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The future of the educational Internet will be the topic as the (ABEL) program hosts its (ASI) this year.

Registration is now open for Connected Community Learning: The Next Decade taking place Aug. 22 to 24 on 91��ɫ's Keele campus.

Over the past decade the Internet has affected society in many ways, including democratizing access to information, creating opportunities for individual voices to be heard, sharing ideas and knowledge, allowing instantaneous responses to questions, creating social networks that expand knowing and doing, developing new regulations and policies for information access, copyright and use, digital citizenship – and the list continues. ASI 2011 asks what will the next 10 years bring?

Conference delegates will investigate this question and the power of a connected community to effectively use technology for teaching and learning. This two-and-a-half-day professional learning event features speakers and information sessions.

Keynote speaker  will open ASI 2011, delivering a speech titled “The Flat World has Swung Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education”. Bonk is professor of Instructional Systems Technology at and president of .

Left: Curt Bonk

Bonk received the CyberStar Award from the Indiana Information Technology Association, the Most Outstanding Achievement Award from the US Distance Learning Association, and the Most Innovative Teaching in a Distance Education Program Award from the State of Indiana. A well-known authority on emerging technologies for learning, Bonk reflects on his speaking experiences around the world in his popular blog, . He has coauthored several technology books, including (2009), (2008), (2006) and Electronic Collaborators (1998).

On Aug. 23, Dean Shareski, a digital learning consultant for the Prairie South School Division in Saskatchewan, will be the spotlight speaker. Shareski works with teachers and students in understanding the power of "Read/Write Web" and is a strong advocate of design and storytelling and the power of sharing.

Right: Dean Shareski

Shareski has presented and led many workshops locally, nationally and internationally.  He's been modeling much of this on his own blog () for more than six years. The site is consistently ranked among the top 100 educational blogs. He also is an adjunct professor at the University of Regina, where he's developed innovative instructional practices for pre-service teachers.

To close ASI 2011 on Aug. 24, Norm Vaughan will discuss “Student Engagement and Web 2.0 in Blended Learning”. An educator and researcher with interests in blended learning, faculty development and kindergarten to Grade 12 schooling, Vaughan is an associate professor in the Department of Education, Faculty of Teaching & Learning at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.

Left:  Norm Vaughan

Vaughan recently co-authored the book Blended Learning in Higher Education (2008) and has published a series of articles on blended learning and faculty development. Vaughn is the co-founder of the Blended Online Design Network (BOLD), a member of the Community of Inquiry Research Group, the associate dditor of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning. He serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Excellence in e-Learning, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, the Journal on Centres for Teaching & Learning, the Learning Communities Journal and the Journal of Information Fluency.

The ABEL Summer Institute is intended as both a guided and self-directed exploration of technologies as educational tools with learning engagement and knowledge building potential for all.

For more information on ASI 2011, including the agenda, click . Register early to avoid disappointment. To register online, click .

ABEL is a unit within the Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation. For more information about its event and programming, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.