9.40am Wednesday

<b>Dr Evan Arthur How education drives innovation </b><a href="http://flexiblelearning.net.au/nw2003/presentations/Evan%20Arthur.ppt">link to ppt slideshow </a>

Information economy
Understanding how things work and using that understanding to improve production of goods and services' has always been an important part of economic development
Industries are being created and or transformed by innovations in understanding and application of those innovations to our world.
Development of an information and communication technology industry has been directly dependent on fundamental research - requires a highly educated flexible and self-directing workforce for it effective implementation. Also requires a sophisticated citizenry to take advantage of those innovations.
- Fundamental innovation e.g. USA vs. fast adoption - Japan.
- Ingredients for success = access to innovations, ability to understand the implications of innovations - ability to utilise innovations in production processes - ability to take advantage of innovation in the delivery of services.
Both access and application of innovation are needed to take full advantage.
- Societal success - society that is capable of agile change - high quality education and research sectors

Innovation in daily lives - comes from high quality education and research sectors
<b><i>Education spending should be seen as a vital investment in national competitiveness</i></b>- As a key enables of all other businesses in a knowledge economy
- Social imperative also continues in this context
- Sector will be an essential provider of employees with the skills and mental attitudes needed to create and sustain agile forward-looking action
- FL illustrates two crucial aspects of innovation - both directed towards the type of learners you need in an innovation society as well as FL itself is innovative. Both innovative in product and process

<i>ICT in education</i>- is moving from the periphery to being central to the system - e.g. move from HR systems and payroll to where it is becoming a central part of the production process. A central part of the production of research.
ICT has the potential to become central to the process and also deliver learning outcomes.

<b>Education is fundamentally concerned with information </b>- how to transfer it and how to manipulate and transform it. ICT is a set of tools to better manipulate information - more quickly, more benefits of scale.
-ICT offers prospect of: tools to automate standard processes, use of specialised expertise to produce the various elements of a learning sequence.
Combination of the expertise of the team with the insight of the individual teacher in the actual delivery of teaching, Cottage industry of education - teacher responsible for all parts of the process.
Teachers create unique experiences using the preserved range of skills of a team of people.

<b>So what could we do if we got it right?</b>Strong belief in reusable learning objects - automatic searching of databases of learning objects to meet individual learning needs.
Personalized selection of learning objects and access to a range of other students and mentors across the world. My issue with this is the self-directed learning skills that a learner needs to be an active participant in this process to maximize their success and effectiveness of the process. End Kirsty comment.
- Automation of course creation and communication strategies - templates for learning design within a course management

Moving into the <i>smooth curve of enlightenment and productivity </i>post the crash of elearning confidence in 2000-2
High level understanding that innovation in the delivery of education is a key national objective, identify impediments and act to fix

<b>What are impediments?</b>
Prerequisites for success - ubiquitous connection to each other and the world
Skilled confident staff
Interoperability systems
IP management regimes that can be implemented
Content which is high quality easy to find and easy to integrate into pedagogy

<b>What done?</b>
MINCO agreement - all sectors are revising their plans
Learning for the Knowledge society - 1999 ICT action plan for the education and training sector.

Bandwidth issue
-UNI sector has funding from Government for gigabit network between all campuses and major research centres
- $142 million for the national bandwidth strategy with a particular focus on the health and education sectors (what will this mean for remote areas of Tasmania- will the OAC or schools in rural areas have the high bandwidth that is needed for web video conferencing - what about flash/Mac new tech?)
VET interoperability Project as well as he COLIS project.
Interoperability within the higher ed sector also to include issues of authentication and authorization problems.
- IP - cross sectoral approach to a solution -ICT in education committee
Has been hindered in the past through a state focus rather than lobbying. Legislation created as a national approach.
-Use of ICT in education and training does not have the policy prominence it has in key comparison countries - not as much as we ought to have in terms of high-level absolute commitment to its importance and criticalness.
- Innovation is on the commonwealth agenda $3billion