Join us at the 2010 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, "Learning Environments for a Web 2.0 World," where we'll explore models for the future of learning that fuse emerging technologies and learner-centered strategies to yield new learning environments designed for student success.
Today's technologies have fundamentally altered the very lenses we use to examine the world around us. Smartphones, PDAs, and MP3 players have granted instant access to information irrespective of location, creating ubiquitous, mobile access to entertainment and information. The rise of social networks and virtual communities like Flickr, YouTube, and Ustream has transformed the web from a place to seek information into a gateway to share, build, and interact with content and communities. High-performance networks and collaborative tools like wikis and videoconferencing also allow us to reach across hallways and beyond oceans to share interests, work with colleagues, and seek advice from peers.
But how have these new tools and our emergent participatory culture changed the way we imagine learning environments on campus? Or, perhaps the more pertinent question is, How should our perspectives be changing? And how can we begin to move past an educational model that is tethered to time and place and move closer to learning that is immersive, mobile, collaborative, and social?
Join us January 1921 in Austin as we ponder these questions together and imagine new opportunities. Sessions will highlight:
The ways that technology-enhanced environments can open up learning, thereby dissolving traditional boundaries of space and time
The value of cross-campus collaboration in the creation of new learning environments
Strategies to develop campus environments built on engagement, collaboration, authenticity, and co-creation
Opportunities to leverage shared networks and Web 2.0 tools to construct truly global learning environments, where students interact and collaborate with peers across geographic boundaries
New learning environments that elevate the importance of participation and social interaction as a way to empower both instructors and students
In the ELI tradition, the annual meeting promotes interactive, hands-on learning and networking through a variety of presentations, discussions, workshops, and learning activities. Sessions will fall into one of three interest areas: learners, learning principles and practices, learning technologies, and include learning circles, innovation showcases, Experience IT sessions, and lightning rounds.
We encourage you to attend as a member of a team. Travel to and from the meeting, along with on-site discussions and interaction with other members, can build rapport, solidify plans, and enrich collaboration when the team returns to campus. In particular, attending the ELI Annual Meeting as a team can be valuable for:
Focusing on an upcoming project
Rewarding and motivating innovators
Building cross-disciplinary collaboration through sharing the common meeting experience and reflecting on the implications for your institution