DET/CHE 2012 Keynote Speakers

Susan Metros

IT / Academic Technology Leadership

Tuesday, November 27th at 5:00-6:00 p.m.

About Susan Metros

Susan Metros has served at the University of Southern California as associate chief information officer for technology-enhanced learning (TEL) and associate vice provost for ITS since September 2007. She also holds faculty appointments in the USC Roski School of Fine Arts and the USC Rossier School of Education. Metros oversees ITS Web Services, Educational Technologies, including the Center for Scholarly Technology, and Learning Environments.

The technology-enhanced learning group provides vital resources to integrate educational and information technologies into the academic environment. TEL's goal is to enhance the mobility and flexibility of the learning process and enable greater responsiveness to the needs of a new generation of learners. TEL staff help USC faculty, students, and staff explore and implement technologies that promote learner-driven education on campus and in online learning.

Prior to joining USC, Metros was at the Ohio State University (OSU), where she served as interim chief information officer from February to September 2007. From 2001 to 2007, she served as OSU's deputy chief information officer and the executive director for eLearning, transforming the technology-enhanced learning and research unit into an operation that served as a state model for the integration of technology into teaching, learning, and research. She has held faculty appointments at OSU; the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and Michigan State University.

Metros has published and presented widely on leadership and mentoring, visual and multimedia literacy, digital scholarship, online learning, and the role of technology in transforming education to be interactive, engaging, and learner-driven. She has served on numerous local, national, and international committees, task forces, and advisory boards. In 2010, she received a University of Southern California Mellon Award for mentoring faculty. She holds a master of fines arts degree in graphic design, as well as a bachelor of fine arts degree, from Michigan State University.

Bill Rankin

Mobile Learning

Wednesday, November 28th at 9:00-10:00 a.m.

About Bill Rankin

Dr. William J. Rankin is an associate professor of English at Abilene Christian University. His education includes BAs in English and French from Harding University, an MA in English literature from the University of California, Riverside and a PhD in medieval literature from the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) with an emphasis on medieval pedagogies and educational practice. In the spring of 2007, Rankin and a team of academics began work on the initiative that became "ACU Connected," ACU's ground-breaking iPhone and iPod touch-based mobile-learning initiative. Working closely with students, faculty, and technologists, the team attained broad university buy-in for the program using a "day-in-the-life" video vision statement, "Connected," and he continues to work on projects designed to help people envision and implement new learning technologies. 

With more than 20 years’ experience working in higher education, Dr. Rankin has presented broadly on educational technology at domestic and international conferences, has consulted with universities and educational developers in the US and Europe, has designed and constructed multiple computer-based learning facilities, and has written several million dollars worth of educational technology grants. Along with the other members of the ACU Connected team, he was named an "Innovator of the Year" for 2008 in the mobile learning category by Campus Technology magazine, and ACU's initiative continues to garner awards, most recently from ACUTA and Alcatel-Lucent. In 2009, Rankin was named ACU's first Director of Educational Innovation, an academic technology imagineering position designed to explore and develop new educational technologies and pedagogies. In 2009, he was also recognized by Apple Inc. as an Apple Distinguished Educator.

 

  Larry Cooperman

 

Need for Collaboration and Openness in Higher Education
Thursday, November 29, 7:00pm

About Larry Cooperman
Larry Cooperman is Director of UC Irvine OpenCourseWare, a web-based repository of various UC Irvine courses and video lectures from UC Irvine faculty, seminar participants, and instructional staff. While the great majority of courses are drawn from graduate, undergraduate, and continuing education programs, some were originally produced under grant funding to serve specific needs in California and elsewhere.  UC Irvine's OCW is open and available for free to advance human knowledge, creativity, lifelong learning, and the social welfare of educators, students, and self-learners across the globe.

Cooperman is a respected international consultant on open education. He has been an invited speaker at a UNESCO/MofE conference in Brazil, at TEDx in Medellin, Columbia, at the Korea OCW Consortium conference, at the plenary debate on OER at eLearning Africa, and others. He is a member of the boards of directors of the OpenCourseWare Consortium and the African Virtual University and leads the UC-Haiti Initiative's distance learning activities. Many organizations intend to adopt open education as a guiding principle, but face a series of obstacles. Cooperman's activity, principally in Africa and Latin America, has served to assist organization and governments to take advantage of open education repositories, projects, and websites.