2009 Keynote Speaker

OPENING KEYNOTE
Gary Poole Image• Who You Know Affects What You Know - Dr. Gary Poole, University of British Columbia
We can gain useful insights into student learning by analyzing students’ patterns of interaction in online environments.  New research is emerging in which these patterns are mapped using social network analysis ­ a technique that identifies directions and quantities of interactions.   Using this method, we can also identify “nodes” through which the most interaction flows.   Interesting hypotheses are being tested about the nature of these nodal positions and the learning opportunities they provide for students in terms of creativity and other meta skills.   In this session, we will look at some of these maps and at graphs that chart the different kinds of activity student engage in on line during a course.   We will also look at how things like increasing online content affect online interactions among students.

Gary Poole is the Director of the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth and the Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at UBC.  Gary has won a 3M Teaching Fellowship, which is a Canadian national teaching award, an Excellence in Teaching award from Simon Fraser University, and a Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for contributions to Higher Education.  He was the President of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from 2000 to 2004.   He is the co-author of “Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education,” and “The Psychology of Health and Health Care: A Canadian Perspective.”