Dr. Kathryn Barker is a consulting education futurist with a PhD in Education Administration and Policy Studies from the University of Alberta (1994).  She has been engaged at all levels of Canada’s education and training system, and having started as a teacher and college administrator in Alberta, she has worked across Canada and internationally as a consultant and writer.  She currently serves on the advisory committees of the Office of Learning Technology of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) and on the board of the Canadian Education Association.

As founder and president of FuturEd, Dr. Barker has provided research and development in the education industry since 1995.  Clients include HRDC in Ottawa as well as various provincial ministries and training institutions.  Dr. Barker has expertise in the fields of workforce development and lifelong learning; education reform in the context of global change; accountability and quality assurance in learning systems; international education and national standards development; adult and workplace literacy; learning technologies and distance education; prior learning assessment and various other fields related to changing learning systems in the future for the future.

Dr. Barker has become a “consumer’s advocate” in the field of education and training.  She is concerned that the end-users get the information they need to make informed choices, and this is reflected in such FuturEd projects as the Consumer’s Guide to Training and the consumer’s guide:  What Questions to Ask When Choosing Work Skills Analysis Tools.  Current FuturEd projects focus on creating a consumer’s guide to on-line learning, standards for K-12 e-schooling in the US, and a study of the uses of ICT in international education in Canada’s post-secondary education system.

Burka, John
Professor, Anatomy & Physiology
The PEI Science and Technology Awareness Site:  A valuable tool for enhancing science literacy in the community
The PEI Science and Technology Awareness Site (STAS) is the outgrowth of science awareness activities and Science Fair work at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI).  A website, situated on the internet at http://stas.edu.pe.ca, was started in 1997 and since then has grown, expanded, and been revised to make it interactive.

The presentation will examine issues around providing access to distributed online resources for educators and students.

This presentation will focus on:
-the role of standards in pre-service teacher education
-the role of standards-based portfolios in teacher certification
-advantages and disadvantages of paper vs electronic portfolios
-implementing electronic portfolios in teacher education institutions
-the use of electronic portfolios in developing reflective practitioners
-the impact of electronic portfolios on pre-service teachers' use of technology in their teaching

The first phase of the study  (July 1999 to June 2000) focussed on an overview of the goals and support systems for Internet use in schools
established by the federal government, by provincial and territorial governments, and by teachers' associations. Particular attention was paid to
initiatives for developing of technological infrastructure and the provision of opportunities for teacher learning. In phase 2 (January 2000 - June
2000), a mail survey of administrators and teachers was used to identify the nature and extent of teachers' use of the Internet, and to assess
support for teacher learning and infrastructure support for Internet use in teaching across Canada. Phase 3 (July 2000 - June 2002) of the
research is currently underway. Case studies are being conducted in three school districts across the country over a two-year period. Preliminary
findings related to the infrastructure support and teacher learning contexts of the school, district, and provincial levels will be shared.

There has been a major commitment across the country to providing Internet connectivity in Canadian schools, but there has been no attempt
previously to examine the impact of such a commitment on the national level. Our research is contributing to an understanding of the issues
related to Internet implementation by providing a national picture of Internet initiatives and by assessing the extent of and support for Internet use
in teaching and learning. The recommendations from our study should be of interest to decision-makers involved in the implementation of Internet
use for teaching and learning at the federal, provincial and territorial, and district and school levels. Additionally, our findings from the study
should contribute to the base of information needed for the updating of teacher education programs in Canada's universities and colleges.

This presentation will describe the various features in consumer and prosumer DV camcorder design that lead to unnecessary image quality
loss and what must be done to avoid such loss.  Video production techniques that lead to quality loss regardless of the camera technology used
will also be identified.

The Communication Studies department is now revising its video production curriculum to incorporate an alternative video production paradigm
that is essentially at odds with professional video and film production techniques and aesthetics.  This is the counter-intuitive paradigm of video
production for the internet.  The presentation will describe these curriculum changes and relate the challenges students encounter when working
within the new media production paradigm.

Learn how technology enabled ten grade four and five students to get a major Canadian politician and a Major League Baseball player involved
in a class project that was voted as "best in the world". Come and find out how technology provided a missing link of discovery for a grade six
student, resulting in the induction of a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins into a Sports Hall of Fame. Discover how a middle school project
about shamrocks sparked an international celebration, spanning the Atlantic Ocean, involving beer suds.

This is a proposal for a 45-minute interactive seminar focusing on Vital Knowledge Software's PET Project (Pupil Empowerment through
Technology). PET is a computer-based program that empowers students by correlating their
personality traits with their learning styles.

E-STAT, Statistics Canada's education database of Census and socio-economic information, is an Internet- based product that educational
institutions can now access for FREE!  Teachers can access information by theme and then extract, manipulate, and save he colorful maps,
graphs, and tables to fit their needs. E-STAT comes complete with a host of activities, each with a certain grade level in mind, developed by
teachers across Canada.

This session will explore the capabilities of E-STAT and their relevance to curriculum for a number of different topic areas. Other resources found
on www.statcan.ca will also be profiled.

The 3-year plan included significant funding for teacher professional development, technical support, wiring and infrastructure and culminated in
the upgrading of connectivity to all schools in the province.

The session will discuss the foundation of the IEI project in the "Vision for the Integration of IT" in support of the curriculum, positioning the project
as an economic initiative and a model for joint design, management and implementation of a province-wide initiative involving seven school
boards and the Department of Education.

As the number of computers accessible to students and teachers in classrooms and labs has increased, especially in the last ten years, there
has been a corresponding emphasis on; integrating technology across the curriculum;  Teachers; effective use of computers in their classrooms,
however, remains an elusive goal.  Researchers have identified numerous barriers to teachers; use of computers in their classes, such as limited
equipment, inadequate skills, minimal support, time constraints and the  teachers; own lack of interest or knowledge about computers.

Rightly or wrongly, teachers have come;under fire; as insufficiently skilled to make use of promising new technologies.   Governments, faculties of
education, school districts, schools, communities and individuals have begun to focus on helping teachers get access to training and
development in required skills.  While programs have varied widely, we have chosen to focus on three exemplary models of professional
development in Canada:  a university-based model, a school-district model, and a school-based model.  In each of these examples, we
elucidate the methods and practices which support and hinder teachers in their technological professional development, focusing on teachers;
own stated preferences for what works and what doesn't work as they attempt to make more and/or better use of computers in their classes.

Curriculum-correlated video titles were streamed to elementary, junior high, high school and universities in urban and rural centres. Topics
included Science and Health & Personal Life Skills. Video was streamed in the ASF format at 300 Kbs. Video was accessed as entire
programs and as video objects. Some programs were integrated with other online learning components.

The trial piloted an educational video streaming service called Tutorbuddy, which will be marketed to Canadian schools in the fall of 2001.

Keobke, Ken, PhD.
Senior Lecturer, Division of Language Studies, City University of Hong Kong
Designing and Enhancing Collaboration at the Computer
The instructional design of computer-based learning materials differ from classroom practice in that they seldom offer opportunities for
collaboration. Despite this, students do collaborate, helping one another through the content and affordances of the program. But, in doing so,
students meet with challenges. Paradoxically, these challenges can either inspire or discourage learning.

This session will present the findings of a study, based on research with twenty Hong Kong university students in a controlled experiment,
evaluates the challenges to collaboration as evidenced by their discourse. The students were videotaped and their discourse transcribed and
evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively according to a set of discourse markers created to measure collaborative, non-collaborative and
ambiguous strategies while using tutorial and game-like interfaces with a CD-ROM based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

This paper begins by exploring the differences between collaboration and similar terms such as teamwork and cooperative learning then goes
on to define collaboration in the context of computer-assisted learning and show how collaboration supports negotiation of meaning and learning
through scaffolded instruction. This paper ends by presenting practical strategies for software designers, teachers and students that can
enhance collaboration at the computer.

MacDonald, Linda
Associate Director, Continuing Education, Saint Mary's University
Collaborative Development and Delivery of an Online Faculty Development Initiative
This presentation addresses three themes:
. strategies for extending the use of learning technologies across the institution;
. evaluation of an online initiative in faculty development from an international and inter-cultural perspective;
. promotion of more effective teaching and learning using collaborative and problem-based learning approaches.

The presentation will describe the collaborative development and delivery of an online faculty development initiative by three educational
institutions, quite diverse in geographic location and in educational focus. The three institutions are Bath College, UK; an professional
engineering school in Bogota, Colombia; and an university in Halifax, Canada. Highlights will examine some of the special challenges, barriers,
constraints, benefits, and unanticipated outcomes of this initiative.

The power of learning technologies to build shared learning spaces in a global context will be illustrated by selected samples of participant
interaction.

The overall project is the work of three partners:
Alvaro Torres Nieto of Escuela Colombiana de Ingenieria, Bogota, Colombia; Linda MacDonald, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, NS Canada;
Ken Owens, City of Bath College, Bath, UK.
The presentation will be constructed on the work of all three partners.

An Industry Canada youth employment program, CDC houses more than 400 Web sites ranging in subjects from science and technology, to history, business and fine arts.  Every CDC site holds educational value and many include on-line teaching and learning resources for use in classrooms.  Join CDC's Director, Nora Hockin for her presentation as she will take you into a new learning dimension by demonstrating an on-line treasure trove of educational resources, including: lesson plans; curriculum units; classroom activities; quizzes and games.  Find out how to both benefit from, and participate in, Canada's Digital Collections (http://collections.ic.gc.ca).

Based on media/technology research with at-risk students and practical classroom experience, this workshop will demonstrate, through hands
on activities, that one need not necessarily be an expert to teach about media and technology.  Participants will take away with them 'gee whizzy'
ideas to use in a media/technology classroom.

Shaw, Michael
Academic Computing Specialist, Acadia Institute for Teaching and Technology
The Acadia Institute for Teaching and Technology
With the introduction of Acadia Advantage, the Acadia Institute for Teaching and Technology (AITT) was created to provide leadership and
training in applying technology effectively to learning environments at Acadia
University.   Building on this experience, the AITT began providing training to Nova Scotia teachers in 1999 supported by the Information
Economy Initiative (IEI).  To date the AITT has trained over 700 teachers to
effectively integrate technology into their classrooms.  This summer the AITT will not only train NS teachers, but will be running programs for
teachers from across Canada and the U.S.

This presentation will highlight examples of teachers' work created in teacher training programs at Acadia.  It will overview new program
directions and strategies that are intended to improve technology training
programs.  Participants will have an opportunity to learn about free national training programs for teachers and students on implementing
technology effectively in the classroom.  Finally, this presentation will invite discussion on ways that universities and public school teachers can
work together to improve the use of technology in teaching.

Smith, Peter
Program Supervisor, Technology Integration, Halifax Regional School Board
Effective Professional Development in the Integration of Information Technology in P-12 Classrooms
The Halifax Regional School Board has established a critical mass of information technology users and teacher leaders through a series of
professional development measures over a two-year period, including Website support, an extensive series of week-long "camps," school level
workshops, classroom visits, coaching and networking.

The team who developed and delivered the professional development will tell "stories from the field" and reflect on the essential elements of
effective professional development in the integration of information technology in p-12 classrooms.

Our presentation will also address the following key questions:

In what ways do specific examples of Best Practices embody current educational theory and, especially, learner-centered principles?

Can we distill generalizable knowledge about teaching and learning from studying Best Practices, without falling into prescriptive checklists?
What can we learn from past and current attempts to distill teaching and learning into principles?

To what extent are Best Practices trans-disciplinary or is a large part of their effectiveness domain-specific?

Tickner, Marilyn
GEM Progject Representative, ERIC Clearninghouse on Information and Technology
A GEM of a Resource: The Gateway to Education Materials
There are thousands of lesson plans, curriculum units and other educational materials distributed on web sites across the Internet.  These
valuable resources are difficult for teachers to find in an efficient and effective manner. The goal of the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM)
is to solve this resource discovery problem and to provide "The Gateway" to quality collections of educational resources.

As of Jan. 1st, 2001, over 245 organizations have contributed over 15,500 metadata records to The Gateway catalog.   When teachers connect
to The Gateway, they are able to access the Internet-based educational resources of participating GEM Consortium members. When they use
The Gateway database, rather than an Internet search engine, teachers are
able to locate resources they need quickly and efficiently.

When you connect to The Gateway, you are able to:
-browse lists organized by subject, keyword,or grade/education level,
-search by subject, keyword, title or the full-text of the resource's catalog record,
-go directly to the resource from The Gateway.
 The Gateway:     www.thegateway.org
The GEM Project: www.geminfo.org

The GEM Project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, and is a special project of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information &
Technology at Syracuse University.

Wong, Joanne
Area Academy Manager, Eastern Canada, Cisco Systems Canada Co.
Preparing Students for the 21st Century: the Cisco Systems Canada Networking Academy Program
This presentation will help educators understand how the Internet impacts the education system, and will discuss the history of technology in
education as well as provide an overview of e-learning. It will also examine the Networking Academy Program in detail including its structure,
benefits, curriculum, requirements and successful impact in Canada.