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Breakfast Speakers
(Registration required - includes hot breakfast with the below keynote speakers)
Anytime Anywhere Learning in an Age of 1-to-1
Wednesday, 7:15 – 8:30 am
Bruce DixonBruce Dixon, a world leader in the educational leadership field, will address leadership qualities and styles conducive to starting and sustaining 1-to-1 initiatives. After careers as teacher, principal, educational software developer, college lecturer, Dixon co-founded what became the largest educational technology services company in the Southern Hemisphere, which oversaw the development of 1 to 1 programs across Australia and New Zealand. In the mid 90’s he took the concept to North America, Canada and the UK, with the Anytime Anywhere Learning initiative, before establishing a learning, technology and strategy consultancy. He also co-founded the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation which supports 1-to-1 leadership. This session will present some of the known realities that 1-to-1 visionaries must address and will provide a thoughtful, engaging approach to translate 1-to-1 vision into reality at the leadership level.
 Bruce Dixon Interview
Using Data to Improve Student Achievement
Wednesday, 7:15 – 8:30 am
Joe KitchensJoe Kitchens is Superintendent of Western Heights School District in Oklahoma. The Total Information Management initiative designed for use in Western Heights Schools allows district staff to create all state and federal (NCLB) reports in the appropriate format, while giving staff members, including teachers, the opportunity to create multiple views of student assessment information that supports informed teaching and learning on a real-time basis. Due to the unique manner in which data is created, stored and used district stake holders, including parents, are able to have real-time access for student data regarding trends in student academic growth over time. These processes clearly point the way for the development of a multiple criteria growth model as a viable way to measure Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
Joe Kitchens Interview
A Web of Connections: Why the Read/Write Web Changes Everything
Wednesday, 7:15 – 8:30 am
Will Richardson
Will Richardson is author of the Weblogg-ed blog and Learner in chief at Connective Learning. Having the world of information at our fingertips on the Web was in itself a powerful transformation, but being able to contribute our own knowledge and ideas and collaborate in the construction of content is even more powerful. What needs to change about our curriculum when our students have the ability to reach audiences far beyond our classroom walls? What changes must we make in our teaching as it becomes easier to bring primary sources to our students? How do we need to rethink our ideas of literacy when we must prepare our students to become not only readers and writers but editors and collaborators as well? How do we best put to use the reams and reams of "digital paper" that this new "writeable" Web provides?
Will Richardson Interview
Using Technology to Educate for a Creative Class
Thursday, 7:15 – 8:30 am
Brenda DyckBrenda Dyck is a sessional instructor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. In A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, author Daniel Pink writes that the future belongs to a very different kind of person with a different kind of mind and that the Information Age is ushering in a new world where inventiveness and creative capital will lead the way. The role of educators in the next decade will be to foster the development of this creative edge in their students and within themselves. A recent report from the National Center on Education and the Economy, revealed our need to transition to a different kind of education system, one that prepares students to be comfortable with ideas and abstractions as well as a number of 21st century skills that are poorly addressed in our current education system. Today's teachers will need to move beyond basic knowledge delivery and a preoccupation with numbers to the creation of classrooms where inventive, empathetic, big picture capacities are developed among its students. Using technology as a mindtool may well be one of the most powerful ways educator's can prepare today’s' middle school student for this thinking shift and for the delivery of a program of studies that stretches our twentieth century take on learning and teaching. What kind of changes are needed in order to prepare students and teachers to be the problem-solvers and innovators of the future and what's at stake if we don't?
Brenda Dyck Interview - Visit her blog to learn more.
Emerging Technologies and 21st Century Skills
Thursday, 7:15 – 8:30 am
Jim BrazellJim Brazell is Consulting Analyst for Digital Media Collaboratory, University of Texas, Austin. According to the US National Council on Competitiveness, the number of jobs requiring technical training is growing at five times the rate of other occupations. At the same time that the demand for technical skills is increasing, demand for people who can integrate technical skills from multiple technical fields is increasing. As technology becomes increasingly integrated, work becomes integrated. Integrators are people who: operate across functional boundaries; can problem solve unstructured problems; think in terms of abstraction and concrete terms; collaborate in multidisciplinary teams; adapt quickly to changing condition; learn and teach; apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate.
How are our schools preparing students for all levels of work that will require integrated systems knowledge? How can we raise the bar and increase the relevance of advanced academics for millennial learners? How do we integrate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) with the arts and general academics to create the capacity for innovation?
Jim Brazell Interview
Open Source: The Path to Ubiquitous Computing
Thursday, 7:15 – 8:30 am
David ThornburgDavid Thornburg is Founder and Director of Global Operations for the Thornburg Center. With a current US student/computer ratio of 4:1, we are only 25% of our way toward a goal of having every child gain access to a computer for educational purposes. Software licensing costs remain high, even as the cost of hardware drops, making free open source software (FOSS) a desirable opportunity, so long as it provides at least the quality of commercial programs. Linux is the fastest growing operating system on the desktop for a reason: It is reliable and remarkably efficient. It is also free. Many Linux-based applications suitable for education are also world-class and free. In some cases, these programs perform tasks left undone by commercial titles. This session examines the current state of FOSS in US schools, and sets the stage for a conversation on this topic among the participants.
David Thornburg Interview
Our Children are Not the Students Our Schools Were Designed For: Understanding Digital Kids
Friday, 7:30 – 8:45 am
Ian JukesThis keynote examines the effect digital bombardment from constant exposure to digital media has on digital kids in the new digital landscape and considers the profound implications this holds for the future of education. What does the latest neuroscientific and psychological research tell us about the role of intense and frequent experiences on the brain, particularly the young and impressionable brain? Based on the research, what inferences can we make about kids' digital experiences and how these experiences are re-wiring and re-shaping their cognitive processes? More importantly, what are the implications for teaching, learning and assessment in the new digital landscape? How can we reconcile these new developments with current instructional practices particularly in a climate of standards and accountability driven by high stakes testing for all? What strategies can we use to appeal to the learning preferences and communication needs of digital learners while at the same time honoring our traditional assumptions and practices related to teaching, learning and assessment? Participants should prepare to have their assumptions about children and how they learn seriously challenged.
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