Julie Lindsay, PhD
Senior Education Technology Advisor at the University of Southern Queensland
Global Educator, Innovator, Teacherpreneur and Author
Director of Learning Confluence, Founder and CEO of Flat Connections
Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Innovator
Julie is a global collaboration consultant, innovator, teacherpreneur and author. She has a 30+ years career in K-12 schools and higher education.
She worked in international schools for fifteen years across Asia, Africa and the Middle East as an educational technology leader. Her passion is for online global collaboration and as Founder and CEO of Flat Connections, she designs and manages award-winning online projects for all K-12 levels and customizes learning experiences for educators including virtual courses and live events. She has presented keynotes and workshops in conferences around the world and designed and implemented unique conferences that bring learners of all ages together for challenge-based problem-solving.
Julie is the Senior Education Technology Advisor at the University of Southern Queensland, Office for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching. Prior to taking on this position at USQ, she worked at Charles Sturt University designing and teaching courses in the School of Information Studies, Master of Education (Knowledge Networks and Digital Innovation) degree. In the Charles Sturt u!magine Innovation Unit, Julie was Quality Learning and Teaching Academic Lead for the Faculty of Arts and Education where she supported subject development with Online Learning Model integration. She was the Open Pathways Design Lead, where she designed and facilitated open learning courses.
Julie has a Master of Arts in Music (La Trobe), and a Master of Arts in Educational Technology Leadership (George Washington). She is an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Innovator; former President and founder of the ISTE Global Collaboration PLN; a former ISTE International Representative on the Board of Directors; and a member of the Horizon Report Advisory Board since 2008. She is also a recipient of the ISTE ‘Making IT Happen’ Award (2013), and was awarded the ISTE Online Learning Award (2007) for the Flat Classroom Project.
Julie is the author of two books: ‘Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time’, and ‘The Global Educator: Leveraging Technology for Collaborative Learning and Teaching’. Julie completed a PhD at the University of Southern Queensland in 2019 with a research focus on online global collaborative educators and pedagogical change.
Based in Australia Julie currently lives in the regional city of Toowoomba. Her interests include dabbling in her ongoing passion as a jazz pianist and taking long walks.
Find Julie Online:
Learning Confluence
Learning Confluence is the name of Julie’s consultancy company through which she travels to many parts of the world as a presenter, workshop leader and global collaboration consultant. Julie specializes in developing customized learning experiences, both online and face-to-face, for educators and students globally.
Learning Confluence refers to a ‘place where things merge or flow together’ and a ‘coming together of people’ with the purpose of improving personal and institutional learning outcomes. Learning cannot be in isolation, it also needs to be innovative, sustainable and pluralistic.
Learning Confluence is about:
- Choices: Providing opportunities for inclusion into learning as the norm rather than the exception. Not to exclude learners because of misconceptions about the value of technology to support the confluence. Participation levels and self-appointed modes of immersion.
- Conversation: Local and global interactions and discussions that have meaning and relevance to learners individually and groups.
- Community: The socialisation of learning demands a community approach. It is through community establishments and with the community that individual learners can share knowledge for the benefit of all. A global synthesis of ideas is possible. This does not discount the power of the individual, however construction of new ideas and objectives is enhanced based on community learning.
- Creativity: Being creative and creating new paradigms for learning, thinking outside of the box, ignoring the box altogether.
Dan Pink talks about the transition form the Information Age to the Conceptual age where the main characters are the creator and the empathizer.
A learning confluence supports creativity and building bridges from knowledge acquisition to creating new experiences for learning.
