For more on our featured participants, see our home page.

Monday, November 23rd

Morning – BCCOL127

9:30-9:45 Setting the stage, introductions, etc…

9:45-11:45  Open Tech Jam

Featured participants: Tom Woodward, Alan Levine, Brian Lamb

We will start the session with a series of short demos of exciting new open tools and environments. Some of these will be WordPress-based, but the sky’s the limit. After that, we will have lots of time to explore these tools in an informal and hands-on workshop. If you ever wanted to play around with cool tools in the company of world-class experts, this is the session for you!

Afternoon – Graduate Student Commons, TRU Main Library

1:30–2:30: “The Digital Scholar: How Technology Is Transforming Scholarly Practice”

Martin Weller will give a presentation based on his book. A gradual and fundamental shift in the practice of academics is taking place. Every aspect of scholarly practice is seeing changes effected by the adoption and possibilities of new technologies. This session will explore these changes, their implications for higher education, the possibilities for new forms of scholarly practice and what lessons can be drawn from other sectors.

2:45–4:00 Roundtable: “The State of Open Research, and of Research on Open”

Featured participants: David Kernohan, Vivien Rolfe, Beck Pitt, Robert Farrow, Tannis Morgan

Four UK-based researchers and a Canadian (not a movie) will discuss, among other things: the state of higher ed policy wonkery, sustainability, uptake, the OER Research Hub, and how the principles of “open” impact the practice of research across disciplines.

Tuesday, November 24th

Morning – TRUSU Board Room, Campus Activity Centre

9:30-10:30 ePortfolios and Online Identity

Featured participants: Colin Madland, Ronda Olds, Brianna Mcilquham, Alan Levine

TRU students and staff will share their experiences building ePortfolios, plumbing the depths of their despair and sharing the subsequent sense of satisfaction. The discussion will evolve to wider related topics: the nature of reflection, personal learning networks, online identity. Alan Levine will share tool recommendations and discuss his recent travails with identity theft and catfishing in Facebook.

10:45-11:45 Authentic Learning and Open Pedagogy

Featured participants: Katie Sykes, Haytham El Milagi

This session will showcase two innovative TRU courses. Katie Sykes is presently teaching “Lawyering in the 21st Century”, a course which invites its students to re-imagine the future of their profession and propose concrete projects to address it. Haytham El Miligi uses a private virtual lab to teach a course on “Ethical Hacking” with real-world techniques that would be extremely illegal on the open web. One thing their courses have in common is an attempt to address subject matter that is evolving rapidly, and that resists traditional pedagogy. Their courses will frame a discussion on how to deal with social and technological change in education.

Afternoon – Graduate Student Commons, TRU Main Library

1:00-2:00 Open Textbooks and Open Educational Resources

Featured participants: Rajiv Jhangiani, Gail Morong, Shannon Smyrl, Brenda Smith, Irwin DeVries

Rajiv Jhangiani will open the session with a presentation based on his experiences as an open textbook adopter and author, as well as his associated research fellowships. Gail Morong and Shannon Smyrl will share their experiences in revising an English composition course to be fully supported by open educational resources. We will also discuss TRU’s collaboration with the global OERu network, and consider how we can best tap its immense potential.

2:15-3:15 Toward a Reality-Based Innovation Strategy for TRU

Featured participants: Tannis Morgan, David Kernohan, Vivien Rolfe

“Innovation” is often invoked as a goal for higher education, but what does it really mean for teaching and learning? Let’s get beyond hype, buzzword, fear, uncertainty and doubt and discuss what some meaningful new initiatives might look like at TRU. What are our strengths? What can we build on? Are there barriers that we can address so that we can get on with it?