Jacquie McDonald

The University of Southern Queensland
Toowoomba, Queensland Australia

Email: mcdonalj@usq.edu.au

The ASCILITE2002 Conference (Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education) was held at the UNITEC Institute of Technology Auckland New Zealand http://www.unitec.ac.nz/ascilite/index.html

This was the first time the conference was held outside Australia and it was a great success, with registrations having to be closed due to the large numbers. The papers are available at on the conference web site, with the best paper, NextEd and ASCILITE annual award recipients soon to be posted. Papers are available at http://www.unitec.ac.nz/ascilite/proceedings/programme.html#fp4

The 2002 conference had a nautical theme, reflecting both Auckland's maritime heritage and the Americas Cup, which is being held at the same time. The themes of the conference highlighted the growing importance of multimedia and online learning in the curriculum and the rapid pace of change in the information and communications technology sectors. Conference themes are available at http://www.unitec.ac.nz/ascilite/theme.html.

Keynote speakers were Diana Laurillard (Open University UK), Tom Reeves (Virginia University, USA), and Peter Looms (Denmark Interactive Multimedia) who reflected on the changing role of technology in society and how educators can use these media resources to facilitate learning http://www.unitec.ac.nz/ascilite/speakers.html#diana_lauriland

Pre-conference workshops were offered. Details available at http://www.unitec.ac.nz/ascilite/proceedings/workshops.html#full. The author was a presenter at the session on "Encouraging Research into Online Learning and Assessment" http://docushare.unitec.ac.nz/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-187/158.pdf initiated by the Scottish Centre for Research into On-Line learning and Assessment (SCROLLA), where issues raised were actively debated by participants, and later posted to a post conference forum for ongoing discussion.

A paper reflecting on 20 years of ASCILITE history provided interesting insights into the various themes relating to the development of computers and learning over the lifetime of ASCILITE conferences http://docushare.unitec.ac.nz/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-148/090.pdf. Discussion following this paper focused on the past and future of ASCILITE and the possible format for conference presentations. Issues included the continued use of speaker led presentations versus more interactive sessions or workshop formats - given that the papers are already posted on the web before the conference session.

The academic and social networking and the conference dinner are always a highlight of the conference. This year the dinner was at the Royal New Zealand Yacht club, with members posing for their photo beside the America’s Cup. Other functions included the welcome Hangi, the WebMCQ cocktail party, with harbour cruise provided as an alternative function to the Conference Dinner.