Tech Tonic continues until 3 today; Voll speaks at 2

The landscape of education has changed dramatically in the past few years, and the emergence of mobile technology and cloud-based services has forever changed the way we interact with our worlds.

The dramatic growth of mobile systems and services has also powered a renaissance in some existing technologies such as video, photography and other forms of media opening up new opportunities for their dissemination and consumption. How has the confluence of these technologies changed the educational landscape, and how do you make sure you’re not left holding the rotary phone?

The 2013 Tech Tonic: Life in the Cloud event, which takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, April 11, in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room, will showcase cloud-related tools and projects generated by the students and staff of Western Washington University, the academic uses of video, gaming and new media and the partnerships that develop between the Western community and the providers of technological goods and services.

There will live demonstrations of cloud-based tools and services that you can use to expand your educational experience or broaden the scope of class or workshop. Adobe Systems will be on hand demonstrating their new Adobe Creative Cloud, and Western staff will walk you through he various services and support the university offers to students, staff and faculty.

From 10:30 to 12:45, WWU faculty and staff will lead 15-minute demonstrations on myriad cloud services, from Dropbox to Google Chrome to SkyDrive to Wordpress to Jux.

At 2 p.m., Kimberly Voll, a faculty member at Vancouver, B.C.’s Centre for Digital Media, will discuss the confluence of Gaming and Higher Education.

Voll has earned a doctorate in Computer Science and an honours degree in Cognitive Science. She spent six years as a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, and has taught everything from software engineering to video-game development to health informatics.

Her areas of specialization include artificial intelligence and language modeling, user experience, game design, software engineering, and innovative educational methods and curriculum design. Passionate about video games since the age of two, Voll runs the Vancouver chapter of the Global Game Jam (one of the largest chapters in the world), helps coordinate FullIndie (a meetup for Vancouver independent game developers), and is a huge supporter of the Vancouver video-game community and beyond. Whenever possible, she does volunteer consulting for new startups or small companies, including crowdsourced funding strategies and design/development strategies for games and apps.

At 2 p.m., Kimberly Voll, a faculty member at Vancouver, B.C.’s Centre for Digital Media, will discuss the confluence of Gaming and Higher Education at Tech Tonic. Voll has earned a doctorate in Computer Science and an honours degree in Cognitive Science.