Biography

Dr. Avi Hyman, University of Toronto ------------------------------------------------ I am the University of Toronto's Director of Academic, Research & Collaborative (ARC)Technologies, and Institutional Strategist for Academic Technologies in the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (the University of Toronto's faculty development group). Beyond the University, I currently serve as a member of the IMS Global Higher Education Institutional Leadership Board (IMS Global is the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing edtech interoperability, innovation, and learning impact). I am an anthropologist with a doctoral degree from OISE. For the past couple of decades I have been fortunate to have positions which have allowed me to both think strategically about technology in higher education, and also have the opportunity to actualize ideas on an operational day-to-day level. Prior to taking on that kind of role for the University of Toronto as a whole, I served as director of academic technology for the Faculty of Medicine, and before that OISE. Functionally, I am responsible for providing strategic and tactical leadership in the development and implementation of information technology services that support the academic mission of Canada's largest university, and one of the top ten universities in the world. I am working with faculty, students, academic administrators, and teaching support and instructional technology units to advance the University's academic mission and in particular, its commitment to teaching. There is also a certain duality in my current position. I am working as part of the University of Toronto's Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation (CTSI), as well as part of the University of Toronto's CIO's Office, in the central university's Information and Technology Services (ITS) portfolio.