NMIT First South Island Host for Teaching Conference

6 October 2011

News Release

NMIT First South Island Host for the
National Tertiary Learning and Teaching Conference

More than 150 tertiary educators from all over New Zealand will converge at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) for the National Tertiary Learning and Teaching Conference (NTLTC) from October 12 - 14.

This is the first year this annual event has been held in the South Island and at NMIT. The Conference has attracted the interest of tertiary educators throughout New Zealand. The Programme offers 50 presentations including those by NMIT staff and students.

NMIT Learner Journey Manager, Carole Crawford, says the Conference will be an inspiring and intense few days where top educators will be sharing ideas around the theme of “building futures.”

“We have keynote speakers who are internationally renowned with a really stimulating programme. The 2011 theme was developed in the context of the significant change happening throughout the tertiary education sector.

With all this change, we thought it was important for educators to re-focus on the basics of student-centred learning and teaching.”

Ako Aotearoa is the gold sponsor of the National Tertiary Learning & Teaching Conference, Nelson School of Music is a silver sponsor, and NMIT is this year’s host. Carole Crawford says the conference is a chance to showcase NMIT and the Nelson area.

“Not only are we proud of what we’re doing at NMIT but it’s also a chance to show off the region and celebrate what we have here. There was a really positive response from delegates when we announced that NMIT would be hosting the Conference.”

The Conference sessions are being held on the NMIT Campus as well as at the Nelson School of Music.

The Keynote Speakers include:

Professor David Boud who is Professor of Adult Education in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. In the area of assessment, he has been a pioneer in developing learning-centred approaches to assessment particularly in student self-assessment.

Linda Hutchings is one of New Zealand’s leading adult educators. Primarily working in health, education and local government she works with emerging and existing leaders to develop the vision, passion and skills needed to lead both for today and for tomorrow!

Dr Mark Brown is the Director of Teaching, Learning and Distance Education at Massey University. Associate Professor Brown has specific responsibility for policy and strategic direction in the areas of blended and distance education, including international offshore delivery. In recent years, Mark has played a key role in the development and implementation of a major digital learning and curriculum renewal initiative at Massey University.

Dr Sue Walbran is the Interim Director of Operations of Ako Aotearoa. She is an educationalist with over 25 years experience in the tertiary education sector and has specialist expertise in evaluation and quality assurance.

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