Stephen Downes
Senior Researcher - National Research Council
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Stephen Downes lived and worked across Canada before joining the National Research Council as a senior researcher in November, 2001. Currently based in Moncton, New Brunswick, at the Institute for Information Technology's e-Learning Research Group, Stephen has become a leading voice in the areas of learning objects and metadata as well as the emerging fields of weblogs in education and content syndication.

Stephen is perhaps best known for his daily research newsletter, OLDaily (short for Online Learning Daily), which reaches thousands of readers across Canada and around the world. His work also includes the development of educational content syndication systems such as Edu_RSS and DLORN along and the design of a digital rights management system for learning resources. Stephen is also frequently to be found the road giving seminars and lectures on the field of online learning, including the notable Buntine Oration delivered in Perth, Australia, in October, 2004.

Prior to his employment with the National Research Councl Stephen worked as an information architect at the University of Alberta, hired under contract to design and build a one-stop knowledge, learning and resource portal for the province's municipal sector, MuniMall. While with the University of Alberta he also contributed his unique approach to information architecture to projects such as the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association (AMPIA) portal and to PEGGAsus, a learning and resource service for petroleum engineers, geologists and physists. Stephen also worked as an instructional and new media designer at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon, Manitoba, designing the College's website and launching some of the first online courses in the country.

Stephen's formal education is in philosophy; he obtained a BA and MA at the University of Calgary (1986, 1987) and continued his studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Stephen lives in Moncton with his wife, Andrea, and three cats, Bart, Polly and Nadia. He is 45. His cat was the first feline in Manitoba to have had her own web page.

Audio recording (59 minutes, 21MB MP3)

Dr Diana G Oblinger, PhD
Vice President - Educause
North Carolina, USA
(Video conference presentation)

Dr. Diana G. Oblinger is Vice President for EDUCAUSE, responsible for the association’s teaching and learning activities and the director of the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and education organizations, including 180 corporations. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Adult and Higher Education at North Carolina State University.

Dr. Oblinger has held positions in business and academia. She served as the Vice President for Information Resources and the Chief Information Officer for the 16-campus University of North Carolina system where she was responsible for strategic planning and policy development for information technology as well as for collaborative programs in teaching and learning with technology, student services, and IT procurement. She was on the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia and at Michigan State University. At the University of Missouri, she served as an academic dean and was recognized for her work in student recruitment, retention, faculty development and student computing. In addition, she served as a Senior Fellow for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research.

While employed by two major technology firms, Dr. Oblinger continued her focus on higher education. At Microsoft she served as the Executive Director of Higher Education. She also held a variety of management positions within IBM’s higher education division. In addition, she was the IBM Director of the Institute for Academic Technology.

Known for her leadership in teaching and learning with technology as well as distributed learning, she serves on a variety of boards including the National Science Foundation’s Directorate of Education and Human Resources, the National Academies Forum on Information Technology and Research Universities, and the editorial board of Open Learning. She chairs the National Visiting Committee for the National Science Digital Library project for National Science Foundation. Dr. Oblinger has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Employment, Safety and Training and the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Technology.

Oblinger is a frequent keynote speaker as well as the co-author of the book What Business Wants from Higher Education which received the 1999 Frandson Award for best literature in continuing education. She is co-editor of six books: The Learning Revolution, The Future Compatible Campus, Renewing Administration, E is for Everything, Best Practices in Student Services, and Educating the Net Generation. She is the author or co-author of dozens of monographs and articles on higher education and technology. 

Dr. Oblinger has received outstanding teaching and research awards and was named Young Alumnus of the Year by Iowa State University. She holds three degrees from Iowa State University: a B.S. in Botany, an M.S. in Plant Breeding and a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Cytogenetics. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Xi.

Audio recording (1hr 10 minutes, 32MB MP3)
Presentation notes (930kb PDF)
Presentation notes (9.5MB PPT)

Dr Mark Strom
CEO - Bible College of New Zealand
Director, Scintillare Corporation

As an adviser to senior government and commercial leaders, Mark has partnered senior leaders over more than 16 years in renewing leadership and culture in ways that are realistic about context and respectful of people.

As an historian of ideas, he has synthesised and brought to life ancient and modern intellectual and historical traditions, and translated rich insights from these traditions into perspectives and tools for commercial and civic leaders.

As CEO of an undergraduate and postgraduate educational institution, invited by the board to turn this complex 83 year old institution around, Mark has had a unique context in which to prove his own ideas in practice. His PhD research was an interdisciplinary exploration of the intellectual and social contexts of leadership in the ancient world and today.

Mark is an inspirational speaker who will help us to consider the ways that we can lead the changes necessary for effective learning wherever we sit in the institution.

Audio recording (58 minutes, 26MB MP3)