Lifelong Learning Conference 2008

Patrick Danaher has participated in every international lifelong learning conference hosted by Central Queensland University since the first in the series in 2000 and sees them as a source of deep and growing scholarship in the lifelong learning field. Since March 2005 Patrick has been Associate Professor (Education Research) in the Faculty of Education at the Toowoomba campus of the University of Southern Queensland, Australia; for 14 years before then he worked in the Faculty of Education and the Division of Teaching Learning Services at CQU. He is the co-author of Teaching Traveller Children: Maximising Learning Outcomes (Trentham Books, 2007, in press) and the (co-)editor of Doctrina Perpetua: Brokering Change, Promoting Innovation and Transforming Marginalisation in University Learning and Teaching (Post Pressed, 2006), Strategic Uncertainties: Ethics, Politics and Risk in Contemporary Educational Research (Post Pressed, 2004) and Beyond the Ferris Wheel: Educating Queensland Show Children (Central Queensland University Press, 1998). His research interests include the education of mobile communities; educational research ethics, methods and politics; educators' work and identities; rural education; social education; university learning and teaching; and vocational education and training.

Between 1975 and 2000 Dr Lockwood worked within the Open University (OU) Institute of Educational Technology. During this period he was an Educational Technologist working with OU Course teams and Chairing Teams. During the period he was also Head of the Teaching and Consultancy Centre, Head, Professional Development in Educational Technology programme (PDET) and Deputy Director.

In January 2000 Fred was appointed Head: Learning + Teaching Unit, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and Professor of Learning and Teaching. Fred was part of the senior management team within Academic Division and responsible for the realisation of the MMU Learning and Teaching Strategy. In February 2006 Fred was appointed Emeritus Professor in Learning and Teaching.

His research interests are broad; they range from psychometric to illuminative studies as reflected in personal and institutional research. They span all phases of course development - from conception and planning and from production and presentation to evaluation.

Fred has been appointed Visiting Professor, Lecturer, Expert and Educator to over 20 international institutions of higher education. He has undertaken over 30 national and international consultancies. In 2006 he was a Visiting Scholar to the Auckland University of Technology and the University of the South Pacific. He undertook consultancies on behalf of the Open University of Malaysia, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Open University of the Philippines and University of Papua New Guinea.

In 2007 he was a Visiting Scholar to the University of Wisconsin, USA, and will be a Visiting Scholar at Monash University, Australia. In the last twenty years Fred has been invited to be keynote speaker at 26 national and international conferences as well being invited to conduct 19 pre or post conference workshops.

Fred is Series Editor of the Routledge Open and Flexible Learning Series. In 2007 he expects - the fiftieth book in the Series will have been published; the Series is the largest of its kind in the world. Fred has recently been appointed Series Editor of the new Commonwealth of Learning eResource Series. In the period July – December 2007 Fred was Interim President of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia. He provides professional advice in the field of open and distance learning to grant awarding bodies and conference organisers. He sits on the Editorial Boards of ten journals.

Dr. Lana W. Jackman, principal of Mélange Information Services, Inc., received her undergraduate degree in political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.  After several years at Simmons College as the Assistant Director of Student Financial Aid, Dr. Jackman continued her studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, receiving a master’s degree in education and social policy.  Dr. Jackman completed her PhD studies in 1999 at Lesley University in the educational studies program.  Her doctoral research focused on the impact of information literacy skill development on the New Majority student attending urban public universities. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University’s Graduate School of Education.  Dr. Jackman has spent the last 30 years of her professional career in a variety of higher education administrative positions, fostering information literacy awareness at every opportunity. 

Throughout her professional years as a higher education administrator, Dr. Jackman has provided consultative services to a diverse population of non-profit organizations addressing a range of issues including program/staff development, cultural competence, program evaluation, and workforce/knowledge management strategies.  Dr. Jackman’s extensive managerial skills, her information literacy curriculum development practices, and her experience working with and training adult learners provide the management expertise needed to assist diverse organizations with their staff/organizational development needs.

Mélange Information Services, Inc. was awarded a National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research grant in August, 2004 to conduct a feasibility study on developing an ICT diabetes self management tool for low income T2DM populations.  One of the major findings of this study was the relationship between low health literacy and the impact of fear on the patient’s ability to respond to prescribed self care management practices. 

In addition to co-authoring several articles on information literacy, Dr. Jackman is currently co-chair of the National Forum on Information Literacy. Having participated in the first invitational information literacy experts’ forum in Prague in 2003, Dr. Jackman is a strong advocate for the inclusion of information literacy practices and principles throughout our entire teaching and learning infrastructure including the broad range of professions and occupations with the workforce development arena.  In October 2006, Dr. Jackman was appointed chair of the National ICT literacy Policy Council, a blue ribbon panel of educational and workforce development experts charged with providing leadership in the creation of national standards for ICT Literacy in the U.S.

Dr Hamish Coates was appointed in February 2006 to lead ACER's research on higher education. His track record includes a large number of projects which have influenced educational research, policy and practice.

Dr Coates joined ACER from his position of Senior Research Officer at Graduate Careers Australia (GCA). At GCA, he designed, managed and conducted a major national project to enhance Australia's annual graduate census - the most complex and significant survey in Australian higher education.

Prior to joining GCA, Dr Coates worked for five years as a Research Fellow on numerous projects at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) and the Assessment Research Centre (ARC) at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Coates has taught statistics, psychology and research methods for seven years at the University of Melbourne. He has extensive experience working with students across all levels, and for four years was a Resident Tutor at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne. He has worked as a World Bank consultant conducting training for the Pakistan National Education Assessment System. Dr Coates teaches the subject Large-scale Survey Research as part of the Masters of Assessment and Evaluation at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Coates' research publications focus on the definition, measurement and evaluation of educational processes, contexts and outcomes. Active interests include student learning and engagement, higher education policy, large-scale educational evaluation, university pedagogy, online and distributed education, quality assurance systems, and assessment methodology.

He completed his PhD in 2004 at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne. His dissertation Student Engagement in Campus-based and Online Education: University connections was published by Routledge in 2005.