Academic Session ACA14
Empowering the Learner in Higher Education Through Blended Learning
Date Friday, Dec 2 Time – RoomPotsdam I
Blended or hybrid learning has the potential to empower student learning in higher education in ways that hitherto have not been possible. This presentation will outline a wide range of methods by which online activities have been integrated into courses. Each of these models has particular strengths and limitations that will be contrasted and compared. The research on learners’ attitudes and perspectives toward blended learning will be discussed and the presentation will conclude with a discussion of how blended courses may be designed so that learners can be empowered in blended environments.
Ron Owston
Research Associate, Research Associate, Contact North/Contact Nord, Canada
Dr. Ron Owston is a professor of education and former Dean of the Faculty of Education and founding Director of the Institute for Research in Learning Technologies (now IRDL) at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In June 2007, York University awarded him the honorary title of University Professor for his “extraordinary contribution to the University as a colleague, teacher, and scholar.” Currently, he is on sabbatical leave and serving as Research Associate at Contact North/Contact Nord in Ontario.
He has spoken at numerous national and international conferences, and published in a variety of fields including technology in education, program evaluation, and teacher development in journals such as Educational Researcher, Teachers College Record, Research in the Teaching of English, Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, Journal of Information Technology in Teacher Education, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Internet & Higher Education, and Journal of Research on Computing in Education. His past projects include: external evaluator for the ABEL/Learning Connections online teacher community, a study on games to support literacy at grade 4, and an evaluation of Moodle use and lecture capture in large undergraduate courses in York’s Faculty of Health, the evaluation of blended learning courses at York's Faculty of Fine Arts. He just completed the evaluation of a 1:1 iPad project in the Hamilton Wentworth School District in the Toronto area.
Links
Moderator
Nives Kreuh
Senior Consultant, E-learning, National Education Institute, Slovenia
Nives Kreuh is a Head of e-learning at the National Education Institute in Slovenia. She is doing the national research, strategy planning and implementation of new curricula through teacher continuous professional development in the field of digital pedagogy and e-learning.
She was leading the national E-competent teacher project in which they designed the standard of e-competent teacher, principle and ICT coordinators in schools framework called The Way towards E-competency. She focused on designing key e-competencies and developing the efficient training model called The Way towards E-competency, leading the instructional design and online courses (MOOCs) development for in-service teacher training and professional development to raise pedagogical digital literacy in schools nationwide.
She is the Head of Programme and Organising Committe of the international SIRikt* conference (*Enabling Education and Research with ICT), which is the largest educational conference in Slovenia with around 1000 delegates each year.
She also works internationally as the national expert and is the author of E-Competent Teacher, Principle and IT expert Framework and Designing E-Student Books Framework.