On Friday, November 2, close to 100 education technologists gathered at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECUAD) in Vancouver for the annual ETUG Fall Workshop. The theme for the fall workshop was “Just Share It”, exploring how can deepen the ways in which we share and disseminate knowledge to each other and to our communities.
Post by Clint Lalonde, Manager, Education Technology
The morning opened with a dynamic First Nations welcome from Coast Salish artist Xwalacktun (Rick Harry) who had the ETUG crowd up and dancing in the form of eagles and wolves. An Emily Carr alumni also explained the role he had in designing many of the elaborate, computer numerical control (CNC) router-carved doors that hang within the institution.
Paul Stacey, Executive Director of the Open Education Consortium, followed with a provocative keynote that asked the ETUG community to reconsider the idea that sharing is the best way to achieve the goal of developing a deep and sustainable Open Educational Resource environment. Instead, Paul challenged the audience to consider shifting our thinking from simply “sharing to “commoning”, which is a deeper level of commitment and responsibility towards sustaining open educational resources.
Following the morning talk from Paul, we then moved into a series of hands-on workshops and tours of the new Emily facility, led by Emily Carr’s Grant Gregson had a chance to test out some of the 3D printing facilities and see a sample of the virtual and augmented reality work being done by both Emily Carr faculty and the UBC Emerging Media Lab. Part of the UBC Emerging Media Lab demonstration included a virtual field trip of Vancouver’s Stanley Park that was developed as an open educational resource by students and funded by a BCcampus Open Education grant. Chad Leaman, Director of Innovation from the Neil Squire Society, was also on hand to demonstrate LipSynch, a Google-funded accessibility initiative that allows people with little to no hand movement to operate touchscreen devices.
Lunch was followed by a series of short, 10-minute lightning talks from members of the ETUG community that highlighted some of the projects that ETUG members have been working on. Highlights included a demonstration of H5P interactive learning elements in Pressbooks open textbooks by KPU’s Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani, and Dr. Tony Bates sharing his research on the recently released 2018 National Survey of Online and Digital Learning in Canada, funded in part by BCcampus.
We would like to thank everyone involved at ECUAD for sharing their spaces with the ETUG community, as well as a special thank you to the SCETUG planning committee and, in particular, SCETUG member Grant Gregson for all his support with organizing the day’s events.
Be sure to mark your calendar for the next gathering of ETUG, June 20-21, 2019 at Thompson Rivers University. This Spring conference will be a significant one as ETUG will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Our theme is “Back to the Future”. Watch for the call for proposals early in the new year and plan to join us for a very special ETUG in Kamloops in June 2019.
Here is what a couple attendees had to say about the ETUG Fall Workshop:
“ETUG is an incredible community of open sharing, learning, and practice. I am so happy I found it.”
“Great concept to discuss technology’s role in education, with other educators in a post-secondary environment.”