Register for the Faculty Conference!

Download the full conference program now! [pdf]

Connect, Engage, Inspire: Strategies and Tools for Today's Classroom

Faculty members at Ryerson create an engaging environment for their students both inside and outside the classroom through interesting teaching innovations.  There are real opportunities at Ryerson to create a unique teaching environment through many teaching strategies and through technology.

The theme of this year’s conference, “Connect, Engage, Inspire: Strategies and Tools for Today's Classroom,” will provide faculty with an opportunity to share and explore ideas in teaching development, teaching strategies that inspire and utilizing technology inside and outside the classroom to engage our diverse student population.

Program at a Glance

Keynote Address

The LTO is proud to announce that George Siemens will be the keynote speaker for the 2013 Faculty Conference. He will be giving a presentation on "Teaching and learning in socio-technical networks."

In spite of bold proclamations around transformation in higher education through MOOCs, competency-based learning, social media, badges and alternative forms of assessment, and online learning, the future remains unclear. Lost in the hype is the needs of learners. In particular, how will the university support the learning process when content and interactions exist in distributed networks? When networks augment, even replace, classrooms the role of the educator changes significantly. This presentation will review prominent socio-technical trends and explore their impact on teaching and learning.

George Siemens is an educator and researcher on learning, technology, networks, analytics, and openness in education. Dr. Siemens is the Associate Director of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University, leading the learning analytics research team, and a faculty member with the Centre for Distance Education.  He has delivered keynote addresses in more than 30 countries on the influence of technology and media on education, organizations, and society. His work has been profiled in provincial, national, and international newspapers (including NY Times), radio, and television. His research has received numerous national and international awards, including an honorary doctorate from Universidad de San Martin de Porres for his pioneering work in learning, technology, and networks. He pioneered massive open online courses (sometimes referred to as MOOCs) in 2008 that have included almost 20,000 participants.

Special Session

For the special session of the Faculty Conference, Chris Evans, John Isbister, and Paul Stenton will be presenting a panel discussion entitled "E-Learning at Ryerson: Challenges and Opportunities."

Recently the government of Ontario suggested that universities should expand e-learning opportunities for students. Ryerson is already a major provider of e-learning in the province. As such, we are well aware that e-learning offers educational opportunities yet also comes with challenges. This session will present some thoughts on possible directions for Ryerson in terms of e-learning, consider the strengths and weaknesses of e-learning identified in literature (see also http://ryerson.ca/lt/elearning/), and try to address some of the challenges we may face as faculty and as an institution (e.g., faculty training, pedagogic quality, technical support etc.). The panelists will present brief statements to provide context and an overview of Ryerson’s possible directions followed by an open Q&A session with audience members.

To learn more about the Ryerson Faculty Conference, see our archived page for the 2012 conference.

Top