Panel Discussion
Title: "The Role of ICT in Transformation of the University/Education Systems"
Moderator: Pat Halloran, Monash University, Malaysia
Panelists:
- Jeff Haywood, Professor and Vice Principal for Knowledge Management, Chief Information Officer & Librarian, University of Edinburgh, UK
- Ingram Olkin, Professor of Statistics and Education, Stanford University, USA
- Wim Van Petegem, Professor and Director of AVNet, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
- Mladen Vouk, Department Head and Professor of Computer Science and Associate Vice-Provost for Information Technology, Department of Computer Science, N.C. State University, USA
- Zoran Bekiæ, Director, University Computing Center, University of Zagreb
General Framework for Discussion:
The age of the knowledge society brings new challenges for the educational system, especially for universities. Society expects more active participation and involvement from universities in everyday life, students expects not only effective transfer of information and knowledge, but also new kinds of relationships with teachers, as well as a "student-centric" organization of study. Employers expect not only a high level of expertise and professionalism, but also a variety of new and different skills.
Society is not only based on knowledge, but is also becoming a lifelong learning society, which implies that every citizen is forced (although most of them are eager at the same time) to learn new skills and acquire new information through their entire life.
All these "external" circumstances causes very deep changes at the universities, as well as all other educational institutions all over the world. In Europe some of these major changes are being driven by the Bologna process.
What is the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in this “tsunami” of change, how can technology can help to foster these processes?
Thirty - thirty five years ago, when we started our changes with the organization of the first ITI Conference, ICT was primarily a tool for advanced research and high-tech professional activities. Nowadays ICT is still, now more than ever, an important tool for both research and professional activity.
But in addition to this important traditional role, a variety of new expectations emerged. Technology is (or should be) highly involved in improvement and rising the quality of the process of teaching and learning. Technology is enabling new scenarios for teaching on-campus students, and for delivering educational programs to off-campus students whether at the national or international (global) market.
Universities are becoming complex and specific business systems. Management and decision making in these complex systems is not longer possible without sophisticated information systems. ICT is also an important "bridging technology" connecting universities to society and to both local and global knowledge consumption / creation communities.
How do different stakeholders at the university (students, teachers, university managements), as well as others outside the university (citizens, employers, local and state communities and governments) perceive and foresee the role of ICT in the transformation and in the everyday life of a modern university? What are the optimal approaches to organize and use ICT; and are there any differences in these approaches at the universities in different parts of the world?
Workshop
Title: "Presentation Skills"
Presenter: George S. Nezlek, Grand Valley State University, USA
Abstract:
Good presentations are one of the best things that authors can do to advance their research agendas. This workshop is intended for authors, especially student authors, asking that great rhetorical question: „OK, my paper has been accepted. What do I do now?“ Aside from discussing the things that distinguish an effective research presentation, the workshop will offer a chance for this year's attendees to conduct a final tune-up of their intended presentations in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Workshop
Title: "Visualisation in Science"
Presenter: Natasa Tepic, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Croatia
Abstract:
Old chinese proverb says "A picture is worth a thousand words". Can you tell how much is worth your plot, chart or graph?
Due to an easy access to friendly-to-use graphical and tabular software, sometimes we have opportunity to be too creative. Good data visualization is a fine balance between informativeness and attractiveness. Last year, during this workshop, participants had the opportunity to learn how to avoid traps in the process of data visualization. Now, however, participants could take part in a newer version of the workshop which is expanded with a lot of new features compared to the previous release.
Topics that will be discussed during the workshop are:
- History of data visualization.
- Human visual system.
- Optical illusions - what they got to do with it?
- Things to absolutely avoid in visualization.
- The best and the worst of statistical graphics.
- The evils of using 3D effects in graphs.
- Pie charts and visualization diets.
- Color blind graphs.
- Maps: right or wrong?
This workshop is particularly intended for students, but all conference attendees are welcome. Especially if they want to discuss examples of bad data visualization.
Don't break the Myth: Learn how to create a picture worth a thousand words.
