Speaker: Thomas Dodson

Thomas Dodson coordinates the activities of Harvard University's Office for Scholarly Communication. He holds a degree in library science from Kent State University and a Masters in Comparative Cultural Studies from The Ohio State University. He is the founding editor of the arts & letters journal Printer’s Devil Review and the executive editor of Best Indie Lit New England. He blogs about technology and design at techneblog.com.

Speaker: Patrick Florance

Patrick Florance is the Manager of Geospatial Technology Services at Tufts University and Lecturer in geospatial science at the Fletcher School of International Law & Diplomacy. At Tufts, Patrick teaches GIS, manages university-wide support for all geospatial resources and projects. He is the project manager of The Open Geoportal, a collaboratively developed, open source, federated web application to rapidly discover, preview, and retrieve geospatial data from multiple repositories. Patrick has worked for several years in geospatial applications within environmental, humanitarian and international health capacities. Previously Patrick was the Digital Cartographer at Harvard University. He has worked in a variety of public, private, and academic environments, including New York City Planning.

Speaker: Chad Galts

Chad Galts is the Communications Director for the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Last spring, he helped launch MIT+K12, a program in which MIT students make short videos for kids about engineering and science. A collaboration with Khan Academy, the project arose from a simple question: What can MIT do -- right now -- to improve K12 science, technology, engineering, and math education in the U.S.? MIT's students are really good at math and science, they're funny, they can tell stories, and they happen to have access to some of the most sophisticated laboratory and experimental facilities in the world. Through MIT+K12, our students have produced nearly 100 short videos on topics ranging from flying robots, to the early development of common vegetables, to the physics of unicyling, to polymerase chain reactions, to welding and glassblowing. Our students have brought their distinctive styles, talents, and personalities to this medium and created content that inspires as much as it educates.

Speaker: Alan Girelli

Alan Girelli earned his PhD in Composition and Rhetoric from UMass Amherst. His research areas include synchronous communications, learning analytics, and the development of learning communities through electronic networks. He began teaching collaboration on LANS at Emerson College in 1986, and pioneered use of ASPECTS in writing courses at Brandeis University in 1991. In 1997 at UMass Boston as Program Coordinator for the MultiSite Education program (MUSE™) Girelli implemented the use of NetMeeting, Timbuktu, , CUSeeMe, and course websites in conjunction with satellite and cable television course delivery, prior to the advent of learning management systems and online education.

During the 2013 NERCOMP Annual Conference held March 11 – 13 in Providence, Rhode Island, Girelli led presentation sessions titled “Assessing Institutional Resources For A Learning Analytics Agenda,” “International Collaboration and Cultural Exchange in a 3-Nation Marketing Course,” and “What the MOOC Have We Done? – A UMass Boston Development Team Shares Design Perspectives From Two Massive Open Online Projects.” Each described a project of applied research emanating from the UMass Boston Center for Innovation and Excellence in eLearning (CIEE) which Girelli directs. He is an active member of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), which operates in partnership with the CIEE. 


Speaker: P.D. Magnus

P.D. Magnus received his PhD from UC San Diego and presently teaches at SUNY Albany. His primary research is in the philosophy of science, motivated by a fallibilist but non-sceptical conception of scientific knowledge. Much of his work has addressed underdetermination and natural kinds. He is the author of dozens of articles, coeditor of New Waves in Philosophy of Science (2010), and author of Scientific Enquiry and Natural Kinds: From Planets to Mallards (2012). In 2005, he released a formal logic textbook under a Creative Commons license. The textbook, forall x, has been downloaded over 100,000 times and used by instructors around the world as a course text and also by individuals. Because of the open license, the textbook has also been revised and adapted. For example: Parts of forall x were incorporated into Proofs and Concepts, an abstract math textbook. And a modified Cambridge Edition was adopted as the required text for new philosophy students at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge.

Speaker: Eileen McMahon

Eileen McMahon has just joined MIT as a Mgr. of Digital Learning Development. Previously she was a Sr. Instructional Designer/Project Manager at UMass Boston and an independent producer/designer/researcher for film, television, videogames, interactive special effects, e-books. Her areas of interests include innovative pedagogies, open educational resources, free culture, and mind/brain research. Eileen earned her B.A. From Bennington College and her Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she concentrated in technology innovation and education.

Speaker: Brandon Muramatsu

Brandon Muramatsu has been involved in the development of learning technologies to support open education/opencourseware, teaching and learning, online learning, educational digital libraries and engineering education since 1993. He designs web applications and tools for educators and learners to develop/author, use, reuse and share digital learning resources. He works with faculty to implement learning technologies in their classes and with their students. His work also focuses on the potential of open education to improve teaching and learning worldwide. And he organizes conferences and events to bring together educators in open education / opencourseware, and in learning technologies. He works at the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology at MIT, and consults on open education and learning technologies. Brandon Muramatsu earned his B.S. (1993) and M.S. (1995) in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Speaker: Robbin Smith

Robbin Smith has been the OpenCourseWare (OCW) Editor/Curricular Content Specialist for Tufts University OCW since its inception in 2005. Tufts OCW provides free and open Web access to primary teaching materials of designated Tufts courses (with an emphasis on the health sciences) to the global community. It has received nearly 4 million visits. Robbin acts as liaison with faculty and manages the project from A to Z. She is the point person for all incoming OCW correspondence via the website and email, prepares reports and newsletters, and represents Tufts at various conferences and workshops. She is a member and past co-chair of the Tufts Scholarly Communication Team. Previously, Robbin has worked in diverse libraries: public, large private law firm, and academic. Robbin received her B.A. from Boston University graduating with Distinction in English Language and Literature and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College, Boston. For many years she was a volunteer at the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library, cataloging library holdings and working on special projects.


Speaker: Jolee West

Jolee is the Director of Academic Computing Services and Digital Library Projects at Wesleyan University where she and her staff work with faculty to explore and implement best practices in digital scholarship, teaching and learning and with campus administration to create spaces and services that provide a sustainable foundation for those activities. Her group researches new technologies, apps, and services, and designs, builds and supports the campus’s many technology-rich classrooms and labs and provides webcasting, videography and special events AV services. Jolee oversees Wesleyan’s Coursera MOOC development and support, including supervision of the Coursera Intern Program. She formerly served as the Academic Computing Manager for Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Wesleyan, and prior to that as Assistant Director of the Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments (SCALE), at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Jolee holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Illinois, with a specialty in palaeoanthropology. She maintains a connection to her academic interests and the vocation of teaching through an occasional turn as lecturer in Wesleyan's Graduate Liberal Studies program.