Keynote Speakers at NU2012 are David Boud, Elsebeth Korsgaard Sorensen, William Rankin, Anna Valtonen and Gina Wisker.
David Boud
David Boud is Professor of Adult Education in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. He has written extensively on teaching, learning and assessment in higher and professional education. Previously he held the positions of Dean of the University Graduate School, Head of the School of Adult and Language Education and Associate Dean (Research and Development) in the Faculty Of Education. Prior to his appointment at UTS he was Professor and Foundation Director of the Professional Development Centre at the University of New South Wales.
In the area of assessment he has been a pioneer in developing learning-centred approaches to assessment particularly in student self-assessment (Enhancing Learning through Self Assessment, Routledge 1995) and building assessment skills for long-term learning (Rethinking Assessment in Higher Education: Learning for the Longer Term, Routledge, 2007). He is an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Senior Fellow and in 2010 completed the project associated with this Student assessment For learning in and after courses, which led to Assessment 2020: Seven Propositions for Assessment Reform in Higher Education.
Elsebeth Korsgaard Sorensen
Elsebeth Korsgaard Sorensen is Professor, Ph.D., in ICT, Communication and Learning, Aarhus University. She has been director and one of the initiators of the successful master programme in ICT and Learning (MIL), offered in collaboration between five Danish Universities. For many years she has been engaged in national and international research activities within design, delivery and evaluation of technology supported open learning processes. Her research is directed towards both the field of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and distance and open learning (DE). Currently, her research is focusing on questions such as: 1) how to make use the potential of digital and mobile technologies (incl. Web 2.0 and social software) in design of dialogic teaching and learning processes in higher education contexts 2) how to utilize the power of digital and mobile technologies (incl. Web 2.0 and social software, interactive whiteboards, computer games, mobile phones and video, etc.) in high-school contexts, and 3) how to use the power of digital and mobile technologies as reflective tools in the ongoing global process of advancing learner empowerment and digital democratic citizenship.
William Rankin
Dr. William Rankin is an associate professor of English and Director of Educational Innovation at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. With colleagues, he helped design the initiative that became ACU Connected, ACU's pioneering one-to-one that gave every student an iPhone or iPod Touch as a platform for exploring next-wave mobile learning. As part of this initiative, Rankin has worked on everything from defining pedagogical approaches to designing interface elements, and along with others on ACU's team, Rankin continues to work to discover and create new ways to engage learners through emerging technologies.
ACU's efforts have received a number of accolades, including winning 2009's New Media Consortium's Center of Excellence award, ACUTA's Institutional Excellence award, and Alcatel-Lucent's Dynamic Enterprise and Analyst Choice awards. As project lead, Rankin was named Campus Technology's Innovator of the Year for mobile learning in 2008. In 2009, he was named an Apple Distinguished Educator and in 2010, he was named to Apple's ADE Board of Directors. Interviews with Rankin have appeared in Wired, The Guardian, and The Chronicle for Higher Education and at online sites including InsideHigherEd, TUAW, Ars Technica, and Open Culture. Rankin has also contributed to stories featured on US National Public Radio, the BBC, the CBC and NBC Nightly News. With more than 20 years' experience in higher education, Dr. Rankin has received numerous awards for teaching and has presented on the implications of mobility and emerging educational technologies in more than 20 countries.
Anna Valtonen
Anna Valtonen, Professor, is the Rector of Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University, since 2009. Before this position she worked 12 years for Nokia, lately as Head of Design Research & Foresight. Anna Valtonen¹s research interests are in design, its history, and how companies and nations can best use design for their competitiveness. Her PhD, from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland (currently Aalto University) was on the professional development of industrial design practice. She has also been active as a researcher at the Department of Strategic and Industrial Design at the same university and as visiting professor in the Department of Management at ESSEC Business School Paris, France. Valtonen also holds many positions of trust within universities, organisations and corporations.
Gina Wisker
Gina Wisker, professor of Higher Education & Contemporary Literature, Head of Centre for Learning and Teaching at University of Brighton, has worked in Educational Development since the early 1980s when she was at Anglia Ruskin University, UK. Gina is active in the Staff and Educational Development Association, was Chair of HEDG (Heads of educational development) and has run workshops and given keynotes at a number of learning and teaching conferences in Australia, South Africa, Singapore and Ireland over the last few years. She continues to research and publish in learning and teaching areas, and literature, - specialising in postgraduate student learning and supervisory practices.
