Mining Education/ Lifelong Learning

So what else happened at this conference?  Cna't have all been about IT.

One of the projections to come out of the 2011 Future Mining Conference in Sydney is a significant increase in demand for IT personnel with a mining background ... driven by a dramatic increase in automation and control systems in mining.

How do we continue to improve the accessibility of continuing education and training? Online courses, interactive webcasts and programs like the Certificate in Mining Studies have provided a platform we can build on ...

This link will take you to the Mining Education and Lifelong Learning Continous Conference landing page.

We are concerned with dialogue, discovery and innovation in continuing education and training in mining.

The mining industry imposes its own unique conditions on continuing education and training. With a few exceptions, such as the financial and consulting sectors, the mining community is geographically dispersed and sparsely distributed, frequently in remote regions and across multiple time zones. Travel budgets are restricted. Internet connections are not always the best. Mining is entering a crisis brought on by greying of the industry and mass-retirement of baby-boomers and is looking to other industries and disciplines to fill the gaps, resulting in increasing demands for cost-effective training.

The last 10 years has seen the addition of online courses and live webcasts to the conventional options of face-to-face short courses and training sessions. These have dramatically improved the accessibility and flexibility of continuing education and training to the global mining community. However, these improvements have, up to now, generally been at the expense of the quality of the learning experience. Hopefully, the enabling technologies will continue to evolve and one day the learning experience delivered by a webcast may be a lot closer to that of a classroom.

To start with, we provide a platform for ongoing dialogue, discovery and innovation with respect to the following issues.

• How do we continue to improve the accessibility of continuing education and training?
• How can we enhance the learning experience delivered by online courses and webcasts?
• How can we make it easier for educators to prepare and present their learning materials?
• How can we present continuing education and training in ways that make it easier to integrate them into corporate training programs?
• How can we better integrate personal career development with corporate training objectives?

This is a non-exclusive list and you are invited to submit your own questions. You are also invited to present a viewpoint (controversy is welcome), pose a question, provide comment, and post supporting materials such as notes, images, figures, examples, documents, papers and links to external references.

In particular, we are looking for contributions from those engaged in the delivery of continuing education and training to the global mining community.

To participate in the discussion, participants must be registered (or a subscriber) with InfoMine. It is free to register with InfoMine - please click here to create your user profile.

Once you have registered, please send your User Name to the Conference Secretary, who will provide conference access.

When you start participating in the dialogue, we encourage you to provide a short introduction indicating you experience in the specific field of interest.

Participants of the discussion agree to abide by the Conference Code of Conduct.

Online Conferences are moderated forums designed to stimulate exchange of technical information for distinct communities in the mining industry. Each conference has a Chair, Vice Chair and Coordinator. It is the role of the conference Chair, Vice Chair and Coordinator to act as moderators and manage the discussion, ensuring that posts are kept on topic.

1. The conferences are intended for professionals within the mining industry. The discussion and papers should be high quality and informative, such that everyone can benefit from their participation. All participants must demonstrate mutual respect at all times.
2. Participants will not post anything abusive, rude, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented. Material that suggests illegal activity or contains illegal content is also forbidden. Such posts will be removed.
3. The Conferences are intended to be unbiased and we welcome different perspectives on the technical topics under discussion. Participants will not post anything blatantly self-promotional or conduct any advertising of products or services supplied by the participant. Such posts will be removed.
4. All posts express the views and opinions of the poster and not the administrators, moderators, webmaster or InfoMine. Please see the InfoMine Disclaimer for further details.
5. If you believe that this Code of Conduct has been violated, contact the appropriate conference Chair, Vice Chair or Coordinator.
6. Violating posts will be removed and held in a preserved area as potential evidence. If you believe an error has been made in moderation or violation enforcement, please email the Coordinator and explain your perspective.
7. Routine violators may have their account closed or IP address banned temporarily or permanently.