Dr Martin Valcke
Professor of Instructional Sciences / Head of Department Education Sciences
Ghent University, Belgium

Dr Martin Valcke is currently Professor of Instructional Sciences and Head of the Department of Educational Sciences at Ghent University in Belgium. His main fields of interest are innovation in higher education, and the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Major topics of Martin’s research are related learning styles, alternative assessment, evaluation procedures, and work-based training. His previous work at the Dutch Open University focused on systems to design, develop and use flexible learning materials for ‘just-in-time’ delivery.

Martin has been involved in many national and international research projects across Europe, Africa, and Latin and Middle America, introducing ICT-based open and distance learning strategies in traditional higher-education institutes. His research outputs and publication lists are extensive, and demonstrate the range of his experience from micro to meso-level.

In his first keynote address, Martin will look at ‘Rising to the challenge of being relevant for industry: stretching the boundaries of educational institutes’. He will talk about European experiences in recognising informal learning, and providing demand driven, customised education and the implications for tertiary organisations of such collaboration with industry.

Martin also offers two workshops. The first will explore alternative learning designs that build on cases, tasks, problems and role plays rather than having a knowledge base at the centre of the design. The second will examine collaborative learning designs based on empirical evidence.

Find out more about Martin Valcke.

Presentation notes (PDF 4 MB). Other formats and workshop notes are available here

Nigel Kirkpatrick
Chief Executive Officer
Industrial Research Limited, New Zealand

Nigel Kirkpatrick has been Chief Executive of Industrial Research Limited since June 2002. As New Zealand’s leading industrial scientific research company, Industrial Research focuses on world-class technology solutions for clients, and adding real value to the wider industry. Nigel returned to New Zealand after 3 years in Zurich, Switzerland, as global innovation leader for the multinational company DiverseyLever. Prior to that, he managed DiverseyLever operations in Asia and New Zealand.

Nigel has a wide understanding of global trends in technological innovation and the changing needs of the international workplace. He is expert at developing and implementing new business processes to meet these changing demands and at facilitating the necessary relationships within international networks to ensure ongoing success.

Under Nigel’s leadership, Industrial Research Limited has initiated Project GDP, a partnership arrangement between businesses and Weltec and Manukau Institute of Technology. Students and tutors from the institutes work on projects in partnership with manufacturers with science needs, while IRL's best minds oversee the work. 'So desperate are some of our most innovative manufacturers for help, and so tight are their budgets, that the pilot schemes underway using student brainpower are termed "mission critical"'.

Nigel will talk about the role of eLearning in preparing graduates for the international workplace of the future. He will draw on his experience, overseas and in New Zealand, in working with industry to understand and meet their needs, and his knowledge of global technology trends.

Brian Smith
Creative Director
Shift, New Zealand

New Zealand based web design studio Shift has gained an international reputation for creating entertaining and informative web sites and online features. Brian Smith, Shift’s Wellington-based Creative Director offers a tour of the studio’s award winning portfolio and makes the case for his own pet passions: pretty things, clever people and elegant code.

Brian joined the creative team at Shift at the beginning of 2001 after an 8-year lecturing career in design education. In that time he taught at two of the nation’s leading design institutions, Wanganui Polytechnic School of Design and Massey University’s College of Design, Fine Arts and Music. In 1998 his mentoring role at Wanganui Polytechnic was given special recognition by Interactive New Zealand when the School of Design’s senior faculty was presented with a special craft award acknowledging their students’ exceptionally high standard of work.

Brian’s visual design has also received critical recognition, including first prize at the 1996 TUANZ Internet Cook-Off and finalist selection in the 1999 La Dolce Vita design competition. His graphic design and typographic work has been seen in Emigré, Eye, Ray Gun, Zed and Pro Design magazines. Brian is a graduate of the prestigious design programme at Cranbrook Academy of Art (USA) and the University of Texas at Austin (USA).

Find out more about Brian Smith.