Month: February 2011

I’ve been neglecting my blog for the past few weeks, partly because I’ve been busy and mostly as I’ve been in half-holiday mode in Australia. Overall, Australia is a lot like Canada except the weather is better and the wine slightly cheaper- though EVERYTHING else is more expensive. I won’t revile my fellow Canadians with tales of exploring Tasmania or sitting on the beech (though it happened, and tempting as it is to remember as I head back to -31 C. in Edmonton). Rather I wanted to post a few observations about distance education in Australia.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to present the opening keynote at the HUB/ODLAA conference in Sydney HUB is a two-year-old multi-institutional, multi institutional research project, funded by the Australian government to advance research and innovation in distance education. The conference attracted about 250 Distance Education (DE) types including foreigners from 21 countries. The conference format featured the usual mix of keynotes, panels and multiple parallel sessions. I expanded an earlier presentation on the 3 generations of DE pedagogy, with more current examples of technology use to enhance all three generations and more development on the types of knowledge development most applicable to each generation (slides at http://www.slideshare.net/terrya/hub-de-summit-sydney.). The talk seemed fairly well received and I was first flattered and then a bit embarrassed by how many of the other speakers referred to my talk in their presentation. I guess a side benefit of going first.

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