OLC Innovate 2019 - Program Welcome

To move mountains, you need a team. This year OLC Innovate will take place in the shadow of the Colorado Rockies, where we’ll be inspired by the view every day on our way to engaging with friends and colleagues from around the world. Whether you are new to OLC Innovate, or consider yourself a seasoned pro, your mountain-moving team awaits!

After three wonderful years in New Orleans and Nashville, we’re taking the conference out west to Denver, Colorado. Over the last ten years, the Mile High City has grown into a technological hub by attracting industrial titans and supporting a thriving startup community. The Colorado Education Initiative and Colorado STEM are training educators statewide to improve technology use in K-12. In higher education, Denver draws in graduates from the University of Colorado and Colorado State University systems, along with the Air Force Academy, eleven community colleges, and more than 100 private schools. We can’t wait to join this avalanche of technologists and educators as we gather in the brand new Gaylord Rockies Resort for OLC Innovate 19.

This year, we want to showcase innovation, and also help start conversations to enable you to expand your team. Last year, we introduced a presentation format called ‘Conversations, Not Presentations’ built around the idea that everyone in the room could contribute to our understanding of key conference themes. Feedback on this format was very positive, and this year we want to ensure that the room is welcoming to everyone. You’ll notice that each conference track includes space for discussion on diversity and inclusion. We have also expanded the track themes to include discussions of open pedagogy, open resources, and experiential and life-long learning.  

Whatever your interests, we have track themes to match:

• Teaching and Learning Practice
• Open Learning
• Leadership and Advocacy
• Experiential and Life-Long Learning
• Processes, Problems, and Practices
• Effective Tools, Toys and Technologies
• Research: Designs, Methods and Findings.

Akin to creating welcoming track themes, we also made space for a variety of presentation types to encourage participation from everyone. One of the newest session types is ‘Educate and Reflect’, which came out of feedback from OLC Innovate 2018 participants wanting time to reflect on what they are learning, and consider how to apply it to their own institutions. To this end, these sessions will feature a 30 minute presentation, followed by 5 minutes of individual reflection, and then culminate in 10 minutes of full group discussion and Q&A. The full list of session types includes:

• Educate and Reflect
• Conversations, Not Presentations
• Emerging Ideas
• Workshops
• Innovation Labs
• Career Forum Roundtables

Welcome to #OLCInnovate – we hope you have a great week!

– The OLC Innovate 2019 Program Team