ANU STEM Teaching and Learning Colloquium

The Australian National University is holding a free STEM Teaching and Learning Colloquium, in Canberra, 9am to 1pm, 2 June 2015.

PROGRAM

STB 1

9.00 Welcome: Professor Barbara Van Leeuwen, Director Science Education and Dr Jochen Trumpf, Associate Dean Education, College of Engineering and Computer Science

9.10 The Indigenous Health Stream (IHS)- experiential learning, mentoring and leadership training in Indigenous Health: Amanda Barnard, Samia Goudie, Phyll Dance, Christine Phillips, Kirsty Douglas, Jill Bestic, Gaye Doolan

9.40 Putting the Social in Science: teaching medical students cognitive flexibility through social sciences – Associate Professor Christine Phillips, ANU Medical School

10.10 Parallel session

STB 1 Distributed constructionism and the Jigsaw classroom:  Chris Browne – ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science My Maker Tutorials TEG extends the concept of student-facilitated tutorial by making available sophisticated hands-on learning activities. This builds on my Jigsaw classroom, for which I was awarded an AAUT in 2014.

STB 2 Physics Project Market Day: An event that enables students to 'shop' for a research project and chat to staff in an informal environment. Associate Professor Jodie Bradbury ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Science Physics Project Market Day is a unique event at ANU that promotes research as an integral part of the undergraduate student experience, fosters interactions between staff and students and presents the breadth of student physics research projects available.

10.40 morning tea

STB 1 11.10 Making Expert Thinking Visible - Dr Salman Durrani, ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science This talk will discuss some strategies, in the context of electronic engineering, for making expert thinking visible and enjoyable for both students and lecturers.

11.40 How might we better support tutors and demonstrators? Associate Professor Kristen Pammer, ANU College of Medicine Biology and Environment Kristen will outline the QUT model for supporting sessional staff to begin a discussion on how we can progress in our Colleges at ANU.

12.10 Working with industry to extend student research and professional skills using student run start-ups: Dr Shayne Flint, ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science TechLauncher is an RSCS initiative, which enables students from any discipline to develop the research and professional skills required to use technology to bring great ideas to life and have a positive impact on our society. Students develop these skills by working closely with industry professionals, technology experts and entrepreneurs to create start-up companies or to work on complex real-world problems. In 2015 we have 120 3rd and 4th year students enrolled in the course which runs over two semesters.

Many of our 3rd year students will continue with the program in their 4th year. In this presentation we will describe the TechLauncher program and how our students engage with industry, government and innovation sector. Some of our students will talk about their involvement in the course and demonstrate their work. We will conclude with our vision for the next few years.

For further information please contact Science Teaching and Learning Centre or Marina Lobastov (CECS).

E-Learning Market Trends

The report "E-Learning Market Trends and Forecast 2014-2016" (Docebo, 2014) provides a useful checklist of trends: : Self-paced E-learning, Growth of the Global Market, mLearning, Corporate-training, Cloud, LMS, K-12, regions and Venture Capital. None of these are startling revelations, but it is still useful to have them set down. What is more interesting are some of the academic papers which have referenced this report.

Online Help for Fair Trade

Greetings from the famous room N101 at the Australian National University in Canberra, where Jennyfer Lawrence Taylor is speaking on "ICT Pathways for Consumer-Producer Feedback Loops within the Fair Trade System". She is asking if social media-like systems help connect first world consumers to third world producers, where there is a large cultural gap.

With schemes such as Fairtrade it is assumed that the developing nation producer deals directly with the first world distributor. However, normal trading arrangements would assume a local intermediary and I suggest perhaps they could deal with consumer questions. As an example, when teaching  web design to museum staff of the pacific, I was asked about web sites for museum shops. My students pointed out to me that they have essentially the same items on sale in the shop as on display in their museum. The shop then acts as an intermediation to educate the consumer about the items.

Research Questions

• How is ICT currently used in fair trade supply chains to facilitate feedback loops? How might ICT be applied in future to improve these information flows?

– What types of feedback do consumers currently provide to producers, and what are their motivations for giving feedback?

– What consumer feedback would producers like to receive, and how would they use this feedback to influence supply chain operations?
– How is feedback modified, filtered and translated back through the supply chain to producers by intermediaries such as Australian importers?

EntrepreneurshipUC

Staff and students at University of Canberra are seeking crowd funding for "EntrepreneurshipUC". However, what is not clear is how this fits with the initiatives already underway in Canberra through the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN), which the University of Canberra is a member of, along with the Australian National University.

"Entrepreneurship is essential in today’s world – it contributes to the growth of economies, improving living standards, fruition of ideas and continued development. EntrepreneurshipUC (EUC) aims to create an environment in which thoughts are encouraged, potential is understood and confidence is gained, creating a support network which can be accessed and utilised and like minded people can come together.
Many university students don’t know where to look for assistance in entrepreneurship, or even recognise that their passion or idea can be more. EUC will fill this gap and provide a space at the University of Canberra in which students can approach for assistance. Not only will we provide assistance but also a place to learn through mentoring and workshops run by industry professionals.
An obstacle we are aware of is the difficulty associated with finding relevant mentors and industry professionals, this will be resolved through direct advertising, sponsorships and events with the community.

why you should support this project?

EntrepreneurshipUC is aiming to promote,develop and motivate entrepreneurialism concerning students within Canberra. By supporting this project you will be providing Students of Canberra with an opportunity to develop their ideas and make them into a reality. This project will be aiming to bring out new and innovative ideas whether they be for profit or social ventures. This will not only change the lives of those who we help but also those who are the markets for these potential entrepreneurs.

how will money be used?

The money received will go towards our direct advertising, buying a domain for the project and also acquiring any resources which we may require to set up the project. Any unused funds will be alloacted to holding our find workshop with an industry professional.

where will the project go in the future?

EntrepreneurshipUC has the opportunity to become and influential participant in Entrepreneurship in Canberra. Our vision is that we will have a set space which we can use to provide services and incubate projects/ventures.
As the project aims to assist and guide potential entrepreneurs the project itself has no limits and on its success as it is based on the participation of potential and up and coming entrepreneurs."

PARSA Knowledge Conference: Environmental and Educational Focus

The ANU Postgraduate and Research Students' Association (PARSA) "Knowledge Conference - Environmental and Educational Focus" is on 5 and 6 May 2015. The first day is on Environmental matters and the second education. I will be giving a brief talk on how I teach ICT Sustainability on-line (which fits with both topics).