The open source ePortfolio application ‘Mahara’ is now available from http://www.mahara.org. Release 0.7.3 can be downloaded; future releases are detailed on the roadmap. A demo is also available from the site.
Please note particularly the hosting, training, support and administrative services offered by the Mahara partners.
This message has been forwarded on behalf of the conference conveners.
Please direct any queries to Michele McGill on telephone +61 7 4631 2351 or mcgill@usq.edu.au
If pedagogy is your passion, you won’t want to miss the opportunity to share your knowledge and experience at the 3rd International Conference on Pedagogies and Learning at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ)’s new Springfield campus.
Held from 27 -29 September 2007, this year’s conference will explore the dynamics and dilemmas of pedagogy in practice and features an exciting line up of keynote speakers including Father Chris Reilly, Dr Caroline Lodge and Professor Emeritus Denise Murray.
Teachers and researchers are invited to participate by submitting snapshots highlighting their own successful and innovative pedagogical practices.
Conference convenor and USQ education lecturer Michele McGill said the conference would aim to expose and celebrate how personal beliefs and values were emerging in pedagogical practice, as well as looking at the effect on teaching of the global learning environment.
“In previous conferences we traced the journey of exploring new meanings and putting those meaning under the microscope,” Ms McGill said.
“It’s now timely to expose what meanings are emerging in practice.
“The conference will explore a whole range of topics including personal pedagogies, pedagogy for intercultural literacy and developing and engaging students in our globalised learning environment.
“Past conferences have been enriched with the real stories and practices emerging from teachers and researchers across Australia so we’re looking forward to seeing a record number of papers and snapshots submitted this year.”
Ms McGill said the keynote and invited speakers would also make an exciting contribution to the conference.
“Founder and chief executive of Youth Off the Streets, Father Chris Reilly will lead an exciting discussion on how strength-based learning and service learning allows students to relate to real community needs.
“Fr Reilly will also look at how values such as tolerance, respect, compassion and integrity can transform pedagogy and learning.
“We’re delighted to also have Dr Caroline Lodge from the University of London coming along to share her experiences engaging students in pedagogy and learning.
“Macquarie University’s Professor Emeritus Denise Murray will present her insights on using diversity as a resource and exploring how interactions between language, society and technology impact on practice.”
The conference is to be hosted by USQ and the Asia-Pacific Association for Computer-Assisted Language Learning.
For more information on conference registration or submission deadlines, visit http://www.usq.edu.au/pedagogies2007 or contact Michele McGill on telephone +61 7 4631 2351 or mcgill@usq.edu.au
Have you considered presenting a snapshot?
Teachers and educational practitioners are invited to present a snapshot at the Third International Conference on Pedagogies and Learning in September.
A snapshot is a 20-minute presentation of an example of a successful or innovative pedagogy. The presentation will be digitally recorded and made available to pre-service teachers at the University of Southern Queensland.
A snapshot can be:
For further details about snapshots, please visit the conference website at http://deanz.wordpress.com/wp-admin/www.usq.edu.au/pedagogies2007
Proposal forms and written permissions of the learners involved in the snapshots must be received by July 31, 2007.
For further information about snapshots,
contact Dr Ann Dashwood on dashwood@usq.edu.au,
or phone +61 7 4631 1806.
James Morrison has published the latest edition of Innovate (vol.3, issue 5) online, and it begins with some really interesting perspectives on the Net Generation to follow on from the last issue. Here’s an overview of what’s available courtesy of Morrison’s mailing list:
We open the June/July issue of Innovate with two articles that resume the discussion of the Net Generation from our previous issue – but with very different assessments of the educational playing field. In addressing the needs of this population, Donald Philip proposes a model of education that acknowledges the sociocultural changes wrought by new technological tools, taps into the virtualization of knowledge arising from such tools, and fashions learning environments based on small, flexible groups that resemble the small teams currently used by institutions in the business world. (See http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=368 )
However, Sarah Lohnes and Charles Kinzer caution that our assumptions about the Net Generation may often be based on generalizations that do not sufficiently address contextual differences from one population to the next. Their ethnographic study found that while liberal arts students relied extensively on technology in their everyday lives, they remained resistant to in-class technology use and instead endorsed a traditional
model of education based on interpersonal contact with the instructor. (See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=431 )While debates about the Net Generation will continue, instructors are also addressing these questions through innovative forms of pedagogical practice. Helen Sword and Michelle Leggott discuss how their students used online tools to preserve literary texts from university archives while also exploring the potential of such tools to support new, collaborative forms of creative expression in cyberspace. (See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=389 )Edward Gehringer, Luke Ehresman, Susan G. Conger, and Prasad Wagle offer an account of how a custom-designed software product was used in computer science courses to support the construction of peer-reviewed learning objects by the students themselves, which can in turn be assessed, modified, or supplemented by future students in the same course, thereby allowing students to take ownership of their learning to an entirely new level. (See http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=365 )
Bill Gibbs and Erik Larson illustrate the use of a videoconferencing system to deliver highly detailed forms of instruction in courses focusing on multimedia design and software design for online and hybrid courses. (See http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=388 )
Meanwhile, future innovations in pedagogy and instructional design will continue to rely upon effective, well-planned faculty development and teacher training programs. In his account of faculty development efforts at Bronx Community College, Howard Wach outlines how these efforts evolved through three major formats – two-hour technology workshops, semester-long workshops, and a one-week summer program – and he describes the respective challenges and advantages afforded by each format.
(See http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=424 )We close this issue with an article by Kathleen Roney and MaryAnn Davies, who describe how they employed a Web-based communications tool to promote standards-based instruction, foster reflective practice and focused mentoring, and facilitate the development of electronic portfolios to help teacher education interns bridge the gap between their training and their classroom practice. (See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=294 )Finally, please do not forget the Innovate-Live Seminar Series beginning Tuesday, June 5 through Friday, June 8, 2007. The seminar program and registration (free) is available at our Innovate-Live portal at http://www.uliveandlearn.com/PortalInnovate/
