8:00 – 8:45 a.m.
Learning in a Networked World: For Ourselves and For Our Students
Will Richardson, Author, Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere
If we have access and the skills to take advantage of it, the Web gives us an easy connection to the people and the resources that we need to learn whatever we want to learn, when we want to learn it. That fact challenges the fundamental beliefs that we’ve held about schools and teaching and learning for over 100 years. As our students graduate into a fast-changing, globally networked world, what assumptions do we need to reconsider about how to best prepare them for their futures? How can each one of us begin to change our own learning practice to better model these new opportunities for our students? And what new challenges do we have to overcome to make sure the idea of school remains relevant in the networked world in which our students will live?
12:30 – 1:15 p.m.
Differentiation For Real Life
Amy L. Carrier, Founder and CEO, Empowerment Through Education
The future of education and our students’ ability to thrive will be born from the understanding that we must know how to incorporate empowering curriculum, real-world experiential learning and community engagement – Differentiation for Real Life. It can and must be enabled and supported by strong, sustainable relationships with the business community, as well as with the engagement of key leaders, parents, students, and teachers. Together we have great potential for better supporting our students in getting them ready for the real world. So, how well prepared are you to support a student their readiness and success?
3:15 – 4:00 p.m.
Teaching Creatively: Building the Classrooms Our Students Deserve
Diana Laufenberg, TED Speaker, Lead Teacher and Managing Director, Inquiry Schools
In the age of information surplus, our schools hold immense potential for authentic and student-centered learning. We are teaching and learning in an educational landscape where the students no longer have to come to school to ‘get’ the information. Never have educators had such opportunities to think creatively about their practice. Never has it been so incumbent upon us to provide students with innovative and dynamic learning. This talk will provide practical classroom examples of activities and assessments as well as push audience thinking on what it means to teach and learn in modern schools that truly focus on student-centered education.