Speakers
Diana G. Oblinger, Ph.D.
Diana Oblinger is the president and CEO of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education through the use of information technology. The current membership comprises over 2,200 colleges, universities, and education organizations, including 200 corporations. Previously, Oblinger served as EDUCAUSE vice president responsible for the association?s teaching and learning activities and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Adult and Higher Education at North Carolina State University.
Prior to joining EDUCAUSE, Oblinger held positions in academia and business: Vice President for Information Resources and the Chief Information Officer for the 17-campus University of North Carolina system, Executive Director of Higher Education for Microsoft, and IBM Director of the Institute for Academic Technology. She was on the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia and at Michigan State University and an associate dean at the University of Missouri.
Oblinger serves on a variety of boards including the National Science Foundation?s Advisory Committee on Cyberinfrastructure and chairs the National Visiting Committee for NSF's National Science Digital Library project. Dr. Oblinger has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Employment, Safety, and Training and the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Technology.
A frequent keynote speaker, Oblinger is also the co-author the award winning What Business Wants from Higher Education. She is co-editor of seven books: The Learning Revolution, The Future Compatible Campus, Renewing Administration, E is for Everything, Best Practices in Student Services, Educating the Net Generation, and Learning Spaces. She is the author or co-author of dozens of monographs and articles on higher education and technology.
Dr. Oblinger has received several awards for teaching, research and distinguished service. She holds three degrees from Iowa State University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Xi.
Leonard (Leo) Plugge
Leonard (Leo) Plugge received his Masters degree in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Utrecht in 1986. He was the first master student Psychology in Utrecht who specialized in machine learning. In 1992 he received his PhD from the Medical Faculty at University Maastricht for his thesis on computer aided medical diagnosis of Alzheimer and other forms of dementia.
From 1993 Leonard worked at the dept. of Computer Science as associate professor where he did research on knowledge management and the use of the Internet. Among others, he introduced in 1993 the Internet as a private network (Intranet) for the Dutch police forces and as cross border extranet for communication with the police forces in Germany, Belgium and France. In 1999 Leonard was appointed as researcher and later manager at the Learning Lab of the Maastricht McLuhan Institute.
In 2001 he was installed as Executive Secretary of the Scientific Technical Council (WTR) of Stichting SURF. The WTR is an independent advisory council for the Board of Stichting SURF and all higher education institutions in The Netherlands. Additionally Leonard is Executive Secretary of the Board of GigaPort NG, which deploys a highly innovative hybrid research network infrastructure for The Netherlands. This networks plays a central role in the data processing of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. More information about Leonard is available at www.plugge.org.
Dr Michelle Selinger
Dr Michelle Selinger is a director in the education arena of the Global Public Sector practice of the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) with a focus on the Asia Pacific region. In her work with the IBSG, Michelle's focus is primarily on education transformation in all areas of formal education. Prior to joining IBSG, Michelle was the education strategist for Cisco's social investments in education, including the World Economic Forum's Global Education Initiative. She also has experience in working with governments on developing their strategies for education reform through technology.
Michelle was the director of the Centre for New Technologies Research in Education at the University of Warwick, UK, a research and multimedia centre dedicated to research and development in ICT. She has the fairly unique experience of having worked in traditional, distance, and online education in all sectors from primary schools to universities, as well as vocational education and training, across many countries. Michelle was a member of the second chamber of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan Advisory Group, which informed the European Union i2010 initiative, and she sits on steering committees for various ICT and education initiatives.
