Archive for the ‘Speakers’ Category
garystager on October 27th, 2008
Registration is now open for the professional learning event of 2009!
Constructing Modern Knowledge 2009 offers a world-class faculty and supportive environment for educators interested in exploring the intersection of creativity, collaboration, computing and powerful ideas.
Where else can you spend four days tinkering, collaborating, talking and learning with educators from around the world, plus legendary educators, including the first public school educator to be named a Macarthur Genius, Deborah Meier and Herb Kohl, author of dozens of classic books about education
Learn more about CMK ‘09 at this site.
admin on October 14th, 2008
CMK08,CMK09,David Thornburg,Constructing Modern Knowledge,Educon 2.1,educon2.1,Gary Stager
Dr. David Thornburg, one of the world’s most popular and prominent innovators in educational technology will lead two workshops at the Educon 2.1 preconference event, Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge.
Dr. Thornburg’s latest project is the Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
David Thornburg joins a stellar faculty for this one-of-a-kind professional learning event. The other presenters are: Gary Stager, Ph.D, Brian Silverman, Carolyn Staudt and Ihor Charischak.
Early-bird registration discounts are now in effect.
garystager on September 3rd, 2008
math,science,S.T.E.M.,CMK08,Educon 2.1,Constructing Modern Knowledge
Save the date!
Educon 2.1 Preconference Event
I’m pleased to announce a one-of-a-kind educational event for January 22, 2009 at Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy. Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge is a minds-on institute for K-12 teachers, administrators and technology coordinators looking for practical and inspirational ways to use computers to enhance S.T.E.M. learning. Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge is a preconference event @ Educon 2.1
Our presenters represent high-tech pioneers and seasoned veterans at the forefront of innovation in math, science and computing.
- Brian Silverman has been involved in the invention of dozens of Logo versions (including LogoWriter & MicroWorlds), Scratch, LEGO robotics and the PicoCricket. An incomparable presenter, Brian is a Consulting Scientist to the MIT Media Lab, a brilliant mathematician and master tinkerer.
- Carolyn Staudt is a veteran science educator who leads professional development for the Concord Consortium. She will be leading presentations and workshops on scientific modeling with open-source computing tools.
- Ihor Charischak is a veteran mathematics educator and active NCTM member who recently retired from the Stevens Instiute of Technology’s Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education. He will lead workshops on “Mathematics and Computing Innovation for Monday Morning.”
- Dr. David Thornburg is the Director of the Thornburg Center for Professional Development and The Thornburg Center for Space Exploration. He has been at the forefront of educational technology since the 1970s.
- Dr. Gary Stager is the day’s keynote speaker and organizer. He is a Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University, Executive Director of the Constructivist Consortium and a popular education journalist.
The day features a keynote address, two plenary sessions, a choice of four workshops run twice and closing panel discussion.
Come to Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge and stay for Educon 2.1!
More specific information about the day’s sessions will be published in the near future. 
Registration includes the complete conference program and lunch. Bring your own laptop!
Save $35 by taking advantage of early-bird registration before November 1st.
Super early-bird registration (before November 1) - $90
Early-bird registration (before December 15) - $120
Regular registration - $130
You may register for both Constructing Modern Knowledge M/S and Educon 2.1 with one click.
Click here for hotel and travel information.
1 CEU from Pepperdine University is available for an additional fee.
Download & print the Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge poster.
Registration is Limited - Click here to register today!
garystager on August 24th, 2008
I am still trying to find the time and the words necessary to write about what the first Constructing Modern Knowledge Institute meant to me. I hope other participants will also share their thoughts on the experience.
In the meantime, here are a few of the blogs already published about our collective learning experience.
Over time, video from the event will appear on this site as well!
Enjoy!
evyewoldman on July 31st, 2008
This is my first attempt at adding to this blog, so that in itself is exciting to me. I came into the institute slightly intimidated, because although I have been in the field many (too many!) years, I have never been a “high-techie”.. I have concentrated on curriculum software evaluation and on working with elementary teachers to help them integrate technology effectively. I think everyone gets out of a program like this what they put into it. I think the biggest problem is wanting to do it all.. my agenda here, with my software background, was to have the luxury to get more involved in the programs like Microworlds, the Tech4Learning series, InspireData, etc. That is what i wanted to do; that is what I accomplished..
The bonus for me has been the speakers! Although I have heard Peter Reynolds many times, I always hear something new. I was “awed” to be in Alfie Kohn’s presence. Whether I agree or not, he makes one’s brain stretch. Bob Tinker gives ones a passion for a subject that you come in hating.. he never loses his spark for learning.. I would do the program again in a minute!
admin on July 22nd, 2008
The tentative schedule for Constructing Modern Knowledge 2008 is now online here.
There are also some packing tips to be found there as well.
admin on July 22nd, 2008
Gary S Stager, Ph.D.
Director & Founder
Teacher educator, journalist, speaker and consultant, Dr. Gary Stager, has spent the past twenty-six years helping teachers on six continents make sense of their roles in the digital age. In 1990 he led development efforts at the world’s first two “laptop schools” in Australia. Since then, Gary has worked with countless laptop schools from Maine to Melbourne to Mumbai. Stager has taught at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology for the past decade and in 1998 helped create its groundbreaking Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology degree program. In 1982, he created one of the nation’s first computer camp programs and was the Director of Professional Development for NJ’s Network for Action in Microcomputer Educator from 1983-93
Gary is Senior Editor for District Administration Magazine, Editor of The Pulse: Education’s Place for Debate and former Editor of Logo Exchange. He is a frequent conference presenter, workshop leader and keynote speaker at conferences across the USA, Canada, China, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, India, Switzerland, France, Bermuda, Costa Rica, South Africa, The Slovak Republic and Venezuela. Dr. Stager is an Associate of Thornburg Center and worked with Seymour Papert to create the Constructionist Learning Laboratory at the Maine Youth Center. Gary’s work with incarcerated youth in Maine was the subject of the PhD. dissertation from the University of Melbourne. Dr. Stager is also a member of the One Laptop Per Child Learning Team, a collaborator in the MIT Media Lab’s Future of Learning Group and the Executive Director of The Constructivist Consortium
Gary has a degree in elementary education and once studied to be a jazz musician. He has worked with public schools, private schools, gifted students, at-risk learners and homeschooling communities, Dr. Stager’s corporate clients have included: Disney, Microsoft, LEGO, Apple Computer, Compaq, Tom Snyder Productions, Universal Studios, Toshiba, Logo Computer Systems, Inc. and Claris. Converge Magazine named Gary Stager a “shaper of our future and inventor of our destiny.” He was a finalist for best columnist in the 2006 Association of Education Publishers Distinguished Achievement Awards
Most recently, Gary was the new media producer for The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmeri Project - Simpatíco, 2007 Grammy Award Winner for Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year. The album also won the a similar award from the Jazz Journalists Association
Go to www.stager.org for more information and materials written by Gary.
Gary Stager is a unique speaker who never fails to entertain, inform, and inspire. Gary’s offers a unique combination of intellect and wit that provokes conversation and smiles alike. He is a committed educator who comes to a conference ready to roll up his sleeves and work.
Gary can have audiences on their feet cheering at a keynote and a half hour later be fielding questions and presenting his latest ideas in a breakout session or at a conference reception. He is straight talking, fearless, and a visionary educational leader who ‘tells it as it is’. Gary’s presence has always brought our conference to another, higher, level.
- Pete Reilly, President of NYSCATE
admin on July 22nd, 2008
According to Gary Stager, “John Stetson is the finest educator I’ve ever met and a tireless champion for powerless children.” For more than a decade, John Stetson has worked as a daily volunteer teacher, collaborator and advocate for incarcerated teenagers within Southern Maine’s juvenile prison. He worked side-by-side with Seymour Papert, Gary Stager and MIT’s David Cavallo during the creation and three year life of The Constructionist Learning Laboratory at the Maine Youth Center and continues working in the renamed facility nearly every day. In addition to teaching kids to build guitars, robots, telescopes and to fall in love with astronomy, Stetson has arranged for college courses to be offered to at-risk high school students and has spearheaded the creation of an instrumental music program in a facility where one would not have otherwise existed. John Stetson is a father of three and holds a Masters degree in educational technology from Pepperdine University.
admin on July 22nd, 2008
Sylvia Martinez is a veteran of interactive entertainment and educational software industries, with over a decade of design and publishing experience. She is currently President of Generation YES. Prior to joining Generation YES, Sylvia oversaw product development, design and programming as Vice President of Development for Encore Software, a publisher of game and educational software on PC, Internet and console platforms. Sylvia was also involved in the company’s Internet initiatives, including Math.com, the award-winning web site that provides math help to students worldwide.
For seven previous years, Sylvia was an executive producer at Davidson & Associates/Knowledge Adventure, a leading educational software developer. She designed, developed and launched dozens of software titles including Math Blaster: Algebra, Math Blaster: Geometry and Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess. In addition, she was responsible for Educast - the first Internet service for teachers that provided teachers with free news, information and classroom resources.
Before Davidson & Associates, Martinez spent six years at Magnavox Research Labs, where she developed high-frequency receiver systems and navigation software for GPS satellites.
Sylvia has been a featured speaker at national education technology conferences in areas ranging from the use of the Internet in schools, Web 2.0 technologies, student leadership, project-based and inquiry-based learning with technology and gender issues in science, math, engineering and technology (STEM) education. She holds a Master’s in Educational Technology from Pepperdine University , and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.
admin on July 22nd, 2008
Melinda Kolk is the Deputry Director of The Constructivist Consortium, Director of Professional Development for Tech4Learning. and Editor-in-Chief of the Creative Educator magazine. She is the author of Teaching with Clay Animation and has had articles on student technology projects published in Virginia’s “VSTE Journal” and Australia’s “The Educational Technology Guide.” Melinda has made hundreds of presentations at educational technology conferences around the United States.
admin on July 22nd, 2008
Cynthia Solomon, Ed.D.
Dr. Solomon currently works full-time as part of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s Learning Team. She was recently the Technology Integration Coordinator at Monsignor Haddad Middle School in Needham, MA and before that taught at Milton Academy for eight years. She is a pioneer in the fields of computer science and educational computing. Cynthia, along with Seymour Papert and Wally Feurzeig created the first programming language for children, Logo. She was Vice President of R&D for Logo Computer Systems, Inc. when Apple Logo was developed and was the Director of the prestigious Atari Cambridge Research Laboratory. Dr. Solomon has maintained a long relationship with the MIT Media Lab and the One Laptop Per Child Foundation in addition to her teaching, consulting and scholarship. Her doctoral research at Harvard led to the publication of the critical book, Computer Environments for Children: A Reflection on Theories of Learning and Education. Cynthia Solomon is also the co-author of Designing Multimedia Environments for Children, with Allison Druin.
Cynthia Solomon’s archive of classic videos about learning and computers, Logothings, may be found here.
admin on July 21st, 2008
Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The latest of his eleven books are THE HOMEWORK MYTH: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing (2006) and UNCONDITIONAL PARENTING: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason (2005). Of his earlier titles, the best known are PUNISHED BY REWARDS: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes (1993), NO CONTEST: The Case Against Competition (1986), and THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards” (1999).
Kohn has been described in Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” His criticisms of competition and rewards have helped to shape the thinking of educators — as well as parents and managers — across the country and abroad. Kohn has been featured on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including the “Today” show and two appearances on “Oprah”; he has been profiled in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, while his work has been described and debated in many other leading publications.
Kohn lectures widely at universities and to school faculties, parent groups, and corporations. In addition to speaking at staff development seminars and keynoting national education conferences on a regular basis, he conducts workshops for teachers and administrators on various topics. Among them: “Motivation from the Inside Out: Rethinking Rewards, Assessment, and Learning” and “Beyond Bribes and Threats: Realistic Alternatives to Controlling Students’ Behavior.” The latter corresponds to his book BEYOND DISCIPLINE: From Compliance to Community (ASCD, 1996), which he describes as “a modest attempt to overthrow the entire field of classroom management.”
Kohn’s various books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, Hebrew, Thai, Malaysian, and Italian. He has also contributed to publications ranging from the Journal of Education to Ladies Home Journal, and from the Nation to the Harvard Business Review (”Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work”). His efforts to make research in human behavior accessible to a general audience have also been published in the Atlantic Monthly, Parents, and Psychology Today.
His many articles on education include eleven widely reprinted cover essays in Phi Delta Kappan: “Caring Kids: The Role of the Schools” (March 1991), “Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide” (Sept. 1993), “The Truth About Self-Esteem” (Dec. 1994), “How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education” (Feb. 1997), “Only for My Kid: How Privileged Parents Undermine School Reform” (April 1998), “Fighting the Tests” (Jan. 2001), “The 500-Pound Gorilla” (Oct. 2002), “Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow” (April 2004), “Challenging Students — And How to Have More of Them” (Nov. 2004), “Abusing Research” (Sept. 2006), and “Who’s Cheating Whom?” (Oct. 2007).
Kohn lives (actually) in the Boston area with his wife and two children, and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org.
