The Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) program has wrapped up another successful ABEL Summer Institute (ASI). The theme of the ninth annual ASI, which took place at York University from Aug. 23 to 25, was Creating the Future Now. The event welcomed some 200 delegates from across Ontario and Canada.
The two-and-a-half-day professional learning event included keynote and spotlight presentations, hands-on training sessions and networking opportunities, focusing on implementing new technology tools and best practices in the classroom.
Right: Anita Townsend (left), Simcoe County District School Board's principal of curriculum services, and Anita Drossis, a teacher at Vaughan Secondary School, participated in the 2010 ABEL Summer Institute
A highlight on the first day was the keynote speech by Alec Couros, a professor of educational technology & media and coordinator of information & communications technologies at the University of Regina. His talk, “How Informal Learning Networks Can Transform Education”, demonstrated how educators can embrace informal networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and looked at how our networked future is key to the reform of teaching and learning.
The conference also included talks from Garfield Gini-Newman, a lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, and Bill Muirhead, associate provost, academic, at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Both speakers had unique takes on how the rapidly changing technology landscape will affect the future of teaching and learning.
Left: ASI 2010 participants discuss the course material
The ABEL program launched its new Web site and online community at the conference, giving delegates the opportunity to continue discussions and stay connected online once professional learning and networking sessions had ended. Visit the new ABEL Web site.
Private and public sector sponsors make the ABEL Summer Institute possible. This year’s ASI sponsors included Microsoft Canada, Polycom, Apple, the Ontario Research & Innovation Optical Network, Pearson Education Canada, Duplicom Presentation Systems, Mindshare Learning, Ontario’s Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, York University, the York Region District School Board, Turning Technologies Canada and Sobeys.
For more information and to view the event agenda, visit the ABEL Summer Institute Web site.
Founded in 2002, ABEL is led and funded by the Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation at York University and the York Region District School Board. ABEL has established national and international credibility as a leading authority on new modes of teaching, training, learning and collaboration.
Republished courtesy of YFile– York University’s daily e-bulletin.