ICTPD.NET » Conference notes

Interactive Floor (or Table)

Bryn Jones — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:39:41 +0000

During a quiet time at the ACEC Conference in Canberra recently, we put together a prototype interactive floor (or table) using Sanyo short throw projector, Onfinity IWB system and ASUS EEEPC. It works!

Thanks to Simon from Ideal resources and Grant from Sanyo. Lots of interesting possibilities with this sort of set up.

Can’t get my Flickr inserter to work! What’s changed?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/freoman/2954233782

Historic Conference Website Found

Bryn Jones — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:11:33 +0000

I was talking to Vic Gecas at the ACEC 2008 Conference recently and asked him if he could remember who did the website for the ACEC 95 Conference in Perth. I think it was one of the first conferences to have a website. It turns out Vic was the webmaster!

Returning home, Vic has heroically worked through his boxes of floppy disks and retreived the original code.

I’ve put it up on my website. It ain’t pretty but it’s historic and features a picture of a very youthful Stephen Heppell.
http://www.ictpd.net/ACEC95/acec95.htm

Also had Dr Evan Arthur launching Edna in 1995 and he was at ACEC 2008 as leader of the DER Taskforce.
http://www.ictpd.net/ACEC95/EDNA.HTM

Thanks Vic

ACEC95: Just another conference?

Bryn Jones — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:27:37 +0000

I was the convenor of the 1995 ACEC National Conference in Perth. It was an interesting year. The Internet had just gone graphical and Creative Nation was launched. Below is the Preface to the Proceedings.

It’s now 13 years on. How did we do?

PREFACE

“Historians may well look back on 1995 as the year in which attitudes to educational technology began to change significantly, the year in which education started to move from education for an industrial age to education for an information age. It is hoped that ACEC95 will be remembered as having played some small part in that history.

When the conference committee chose a theme for this conference in January of 1994, we selected ‘learning without limits’ because of the potential of computer technology and telecommunications to enhance learning in all areas and for all ages.

We were especially thinking of developments in telecommunications and multimedia which might come to fruition by the time of the conference, and which would help to fulfil the promise that has been with us for many years.

We were particularly interested in the ability of technology to enhance learning for people with disabilities and for those in remote and isolated locations and to provide a more individualised and student centred approach to learning.

Little did we know that in the weeks preceding the conference, we would hear one initiative after another, launched by the Commonwealth or states of Australia: Creative Nation, Co-operative multimedia Centres, Open-net, Education Network Australia, OzeKids – the list goes on. Indeed, similar moves are afoot around the world.

In every newspaper and magazine we find articles about the ubiquitous ‘information superhighway’ and its potential to create a paradigm shift in society. At the same time others warn of the dangers and limitations of this technology in education.

ACEC delegates have always been in the forefront of the campaign to allocate more resources to information technology in an attempt to improve education. It seems that, at last, someone is listening and the resources are slowly becoming available. A new opportunity is before us and the challenge is to ensure that those resources are allocated well, with educational considerations at the forefront.”

Bryn Jones

ACEC 95 Conference Convenor

Historic Website Found http://ictpd.net/ACEC95/acec95.htm