International Speakers on Educational Futures @ TRU

With the generous support of TRU Open Learning and the Faculty of Human, Social and Educational Development, I am collaborating on a couple of events for October of this year: A panel presentation for October 20, and a keynote and reception for Oct. 21.

These events are intended to complement and augment related efforts on blended learning and teaching practices, and are open to everyone at TRU. Here's some advance info on the presenters who have been confirmed:

Dr. Wayne Mackintosh,
who is a committed advocate and user of free software for education. He is the founder of WikiEducator (www.WikiEducator.org) - an international community of educators collaborating on the development of free/libre teaching materials in support of all national curricula by 2015. He is also is the founding director of the International Centre for Open Education at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the OER Foundation. Wayne is a strategy innovator with a passion for making educational futures happen.


Dr. Lalita Rajasingham,
whose research focuses on ICT in multicultural education, has co-authored two ground-breaking books. The first, In Search of the Virtual Class: Education in an information Society (1995) helped pioneer future directions in education for the next decade in many parts of the world, and introduced the concepts of virtual classes, HyperClasses, virtual universities, and virtual learning on the Internet. The Global Virtual University (2003) similarly breaks new ground, and sketches a philosophical foundation for the future of the university in an era of rapid technological change and globalisation.