation of the Digital Technologies Framework (DTF)'. Murray is looking forward to engaging with schools to capitalise on the work already done to develop a framework that has coherence, in terms of content and skills, and leads students into ICT pathways that are well defined and clearly understood.
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Dr Clare Atkins
Nelson Marlborough Insitute of Technology
Dr Clare Atkins is a senior lecturer on the Bachelor of Information Technology degree at NMIT and has been involved with education at both secondary and tertiary level for over 20 years. In 2004 she was awarded one of the Cretney Distinguished Educators Awards and some of the money from this award was used to rent the 'virtual land' on which NMIT's Second Life presence currently stands.
Abstract
Over the last year there has been increasing media interest in multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs), particularly Second Life. This interactive software "game" has attracted attention from both businesses and educational institutions world-wide for the opportunities that it appears to provide for enriching and enhancing real-time online communication. Among other well-known names, IBM use it for meetings, Harvard University uses it for teaching and some private individuals are making sufficient "real" money from "virtual" transactions that several Inland Revenue departments are seriously considering how to tax such income. In November 2006, NMIT became one of the first Tertiary Institutes in NZ to create a presence in Second Life and this semester has seen the first students volunteer to trial Second Life as a teaching space.
In this presentation, Clare will provide an introduction to this virtual world and hopefully a glimpse of life within it. She will talk of some of the educational events already taking place virtually, discuss plans for future projects and explore some of the ethical dilemmas that such virtual teaching may expose. |
