Speaker bio's

E-Learning Coordinator; MoE consultant

Tairawhiti Polytechnic and the Ministry of Education

SBritain@tairawhiti.ac.nz

The E-Framework - A Roadmap for Building Technical Systems to Support Future Education

The E-Framework (http://www.e-framework.org/) is an international initiative to create a common framework for mapping the services, standards and specifications that are the basis for building interoperable technical systems to support learning, administration and research in our educational organisations. The rationale underpinning the e-framework is the adoption of a services oriented approach to analysing educational systems. The significance of the initiative lies in the fact that it represents an international collaborative effort to map the existing space of interoperable tools and specifications and create a roadmap for future developments. In July this year, the Ministry of Education joined with DEST and JISC to establish a formal co-operative partnership around the e-framework. This paper describes the e-framework and outlines the opportunities it aims to provide for supporting future education.

Sandy Britain is currently employed as e-Learning Coordinator at Tairawhiti Polytechnic, but is also seconded to the Ministry of Education to assist with strategic development work around e-learning in NZ. Recently, Sandy has represented NZ interests in international work surrounding interoperability specifications and standards development and adoption. He has contributed to a number of eCDF projects in the last year and was a keynote speaker at e-Fest 2004. Prior to moving to New Zealand in 2004, Sandy worked closely with JISC and CETIS in the UK. He has published widely in the field of e-learning.