From the Campus to the Country - Technology Learning Forum

From the Campus to Country, is a learning forum for UPEI staff and faculty and other interested educational providers. UPEI is building a technology platform toward a comprehensive distance learning strategy that will enhance access and availability to learning across Prince Edward Island and to UPEI students across Canada and the world. Two leading Canadian speakers will provide an overview of the future trends in technology solutions in learning. With extensive personal experience in the development and implementation of education through technology, we can be assured of an interesting and educational afternoon. George Siemens is Founder and President of Complexive Systems Inc, a research lab assisting organizations develop integrated learning structures for global strategy execution. He is the author of Knowing Knowledge, an exploration of how the context and characteristics of knowledge have changed, and what it means to organizations today. Formerly the Associate Director of Research and Development with the Learning and Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba, George is currently affiliated with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University. Alec Couros is Assistant Professor and ICT Co-ordinator for the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina. He holds a Ph.D.in Education (Curriculum) from the University of Regina and a Masters of Education (Curriculum)- Educational Communications & Technology from the College of Education, University of Saskatchewan. For over a decade, Alec has been responsible for technology planning, service and professional development in the Faculty of Education at Regina. Alec has also worked for the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies and the Kilburn Hall Youth Centre both in Saskatoon , as well as a sessional lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan. His research has included work on the Open Source Movement, the First Nations’ SchoolNet Pilot Project and the Saskatchewan Virtual Campus. There will be opportunities for Questions & Answers with both speakers. A wine and cheese reception will be held in Schurman Market Square, McDougall Hall from 5 to 7 pm, immediately following the speeches. Please RSVP to Megan MacLean at megmaclean@upei.ca or 620-5105

University Review Committe Information Session

UNIVERSITY REVIEW COMMITTEE (URC) INFORMATION SESSION - Friday, May 21st at 1:00. Rosemary Herbert, Acting Vice-President Academic Development and Chair of the University Review Committee is hosting an information session on Friday, May 21st at 1:00 in classroom 220 in the Main Building. This session will provide faculty members with information on the University Review Committee and an opportunity for discussion to help you plan for tenure and promotion. A panel of past and present URC members will be present to speak about their experience on this Committee and to offer suggestions and feedback. Also, Shannon Murray will present highlights from her Teaching Dossier Workshop. All faculty, Department Chairs and members of Department Review Committees are encouraged to attend. Please confirm your attendance with Virginia Wickstrom at vwickstrom@upei.ca or 894-2855.

“Seeing Connections: Environmental History and Visual Culture”

Island Studies Public lecture as part of the 'Time and a Place, Environmental History of PEI conference' Speaker Dr. Finis Dunaway “Seeing Connections: Environmental History and Visual Culture” Why do images matter to environmental history? This lecture will draw on a wide array of visual texts—including landscape paintings, photographs, mass media, and contemporary art—to examine crucial methodological issues that arise at the intersection of environmental history and visual culture. I will explain how images can enrich our understanding of major problems in the field, from shifting cultural perceptions of the natural world to material changes in the environment and the emergence of various forms of environmental politics. Although most of my examples will be taken from U.S. history, I will discuss and attempt to model interpretive strategies applicable to diverse settings and contexts. Biography Finis Dunaway is Associate Professor of History at Trent University, where he teaches courses in modern United States history, visual culture, and environmental studies. He is the author of Natural Visions: The Power of Images in American Environmental Reform (2005) and of articles in American Quarterly, Environmental History, Raritan, and other journals. He is writing a book tentatively titled From the Atomic Bomb to Global Warming: The Environmental Crisis in American Visual Culture.

Dr. Donald Worster “North Americans in an Age of Limits”

Donald Worster will give a public presentation entitled “North Americans in an Age of Limits” as part of a week long series of public lectures sponsored by the Institute of Island Studies. Biography Donald Worster is professor of U.S. history, environmental studies, and director of the graduate program at the University of Kansas. His books include The Dust Bowl: An Agricultural and Social History, Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West; Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas; The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination; and A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell.

Dr. Graeme Wynn “Time, Place and Trees: Forest scenes and incidents in eastern North America”

Public Lecture sponsored by Institute of Island Studies as part of 'Time and a Place Conference, Environmental history of PEI Conference' Dr. Graeme Wynn “Time, Place and Trees: Forest scenes and incidents in eastern North America” Although George Perkins Marsh, sometimes called the “fountainhead” of the American conservation movement, made “The Woods” a major focus of his influential book Man and Nature, published in 1864, and Rachel Carson devoted a chapter of her landmark work Silent Spring (1962) to the environmental consequences of certain forestry practices in New Brunswick, there have been very few environmental histories of the forests that blanket much of Atlantic Canada. This presentation plunges into the forests of the Canadian Maritime provinces to sketch something of their changing form, extent, appraisal and importance through time. To provide a long view, while remaining sensitive to the diversity of this region, it focuses on trees in particular times and places (or, borrowing from the title of a nineteenth century book by Sir George Head) specific forest scenes and incidents, to argue for the signal importance of forests in the development of this area, as well as for the value of historical and geographical perspectives in the quest to understand human-environment interactions. Biography Through the four decades of his professional career, Graeme Wynn has sought to understand human transformations of the earth. When he embarked on this quest, research in this vein was seen as part of a venerable, albeit fading, geographical tradition; in recent years it has been given new impetus as "environmental history." The core of Wynn’s work has always been interdisciplinary, rooted in geography and history and engaged with the environmental sciences. Over time his early interests in eastern Canada broadened to encompass New Zealand and the rest of Canada. In each of these realms a fair part of his work has turned, in one way or another, on the histories and geographies of forest exploitation, conservation, preservation and management. Wynn’s academic writing has been directed, over the years, to both specialist scholars and the educated lay public (through such contributions as the extended chapter he was invited to write for The Illustrated History of Canada) in the conviction that it is important to communicate the fruits of academic research to an audience beyond the academy. His most recent book is Canada and Arctic North America: An Environmental History (2007). His research contributes to debate and discussion on, and understanding of, the development of European settlements overseas, the history of migration, the connections between environment and empire, and the developing field of environmental history.
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