Best of EduTECH Sydney, Higher Ed Leaders Congress, Day 1

EduTECH Sydney starts this morning. I am on 2:20pm tomorrow in the Higher Ed Leaders Congress. So today I can just attend as a delegate. Here is my best of:

BREAKOUT SESSIONS - SEMINARS

11:20 How Digital Transformation is enabling higher education institutions to put resources back in the classrooms

Nadia Hossain,
Business Development
Manager, Laserfiche
International
Limited, Hong Kong

As education funding decreases, concerns over the effect of the cuts grow, student numbers increase and resources become scarcer, universities are having to find new and more innovative ways to stay competitive. Find out how education institutions around the world are adapting their processes and infrastructures by using Digital Transformation and content service solutions to be more cost effective and put resources back where they are needed.

 13:10 Lunch

14:50 Remaining digitally literate in higher education

Rob Wilkins, Leader,
Information Management
Systems, NSW
Department of Education

The use of technology has transformed every discipline and career, from engineers to doctors to politicians. Yet the traditional academic experience does not prepare many students for the challenges they'll face in these professions today. Higher Education demands that faculty remain relevant and this session will explore the skills and capability required for meaningful Digital Literacy.

Dr Grainne Oates,
Senior Lecturer
in Accounting,
Swinburne University

15:10 Improving student engagement by 12% through award winning innovative educational technology

• Learn how to engage students through gamification and increase average grade by 7%
• Discover how to get students to enjoy the experience of learning and decrease failure rates through mobile first technology
• Learn how to identify at risk students early and engage them in active learning

Warren Kennard,
General Manager,
Ducere Global
Business School

15:30 Innovative commercial models for higher ed – toward financial sustainability

• Overview of global trends in higher education commercial models in profit/not-for-profit institutions
• Challenge existing financial sustainability paradigms in higher education
• Outline of current working commercial models and provision of live examples

15:50 Afternoon tea

Dr Yong Zhao,
Professorial Fellow,
Mitchell Institute for
Health and Education Policy;
University of Kansas

16:30 PLENARY: Outsource weakness, develop strength to reach for greatness

• Focus on developing children's strengths instead of fixing their deficiencies
• Teaching children to identify and solve problems worth-solving and create value for others through product-oriented learning
• Make education personalisable for children, not personalized for them

Dr Pak Tee Ng,
Associate Dean,
Leadership Learning,
National Institute of
Education Singapore

17:00 PLENARY: Learning from Singapore: the power of paradoxes

• Examine an education system that embraces timely change and timeless constraints, centralisation and decentralisation, teaching less and learning more
• Understand the key success factors of Singapore’s education system
• Learn the eye-opening difference between acing an examination vs appreciation of subject

Senator Simon Birmingham,
Minister for Education

17:40 MINISTERIAL ADDRESS: Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham

18:00 Networking drinks