EAC2011 Program

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Making a difference – showing the difference

17-18 October 2011
Curtin University, Perth

Conference Times:

Monday 17 October 2011 – 8.15 am to 4.20 pm
Monday 17 October 2011 – 4.30 pm to 6.00 pm (EAC2011 Networking Session)
Tuesday 18 October 2011  – 8.30 am to 4.30 pm

Map of Curtin University with EAC2011 venues highlighted.

EAC2011 Program, eBook of Abstract & Papers and other resources:

• EAC2011 Full program (v.4)
• EAC2011: eBook of Abstracts and Papers v.2 (latest version)
  • Previous eBook versions: eBook of Abstracts and Papers (v.1)
• EAC2011 website and resources bookmarks
• EAC2011 presenter slides, handouts and session notes

Audio recordings of EAC2011 keynote and plenary speakers:

The following keynote and plenary speakers were audio recorded.

Tuesday 18 October 2011:

• Day Two Opening speaker — Ruth Wallace, Charles Darwin University — The enacted learner identities framework: The potential to improve ePortfolios’ use in vocational education
  – An audio recording of Ruth’s presentation can be heard and downloaded here: http://podzone.tafesa.edu.au/index.php?id=1431
  – Ruth’s presentation slides are available here: http://www.slideshare.net/tag/ruthwallace
• Day Two Plenary speaker — Terrel L Rhodes, Association of American College & Universities (AAC&U) — The proof is in the portfolio: An architecture of the good, the bad and the mediocre
  – An audio recording of Terrel’s presentation can be heard and downloaded here: http://podzone.tafesa.edu.au/index.php?id=1432
  – Terrel’s presentation slides are available here: http://www.slideshare.net/tag/terrelllrhodes

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES the LIVE STREAMING RECORDINGS ARE NOT AVAILABLE for any of the main presenters and only the above AUDIO RECORDINGS from the Tuesday 18 October main presenters are AVAILABLE.

Other online EAC2011 communications can be found via Twitter and Facebook. Conference delegates shared their experiences using the conference tag: #EAC2011 on Twitter.

Keynote and plenary speakers:

Opening Key note:  Kathleen Blake Yancey, Florida State University 

Making Learning Visible, Making Differences in Learning: The Contributions of Electronic Portfolios
The 21^st century has witnessed many changes, among them the introduction of e-portfolios, one of the few educational reform efforts that is genuinely international. Across countries and contexts, however, we see similarities in diverse local, regional, and national models. One is the role of showing, and more specifically what happens when we ask students to show us not so much what we taught them, but rather what they have learned; and what happens when in the process of reviewing their own work, they see what they have learned. We see, in other words, different versions of showing–demonstrating, showcasing, and inquiring. As important, and as this conference theme suggests, we see these forms of showing inside the concepts of making and difference, the word making suggesting both creation and materiality, the word difference pointing to the effects and efficacy of these new e-portfolio activities. What differences do we see—in student attitudes, in their comprehension, in their understanding, in their processes and practices, and not least, in their products and their actions? In sum, as e-portfolio practitioners have been claiming for some time, e-portfolios bring together showing and making a difference in new and important ways. How so is a question we will take up together.

Opening Day Plenary Speaker:  Mary Ryan, Queensland University of Technology 

Theorising and Implementing a Model for Teaching and Assessing Reflective Learning in Higher Education
(Mary’s presentation and masterclass slides are available here:  http://www.slideshare.net/tag/maryryan)

The importance of reflection in higher education, and across disciplinary fields is widely recognised; it is generally included in university graduate attributes, professional standards and program objectives. Furthermore, reflection is commonly embedded into assessment and e-Portfolio requirements in higher education subjects, often without necessary pedagogic scaffolding or clear expectations for students. Despite the rhetoric around the importance of reflection for ongoing learning, there is scant literature on any systematic, developmental approach to teaching reflective learning across higher education programs/courses. This paper theorises a new, transferable and customisable model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education, which foregrounds and explains the pedagogic field of higher education as a multi-dimensional space. I argue that explicit and strategic pedagogic intervention across programs, supported by dynamic resources, is necessary for successful, broad-scale approaches to reflection in higher education. The paper highlights the pedagogical balancing act of attending to different levels of reflection as a way to stimulate focused, thoughtful and reasoned reflections that show evidence of new ways of thinking and doing. It uses data from a current project to illustrate the effects of focusing on particular levels of reflection in the pedagogical strategies used, and argues that while the goal of academic or professional reflection is generally to move students to the highest level of reflection to transform their learning/practice, unless higher education teachers attend to every level of reflection, there are specific, observable gaps in the reflections that students produce.

Day Two Opening Speaker:  Ruth Wallace, Charles Darwin University 

The enacted learner identities framework: The potential to improve e-portfolios’ use in vocational education.
Learning is a social process, informed by social interactions that are informed by place, time, language, culture and context. Learner identities are socially informed and connected to learners’ communities based in school, peer, family, local and global contexts. Learner identity has been shown to have an impact on the ways disenfranchised learners engage with formal education. A recent study identified and typified participant learner identities in order to provide a framework for describing learner identities by adapting educational institutions and experiences to support the development of empowered learner identities. The four broad groupings of learner identity are described as resistant, persistent, transitional and enacted. This paper reports on this research and the potential of the learner identity framework to evaluate and refine learning approaches. Finally, the paper discusses each learner profile identified in the study to understand and respond to the decisions of learners around engagement and disengagement and suggests the implications for e-portfolio implementation and vocational educational policy.

Day Two Plenary Speaker:  Terrel L Rhodes, Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
The proof is in the portfolio: An architecture of the good, the bad and the mediocre
In the last decade or so, ePortfolios have moved from being primarily a tool for specific programs to use across the curriculum and co-curriculum in almost half of U.S. universities and world-wide. Recent advances in technology have lowered costs, increased flexibility and usability, and generated a broad range of social networking and communication options that extend our conceptions of ePortfolios and student learning.  Are ePortfolios more than Facebook pages? ePortfolios now allow us to give students voice and agency in their own learning; assess learning on multiple outcomes through a common medium; assess for learning AND accountability; and show the integration and interdependence of learning.  Can we embrace a different understanding of higher education that embraces collaborative learning and shared meaning?

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Day Two Closing Session:  Beverley Oliver, Curtin University 

Be the difference—Share the difference
This will be a highly interactive session lead by the very entertaining and experienced Prof Beverley Oliver where participants will be enticed to share snippets of what they have learnt and what they are going to do differently as a result of attending this conference.