Our speakers

Gregor Kennedy is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning) at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education (MCSHE). In his PVC role Gregor leads the University's strategy in teaching, learning and assessment, curriculum innovation, educational technologies, learning analytics, and the use of physical and virtual space. Gregor has spent over 20 years conducting and overseeing research and development in educational technology in higher education and leads the educational technology research group within the MCSHE. His current research interests include students' motivation and self-regulation; interaction and engagement in digital learning environments; understanding confusion and the provision of feedback to students engaged in digital tasks; the use of 3D immersive simulation for learning; and the use of learning analytics for improved learning design, teaching and student support. Gregor has published widely in these areas, is a past editor the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology and serves on a number of editorial boards. He is a regular invited and keynote speaker at national and international conferences on educational technology and higher education.

Dr Kathryn Coleman is an artist, researcher and teacher based in Melbourne, where Kate lectures in Visual Arts and Design Teacher Education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Kate's praxis includes taking aspects of her theoretical and practical work as a/r/tographer to consider how practitioners, teachers and students use site to create place in the digital and physical. As an a/r/tographer, her practice is as artist, as researcher, and as teacher, developed out of an embodied and performed praxis. A/r/tographers have intertwined and woven identities, never separated or untangled from the rhizome that they are within. Their practice is relational and requires activation within material encounters and events as assemblages. This research was explored in her PhD at the University of Melbourne, submitted as a fully online thesis in a digital portfolio called 'An a/r/tist in wonderland: exploring identity, creativity and digital portfolios as a/r/tographer'.

Kate is the Australasian representative on the Board of Directors of Association of Authentic, Experiential and Evidence Based Learning (AAEEBL) and recently was the executive editor on the Field Guide to ePortfolio for AAEEBL and AAC&U. As an artist and art educator, Kate is a World Council Representative for the South-East Asia Pacific Region for the International Society for Education though Art (InSEA) and co-editor of the open access Journal of Artistic and Creative Education.

Geoff is a teacher and has worked in the UK Further Education (FE) and Skills sector for 18 years before embarking on a string of advisory and consultancy roles over the last 6 years. He was an early adopter in the early UK ILT world and has continued to 'adopt early' ever since. He is a recognised expert practitioner in e-learning and the use of personal learning spaces. His teaching has been mainly in East Kent and at the University of Greenwich and in 2015, designed and was the academic lead on the first MOOC (on Digital Literacy) for the University of Derby on-line. Geoff has worked for a number of UK agencies including the British Council, and contributed to National initiatives in the e-learning world. In 2009 he won the FE National Teacher STAR Award in the innovation category and in the following year received a 'Future Learning' Award from BECTA. He currently teaches student teachers at Canterbury Christ Church University in East Kent on the Certificate of Education Post Graduate route into professional teaching (PGCE) in the school and further education sectors, with particular responsibility for a class of 20 Humanities specialists. Geoff will be sharing, amongst other things, how his students have used PebblePad to evidence their learning.

For further information see his LinkedIn profile or his website.

Professor Heidi Blair has served as the Deputy Director of Learning Futures at Griffith University since October 2015. In her role, she leads projects that support academics in the design, development and implementation of student-centred learning experiences as well as a variety of professional learning opportunities. She is passionate about leveraging existing tools and designing new ones to transform the experiences of learners and educators. Having taught from kindergarteners to doctoral students, she has a broad understanding of learning contexts and needs. Heidi has led the recent enterprise-wide implementation of PebblePad at Griffith University.