Keynote Speakers

• 

  Dr. David Wiley

  Brigham Young University, Rumen Learning, USA
  

  
  Topic: Openness and the Future of Education

  Abstract: What will the future of education be like? Unless we significantly increase our commitment to the principle of openness, the future of education will be very similar to the present education. Openness enables individuals and organizations to engage in "permissionless innovation," thereby proactively facilitating the unexpected. In this keynote address, Dr. Wiley will define "open," review research on how openness has changed education to date, and point us toward the possibilities of a future where open is fully enshrined as a foundational principle of education.

  Short Bio: Dr. David Wiley is a Shuttleworth Fellow, working to lower the cost and improve the quality of education. He is currently on leave from Brigham Young University and leading Lumen Learning, an organization dedicated to supporting and improving the adoption of open educational resources by middle schools, high schools, community and state colleges, and universities. As an academic, Dr. Wiley has received numerous recognitions for his work, including an NSF CAREER grant and appointments as a Peery Social Entrepreneurship Research Fellow in the BYU Marriott School of Business, Senior Fellow for Strategy with the Saylor Foundation, and Nonresident Fellow in the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. As a social entrepreneur, Dr. Wiley has founded or co-founded numerous entities, including Lumen Learning, Degreed, and the Open High School of Utah. In 2009, Fast Company named Dr. Wiley one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business.

  David was born and raised in West Virginia. He is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a two-year mission for the church in Fukuoka, Japan. David lives in Utah with his wife and five children and enjoys running, playing basketball, listening to and making music, and reading.

• 

  Dr. Curtis Bonk

  Indiana University, USA
  
  

  Topic: Exploring Life Changes from Open Education, MOOCs, and Beyond

  Abstract: On April 4, 2001 (i.e., "441"), Charles Vest, then president of MIT, set a goal of having most of his university's courses freely available on the Web in a decade. Today, millions of self-directed online learners around the globe are learning from thousands of courses from well-known professors as well as from open educational contents. In response, the research presented in this talk explores the learning experiences of self-directed learners, including the common barriers, obstacles, motivations, and successes. It also highlights the possibilities for life change from the use of OER, OCW, and MOOCs. These stories of life change might inspire others into MOOCs, open education, and beyond.

  Short Bio: Curt Bonk is a former corporate controller and CPA who, after becoming sufficiently bored with such work, received his master's and PhD degrees in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin. Curt Bonk is now professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University and president of CourseShare. Drawing on his background as a corporate controller, CPA, educational psychologist, and instructional technologist, Bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of business, education, psychology, and technology. He has received the CyberStar Award from the Indiana Information Technology Association, the Most Outstanding Achievement Award from the US Distance Learning Association, and the Most Innovative Teaching in a Distance Education Program Award from the State of Indiana. In 2003, Curt founded SurveyShare, which he sold in 2010. In early 2012, 2013, and 2014, Bonk was named by Education Next and listed in Education Week among the top contributors to the public debate about education from more than 20,000 university-based academics. In 2014, he also was named the recipient of the Mildred B. and Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for Outstanding Practitioner in Distance Education. A well-known authority on emerging technologies for learning, Bonk reflects on his speaking experiences around the world in his popular blog, TravelinEdMan. He has authored over 300 publications, including several widely used technology books, including The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education (2009), Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing (2008), The Handbook of Blended Learning (2006), and Electronic Collaborators (1998). His latest book, Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online (2014), is freely available to download as an eBook at http://tec-variety.com/.

• Virtual Event Keynote Speakers

• 

  Dr. Jan Herrington

  Murdoch University, Australia
  

  Topic: The Critical Importance of Authenticity in the Design of Open-Ended Learning Environments

  Abstract: The use of Open Ended Learning Environments (OELEs) is one of the best ways to give students opportunities to develop higher order cognitive skills as they learn. The immersion of students into realistic experiences can genuinely aid understanding of complex subjects and issues. However, such an approach places much emphasis on the cognitive processes involved in learning, rather than the generation of tangible learning artefacts. Authentic learning pedagogy, on the other hand, stresses the importance of the learning product. This presentation proposes that the creation of genuinely useful learning products—that require much effort, over a lengthy period of time, and in collaboration with others—is a key element in authentic learning that can be used in OELEs to great effect. The presentation will provide a theoretical basis for this position, and present examples in practice in blended, online and mobile learning contexts. Such products include websites, movies, presentations, reports, and the like using a variety of media. Bringing authenticity to bear through the entire learning process to the final creation of tangible products is of critical importance in the design of effective OELEs.

  Short Bio: Dr. Jan Herrington is a Professor of Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. She has been active in the promotion and support of the effective use of educational technologies in learning in schools and universities for over two decades. In this time, she has co-written or edited a range of books, including Authentic learning environments in higher education (with Anthony Herrington) and, most recently, A guide to authentic e-learning (with Thomas C Reeves and Ron Oliver), which was winner of the AECT Outstanding Book of the Year Award in 2010.  Jan's current research focuses on authentic learning, the design of effective online learning environments for schools and higher education, and mobile learning. She has published over 150 refereed journal articles, conference papers, and chapters. She was the Project Leader on the ALTC funded project: New technologies: New pedagogies (2006-2008), which investigated pedagogies appropriate to mobile learning. She is a former Fulbright Scholar who, in 2002, conducted research in authentic learning environments at the University of Georgia, USA. She has won many awards for her research, including the AECT Young Researcher of the Year Award, and several Outstanding Paper awards at international conferences, most recently at ascilite 2010, Global Learn 2011, and IADIS 2012.

• 

  Dr. John M. Traxler

  University of Wolverhampton, UK
  

  Topic: Philosophical and Social Impact of Mobiles on Ideas of Knowledge, Knowing, Learning and on Identity, Community, Ethics, and Expression

  Abstract: In the coming decade, from roughly the present onwards, the technology of mobiles will continue to be more popular, personal, robust, cheap, and social. The technology has become democratic, or, rather, has become more demotic in nature and society itself has become mobile and connected. This is leading to a new world, with its new communities, expectations and behavior. These technologies transform the nature of much work itself by facilitating remote and extended working. Connected universal mobile devices, the portal onto Web 2.0 services, also change the nature of learning and knowing. Other obvious though minor transformations are in forms of artistic expression, creating or mutating genres for art. Mobility and connection change how we think of ourselves, our identities, our affiliations, our relationships; nowadays many people have multiple on-line identities, sometimes even within the same cyber-space domain and sometimes different genders. These changes drive further changes in expectations about behavior, about what is good, acceptable, appropriate and okay in our interactions, our relationships, our conversations; our ideas about what is correct, ethical.

  Short Bio: Dr. John Traxler is Professor of Mobile Learning and Director of the Learning Lab at the University of Wolverhampton. He is a Founding Director and current Vice-President of the International Association for Mobile Learning, Executive Committee Member of the USAID mEducation Alliance, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning and of Interactive Learning Environments. He serves on the Research Board of the Association of Learning Technology, the Editorial Board of Research in Learning Technology, and IT in International Development. He has guest edited six special editions of peer-reviewed journals devoted to mobile learning, including Digital Culture and Education, Distance Education, UNESCO Prospects, and an African edition of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning. John has co-written a guide to mobile learning in developing countries for the Commonwealth of Learning and is co-editor of the definitive book, Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers, with Professor Agnes Kukulska-Hulme. He is currently developing a network of African universities interested in innovative teacher development and working in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency ICT for Education Strategy.