SPEAKERS

BAL, Alex
BARDINI, Thierry
CHATONSKY, Grégory
CONESA, Jean-Claude
COTE, Mario
CZEGLEDY, Nina
DANIELS, Steve
DUBOIS, Jean
ELDER, R. Bruce
EPOQUE, Martine
FISCHER, Hervé
FLEISCHER, Alain
GARDNER, Paula
JOOSSE, Angela
LaBELLE, Guillaume
LANGILL, Caroline
MATHIEU, Marie-Christine
NOLAN, Jason
OUELLET, Pierre
PALMIERI, Christine
PAPON, Frédéric
POISSANT, Louise
POULIN, Denis
PRUSKA-OLDENHOF, Izabella
RODIONOFF, Anolga
SLOPEK, Edward
SNYDER, Don
TREMBLAY, Pierre
VAN ALSTYNE, Greg

Greg Van Alstyne
Ontario College of Art & Design, Faculty of Design, Associate Professor, Senior Research Associate, Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity

- Conference Video

Greg Van Alstyne is Associate Professor at the Ontario College of Art & Design, and Senior Research Associate at the Beal Institute in Toronto. His latest research seeks to understand causes and effects of innovation by investigating the relationship between design and emergence in complex systems. Prior to his OCAD appointment, Greg oversaw the conception, design and production of the Massive Change project as the inaugural Director of the Institute without Boundaries; and was formerly the founding head of the Department of New Media at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

"Having My Cake and Eating it Too: Distance Learning and the Kindness of Colleagues"
I recently entered a unique project with Polytechnic University in Brooklyn and the Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity in Toronto. In this brief talk I will recount the emotional and pedagogical triumphs and tribulations of an ad hoc but transformative, techno-social, distance-learning mashup in which my McLuhan-esque telepresence joins a seminar room full of engineering grad students at the Integrated Digital Media Institute (IDMI) at Poly. As the real challenges arise, from the limits of commodity technologies to the psychology of ability and entitlement, we see the power of cooperation, kindness, ingenuity and collegiality begin to overcome virtually every obstacle.