The 2009 Canadian e-Learning Conference was opened by Barbara Ganley, a former professor who is now the current director and founder of Digital Explorations – a not for profit organization that brings multimedia to remote, rural places. To commence the keynote address, Ganley revealed that “fear is the biggest obstacle to trying things that are new”. Whether it’s new technology, changing entrenched learning styles, or social norms, fear almost always hinders progress. Ganley continued that only when trust, achieved through communication, is created in a community can educational institutions alter to and aid the core principles of learning.
Ganley challenged the group to confront their fears through exercises. The first was an exercise on Twitter designed to probe what innovations participants would like to see in e-learning, and what the potential obstacles are of making this a reality. Secondly, she told an Old Russian custom of emigration where the party leaving would sit at the threshold of the door and reflect on their lives in that home. She used this tale as a lead in to the next exercise where she had participants discuss their stories: what each participant brought to the conference and what they wanted to learn in the next three days. Postcards were handed out for the final exercise, where Ganley had participants come up with metaphors for this moment in e-learning, based on the image on the front of the postcard.
In essence, Ganley challenged the CeLC attendants to confront their apprehensions towards the changes in technology and learning, and to use new mediums – social networking, podcasting and blogging, for example – as accents to their lessons. Her keynote address was meant to bring up questions and themes that would be touched on during the rest of the conference. For Ganley, innovation can only occur when the teacher and the student attempt to break down the walls of fear that individuals, communities and institutions have erected around themselves.
Closing Remarks: Michelle Lamberson, Kele Fleming, Leva Lee
The 2009 Canadian e-Learning Conference ended on Friday, June 19 with reflection on the conference experience and a sense of recognition that this event had opened new perspectives into the future of e-Learning. Michelle Lamberson, Director of the Office of Learning Technology, discussed the successes she’s seen over her years in the e-Learning field and, specifically, among the community of professionals who participated in the 2009 conference. Participants quickly joined in, eager to discuss what they learned over the last three days. Audience members sited many conference highlights, including the involvement of students in the event and the technological trust built between attendees. Many marvelled at the high level of communication that occurred throughout the conference while others voiced their excitement over the number of innovations in open education permeating traditional educational institutions. Participants and organizers alike pledged to follow keynote Barbara Ganley in “kicking in the bricks” of fear to communicate and share their learning desires through technology.
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