ALIA West

March 2006

TILC at ECU

The inaugural Transforming Information and Learning Conference (TILC) held at Edith Cowan, Mt Lawley on Saturday 1 October 2005. Over a hundred delegates attended over the two days and feedback has been extremely positive, from speakers, participants and students.

The conference was opened by Professor Robyn Quin, Pro Vice Chancellor, Teaching and Learning, who set the context for the day by challenging us to embrace the changes brought to libraries by ongoing technological change.

In delivering the inaugural Anne Clyde Memorial Lecture, Dr Steffan Silcox from Ballajura Community College shared his belief that a passionate involvement in the school and its community has deeply positive effects on libraries and learning. The volatile question session which followed his inspiring lecture set the tone for the rest of the day.

The second keynote speaker, Associate Professor Philip Wong, from the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore, focused on ways of translating elearning design principles into practice. He emphasised the need to engage students in elearning and to avoid the criticism of being b o r i n g. Dr Marissa Wettasinghe and Maslan also from NIE, collaborated with Professor Wong to discuss e-learning in academic professional development and to show conference delegates how to create e-learning micro lessons. Our overseas guests contributed a great deal to the conference and we thank them for their energy and enthusiasm.

The concluding keynote for the conference was delivered by SCIS Senior Lecturer Dr Craig Valli. In his inimitable style, Craig alerted conference delegates to the need for more stringent security measures to prevent identity theft, subvert criminal intentions and to protect personal and corporate library information from theft and unwarranted government intervention. Craig's lecture was informative as well as entertaining and ended the conference on a high note.

Other guest speakers included Jane Armstrong from the National Library of New Zealand, Marie O'Brien from Eltham College of Education Victoria and Linda Zugai from Edsoft. The conference provided local presenters and students with an opportunity to present papers on a range of subjects around the broad theme of libraries, information and e-learning. Students who presented or published virtual papers for the first time, enjoyed and benefited from the experience, while discussing their work with interested delegates.

Pre-conference workshops
In addition, several pre-conference workshops were held on Friday 30 September 2005. Linda Zugai from Edsoft and Kerrie Smith from EdNA joined Barbara Combes, Robyn Valli, Jan Ring and Judy Clayden in presenting half day workshops. Workshops covered a variety of topics including a cataloguing refresher, using technology to promote literacy outcomes, keeping students on track with an information literacy framework and creating easy e-learning lessons in PowerPoint.

Thanks go to the small but select band of exhibitors: Linda Zugai from Edsoft, Helen Stevens from the Grange Company of Adelaide, Adkins Productions, Emma Walton and Gillian Hector from Rellim Booksellers. The prizes donated by our exhibitors were very well-received at the concluding drinks session.

TILC 2006
Planning for TILC II, 2006 is underway. The theme of the conference is Making and keeping connections. LIS @ ECU already have some interesting program ideas. As previously, the conference will be a one-day affair with a series of pre-conference workshops. Keep an eye on this space as regular updates and more information will be available soon.

Barbara Combes and Judy Clayden
2005 Transforming Information and Learning Conference convenors