Subscribe to my free occasional newsletter, The Critical Friend!

Sample Conference and Inservice Presentation Topics

The Best Educational Ideas in the World - Tickets to Constructing Modern Knowledge
Popular keynote address, workshop or presentation

Program Abstract
There are places where the desires, talent and competence of children are nurtured, celebrated and respected. This presentation will take you on an expedition to some of the world’s best educational ideas. Each stop on the tour shares inspiration from learning contexts built upon young people’s remarkable capacity for intensity. These ideas provide a foundation for meeting the needs of each child, technology integration, increased teacher quality or the fuel for sustaining innovation. While viewed in isolation, these ideas might inspire incremental solutions to specific problems. Combined, they represent educational transformation.

Session Description
Stand on the shoulders of giants as you tour the best educational ideas in the world! Along the way you’ll explore Reggio Emilia, Fab Labs, El Sistema, 826 Valencia and more. Each “idea” shares common principles of natural learning, creativity, child competence, collaboration,, apprenticeship, authentic tools , relevance, serendipity, beauty, respect and technology used to amplify human potential. Lessons learned en-route create productive contexts for learning where students construct the knowledge required for a rewarding life. Principles of effective project-based learning will be shared.

Schooling has always been shaped by contemporary technology. Digital technology creates opportunities to learn what we have always expected of children, perhaps with greater efficacy, efficiency or comprehension. However, the real power lies in using the computers to learn new things in new ways that may have never been possible.

The challenge for even the most imaginative schools is to sustain innovation. While the technology may catalyze changes in practice, ideas bigger than the technology create a productive context for sustaining innovative practice. This presentation will explore some of the best educational ideas in the world and demonstrate how they may support or require transformational computing activities.

The big ideas may include:

• Reggio Emilia
• The Big Picture
• One Laptop Per Child
• Constructionism
• The Venezuelan Youth and Children’s Orchestra
• The Fab Lab
• Generation YES
• 826 Valencia

Powerful Ideas and the Case for Computing
Brand new keynote address or comprehensive workshop

Schools have a lot of computers, but too little computing. Computing, not information access or ICT is the game-changer that builds on each child's remarkable capacity for intensity and improves the learning environment. Educators yearning to embrace modern pedagogical approaches, such as project-based learning, need to recognize that more needs to change than the actions of the teacher. The setting, including environment, objects to think with, schedule and materials; the nature of the curriculum; curricular content; freedom; relevance; agency; assessment and teacher expertise all need to be addressed mindfully. The power of computing in the construction of knowledge will be conveyed through a variety of learning stories, audience participation and a theoretical framework presented in an entertaining fashion.

Roger & Me - Roger Wagner and Gary Stager SPECIAL New keynote event! 2 screens, 2 computers, 2 characters Eavesdrop as two edtech pioneers and old friends regale each other with hilarious and profound tales of computing, magic, chemistry, history and suspended adolescence. Gary and Roger will have their laptop connected to a giant screen so they may spontaneously share interesting props, tricks, tell stories and engage in multimedia mischeif-making. This keynote promises to be like no other.

Creativity 2.0: The Quest for Meaning, Beauty and Excellence
New keynote address, workshop or presentation

Authors and pundits stress the importance of creativity, but what does that mean or look like in classrooms? This keynote will address questions, such as: How do we get there? What do we need to change? Is creativity reserved for specific subject areas? Which sorts of materials, environments and pedagogical strategies support creativity? What are the essential elements of effective project-based learning?

Technical ease is no substitute for artistic or scientific rigor. It's about time that more students produce evidence of greater technological fluency. This session will propose how learners might use technology in imaginative ways to create expressions of value; to develop habits of mind, such as discipline; and contribute to a timeless cultural continuum and world of ideas.

---

New Immersive Workshops for 2012!

In addition to the keynote addresses, presentation topics and workshops offered on this page, I have created new hands-on minds-on workshops for schools, districts and conferences.

Invent to Learn
Join colleagues for a day of hard fun and problem solving where computing meets tinkering and performance. A secret yet timeless curricular theme will be unveiled Iron Chef-style. Participants will work with a variety of software, hardware and found materials in four domains (virtual, tactile, audio and video) to express the theme in a personal fashion. The day's intensity will lead to impressive gains in skill development and a greater understanding of effective project-based learning. Computer programming, filmmaking, animation, audio production, robotics and engineering are all on the menu. Bring a laptop and camera or video camera We'll supply the rest. Invention is the mother of learning!

For information about booking Gary Stager for a conference keynote, school workshop or consulting services, email here. Gary's bio may be found here.

Deep Teaching - The marriage of design-thinking, the humanities and S.T.E.M.
This workshop uses a high-quality novel beloved by teachers and students alike as the basis for exciting interdisciplinary learning adventures. Connections to different subject areas, the creative arts, S.T.E.M. and computing will be investigated and high-quality project prompts. Participants will explore how design-thinking can frame the humanities as inspiration for 21st Century project-based learning.

How to Teach with Computers
This hands-on minds-on workshop helps expand your vision of how computers may be used in knowledge construction while exploring pedagogical strategies for creating rich computing experiences that amplify the potential of each learner. Mini activities model sound project-based learning principles and connect various disciplines across multiple grade levels.

Longer description Modern schools face several challenges; among them are the questions at the heart of this workshop. Once teachers are finally convinced to use computers as instruments for learning, do they have creative project ideas and do they possess the pedagogical skills necessary for success? This minds-on hands-on workshop will feature mini-projects designed to nurture sophisticated inquiry, computational thinking and artistic expression across disciplines and grade levels. The presenter will also discuss pedagogical strategies for using computers in an effective fashion as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression. These strategies illuminate principles of sound project-based learning and honor the individual learning styles, talents, curiosity and intensity of each student. Dr. Gary Stager has thirty years of experience helping educators maximize the potential of computers and create productive contexts for learning on six continents. He led professional development in the world’s first laptop schools, created one of the first online Masters degree programs and was recently recognized by Tech & Learning Magazine as one of today’s 30 most influential educators.

---

Young Tom Edison and the Ballerina's Gopher
A new one-man show perfect for a keynote address or school in-service event!

Veteran educator Gary Stager leads a tour through the type of learning adventures only possible with abundant access to constructive technology. Realizing the educational potential of all students requires radically different learning environments that in your heart you know are correct, but you may lack the courage to create. Gary will inspire us to imagine computing without PowerPoint, schools without losers and the possibility that reality television represents a positive educational trend.

The Future of Learning

This is an opportunity to engage Dr. Stager in a freewheeling conversation about issues regarding teaching, learning and school transformation in the 21st Century. This session represents a chance to have Dr. Stager extend, defend, clarify topics discussed during the keynote or any other topic of interest to attendees.

What Does Good Teaching with Computers Look Like?
New discussion session

Following, or in addition to, a keynote presentation this session will discuss the attributes of good teaching with computers; identifying authentic ways of learning with computers; what effective computer-using teachers know and the factors associated with rich learning activities.

The Case Against Daniel Pink
New presentation

Program Abstract
Educators have popularized, “A Whole New Mind,” due to its support for creativity while ignoring the book’s junk science, specious theories, xenophobia and factual errors. This presentation exposes the flaws in Pink’s thesis and offers a more coherent case for rich learning experiences for all children in the arts and sciences without needlessly sorting children in ways that limit their potential or make schools less prepared for the challenges of the 21st Century.

Session Description
Author Daniel Pink and his book, “A Whole New Mind,” have struck a chord with educators across North America. The presenter believes that the popularity of the book is a cause for concern despite its happy talk about the undisputed value of creativity. School administrators, teachers and even high school students are expected to read a book written by an author with no particular expertise who uses questionable scientific theories, misplaced nationalism and meaningless metaphors to support educational arguments made by more credible authorities for centuries.

The notion that schooling has favored analytical thinking over creativity is ludicrous when most schools do an inadequate job of both. The presenter will make the case that a strong liberal arts education includes rich scientific and artistic experiences that have more in common than the artificial world Mr. Pink describes.

This presentation has two objectives; to share a provocative critique of Pink’s book and to offer more coherent arguments for designing schools and teaching practices more hospitable to the intentions of modern students. Case studies and educational advice by credible experts will be used to inspire the creation of what Sarason calls, “productive contexts for learning,” where the individual needs, interests, talents and passions of students are the primary motivation for school reform, not economic competitiveness.

Learning Adventures - A New Approach for Transforming Real and Virtual Classroom Environments
Session presented at the Texas Distance Learning Association Conference (TXDLA) & at NECC 2009

The emphasis of the learning adventures is on the learning process while traditional assignments focus on product. My students provide constant formative assessment, expertise and assistance to their classmates since they are in the same virtual space around-the-clock and because their work is public. The teacher's role shifts from one of judgment to one of supporting each learner. Even face-to-face classes benefit from non-coercive open-ended transparent learning adventures. Critical factors of learning adventures will be presented as well as their theoretical foundations.

Opening a Window vs. Filling a Hole: Realizing the Potential of Online Learning
New keynote address presented at the 2008 Texas Distance Learning Association Conference (TXDLA)

Dr. Stager has been online since 1983 (unless you count using an acoustic coupler five years earlier), was instrumental in creating Pepperdine University's Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology Program in 1997 and has written online courses for Classroom Connect, Generation YES and Logo Computer Systems, Inc. In this session, Gary will reflect on his experiences teaching online, designing course content and observing children enrolled in online courses in order to challenge some the conventional wisdom about distance learning and offer examples of how online learning requires an amplification of the best teaching practices if it is to realize its potential for all learners.

The Case for Computing
Popular keynote! (often presented with Dr. David Thornburg)

The current educational climate has reduced computers to information appliances, or worse. Too few students are offered access to the rich-learning opportunities made available by computing. This deprivation has serious implications for children and the society at-large.

Gary will use his experience, passion and yes, actual classroom examples, to make the case for a renewed commitment to learner-centered school computing. While challenges abound for teachers confronting the second generation of computer fluent children, there are even greater opportunities to revolutionize the learning process. The case will be made for using computers in constructive ways and as a catalyst for creative teaching based on learner-driven decision-making. We need expand our concept of educational computing if more children are to be engaged in the rich learning adventures they deserve.

Digital Democracy – High-tech Activities and Policies Essential for Modern Citizenship
Designed for the 2008 election – suitable for keynote or hands-on workshop

This session explores high-tech activities designed to inspire student political participation at a variety of grade levels. The Internet has changed politics and what it means to be a modern citizen.  In an age when candidates host online discussions, political organization depends on meetup.com and elections are won or lost on YouTube, it is vital that students master the tools and media techniques of their age, including: data analysis, simulation building, polling and propaganda creation.

In addition to mastery of the tools and techniques essential for civic participation, this session will explore the network and democratic policies required if students are to develop as productive citizens.

The computer, Internet and constructivist software will be used to address:

• The mathematics of polling
• Making sense of data
• Effective communication
• Propaganda creation
• Online community building
• Civic participation

Constructing Modern Knowledge: A Computational (and fun) Approach to STEM
Provocative new keynote or general session!

The 1990 NCTM Standards said that 50% of all mathematics has been invented since World War II, yet nearly twenty years later little of that new mathematical content has found its way into the curriculum. The same is true for science education. This is particularly unfortunate since computers make it possible to learn traditional content with less pain and perhaps greater understanding. More importantly, whole new computational domains motivate children to explore the frontiers of math, science and engineering while developing traditional skills in a meaningful context. Engineering activities, including robotics and computer science, concretize abstract concepts and provide the tools students need to solve problems across the grades, subject areas and life outside of school. Examples of best teaching practices and student projects will be shared.

Rethinking At-Risk Education: Successful Learner-Centered Alternatives to Conventional Practice
(Alternate title: The Adventures of Gopher-cam and Other Amazing Tales of At-Risk Kids & Technology)

Imagine a joyful research-based environment where teenage students, previously sorted by pathology, become engineers, poets, composers, computer scientists, broadcasters, astronomers or luthiers. Constructionist learning theory, ubiquitous computing and strategies associated with the Reggio Emilia approach guided the creation a multi-age environment in which severely at-risk learners developed sophisticated habits of mind by engaging in the construction of long-term personally meaningful projects. Research and video examples provide remarkable evidence of sophisticated student learning and three years without a discipline incident.

---

RETIRED PRESENTATIONS

Looking for New in All the Wrong Places
Provocative new keynote!

This session offers a candid discussion of the verbal inflation associated with Web 2.0 and the negative consequences of focusing on the information retrieval powers of the computer and the role of information in learning. The following are a few of the topics discussed in this challenging session: The information fallacy and how it limits both the potential of the computer as a learning material and learning in general. The high-cost of festishizing that which is new. The affordances and constraints of Web 2.0 User-interface. The dominance of language arts specifically and the humanities more broadly in classroom examples of 2.0. The passive nature of Web 2.0 when compared to more constructive uses of the computer. The disciplines untouched by Web 2.0. The ahistorical basis for many Web 2.0 discussions of education. The unverifiable claims made by prominent Web 2.0/School 2.0 proponents.

The goals of this presentation include, but are not limited to the following: Discuss the similarities between what the Web 2.0 community hopes for the future of education and previous movements. Review lessons from previous efforts at education reform. "Expose" the critical fallacy regarding the relative importance of information in learning. Challenge the weak metaphors for technology use that accompany the dominant emphasis on information. Discuss what's missing from our dialogue and practice. Situate the School 2.0 movement in a historical context. Introduce the theories of instructionism and constructionism and their implications for educational technology use. Share an expert perspective on the limitations on debate and intellectual discourse created by current interfaces. Stimulate serious discussions about the communities goals, strategies and tactics in order to ensure the greatest range of possible opportunities for children. If we are thinking about the future of education, I'm unclear as to why we are thinking in terms of classrooms at all. Much of what I see done with Web 2.0 tools amplify and reinforce current curriculum content and pedagogical practice. Slapping 2.0 onto "classroom" is often little more than sugar-coating medicine and does little to advance the construction of knowledge or invention of new learning paradigms.

While I am a personal fan and prolific user of the Web in my personal and professional life, I believe that the over-emphasis on information facilitated by the Web 2.0 technology and and promoted by its community of holds the potential to do great harm to the cause of creating productive contexts in which the construction of modern knowledge is possible. I worry that the euphoric emphasis on the virtual world grants leave from doing the hard work necessary in the real world of educating children. A lack of understanding and recognition of the powerful ideas expressed by prior educational reformers and their efforts dooms the wide-eyed hopes of the Web 2.0 community to failure.

If Blogging is the Answer, What is the Question?
Provocative new keynote or general session!

Blogging is undoubtedly cool and revolutionizing journalism and the media. It can even be an effective classroom tool. However, the irrational exuberance granted blogging and other Web 2.0 tools might perpetuate the dominant view that computers are best used for research purposes. This underestimates the potential of computing in the intellectual and creative development of children, depriving them of rich opportunities to construct modern knowledge in a wide variety of domains. This presentation will explore a more expansive role of computers in areas such as math, science and the arts where learning opportunities abound yet are deprived of two many students. Recommended software environments will be demonstrated along with strategies for getting a greater return on investment out of school technology and the students we serve. Examples from actual K-12 classrooms will be shared.

Reclaiming the Magic
Inspirational new keynote!

A laptop per child holds the transformative potential to create a renaissance of classroom creativity, intellectual development and innovation. Gary knows this from his 16 years of pioneering work in “laptop schools” around the world and 24 years in educational computing.

Exciting examples of student projects, representing kindergarten through high school, diverse populations and a range of disciplines will be presented to inspire educators to embrace a more expansive world of possibilities for how laptops may be used in knowledge construction. Along the way, Gary will discuss how a more ambitious vision of educational computing is necessary to cultivate public support and create revolutionary learning opportunities for all students.

Danger! Take Large Step! The High-Cost of Incrementalism
Provocative new keynote!

Program Description
An incremental approach to classroom computer use has been slow to produce educational benefits. A number of current trends in educational technology, including: webquests, portals, PDAs and lists of tech skills, will be explored to determine if such interventions serve as distractions and costly detours or improve the learning environment.

Session Description
An incremental approach to classroom computer use has been slow to produce educational benefits. A number of current trends in educational technology, including: webquests, portals, PDAs and efforts to delineate tech skills for the new century, will be investigated to determine if such interventions serve as distractions and costly detours or improve the learning environment. An over-emphasis on ICT limits the computer's potential as an intellectual laboratory and vehicle for self-expression.

While jumping on bandwagons may be distracting, the policies and practices implemented by poorly supervised network managers are making computers virtually impossible to use by classroom teachers. Teachers report extreme frustration with computer reliability and functionality when they are really describing problems created by an over-reliance on the local network and Internet. Ironically, this frustration is in-service of a passive curricular-centric approach to computer use. Teachers' ability to support more progressive practices, such as project-based learning, is marginalized by the demands of keeping networked computers operational. Like the Internet, the low-level informational aspect of PowerPoint presentations emphasize product, often a dubious one, at the expense of intellectually-rich and creatively expressive uses of the computer. Gary will demonstrate how less cautious technology use can help bridge the imagination gap and create productive contexts for learning, while engaging teachers and investing wisely.

Click here for additional information on this timely and provocative keynote.

Wikis and Swikis and Blogs, Oh My!
Hot new hands-on workshop!

Program Description
Confused? This presentation explores various low-cost publishing, podcasting, collaboration, creativity and file storage tools available on the web and helps educators understand their relative educational value inside the classroom and beyond. Learn to make sense of how these emerging tools can expand learning opportunities for young people and increase collaboration among educators.

Session Description
While blogs, podcasting, wikis, RSS, social networking, open-source course management systems and other hot web technologies certainly hold educational potential, this workshop helps educators identify the most useful and affordable tools to satisfy their needs and those of their students. Participants will learn to navigate the new vocabulary, tools and hype associated with emerging web technologies and learn to get the most educational bang for their buck. The differences between open-source, shareware, freeware and new copyright paradigms, such as the Creative Commons, will also be explained. The benefits and consequences of new distribution mediums will also be discussed. Suggestions for developing the internet-age literacy of children will be shared. This entire journey into the very near future is intended to increase learning opportunities for young people and increase collaboration among professional educators.

Receptive Teaching –A Natural Approach to Identifying High-Tech Learning Opportunities
Hot new keynote or workshop!

Program Description
This presentation offers practical strategies designed to help teachers imagine new ways of using computers in productive learning environments. Educators receptive to the learning invitations all around them make the best teachers.

Session Description
Ever wonder why some teachers find project ideas everywhere and others don’t? This eye-opening workshop will help teachers identify the opportunities for technology-enhanced project-based learning around them. This goal is best achieved by shifting our focus away from teaching and learning towards an emphasis on doing. Great educators intuitively seize upon opportunities to connect the world around them; individual children's needs, interests and experiences; and traditional curricula. This workshop will inspire more great teaching by helping you become more receptive to learning invitations.

A series of imaginative on and off-computer exercises will help teachers develop the capacity to embrace the learning invitations around them. The ability to identify resources, project memes and make learning more natural for students will pay huge dividends. Great educators intuitively seize upon opportunities to connect the world around them; individual children's needs, interests and experiences; and traditional curricula. Participants will increase their confidence as imaginative computer-using teachers and become more capable of meeting creating productive learning environments for 21st Century students.  

A more natural, interconnected, organic way of viewing the world full of learning possibilities generates opportunities to meet any educational objective through the construction of personally meaningful relevant projects.

The Best Damn Podcasting Workshop Ever! (Mac/PC)
Brand new hands-on workshop!

Anyone can teach the basics of podcasting, but only Gary provides an educational rationale for podcasting, plus tips for leveraging technology you already own and engaging the maximum number of students.

Podcasting is the latest innovation to sweep the Internet. In the hands of creative educators, this low-cost low-barrier vehicle for self-expression offers learners the ability to create their own regularly scheduled broadcasts online. Best of all, members of the community can listen to the podcasts at their leisure as new programs are automatically downloaded and installed on their iPod or other digital media player.

This workshop will share the hows and whys of podcasting, complete with ideas for innovative learning adventures and school-to-home communication. Don't miss this opportunity to seize the future!

Audience: K-12 and higher education faculty, students and school leaders
Format: 1-hour presentation
3-hour workshop – hands-on or demonstration
6-hour workshop – hands-on

Podcasting for Educators: A Mobile Audience for your students

Program Description
Podcasting is the latest innovation to sweep the Internet. In the hands of creative educators, this low-cost low-barrier vehicle for self-expression offers learners the ability to create their own regularly scheduled broadcasts online. Best of all, members of the community can listen to the podcasts at their leisure as new programs are automatically downloaded and installed on their iPod or other digital media player.

This workshop will share the hows and whys of podcasting, complete with ideas for innovative learning adventures and school-to-home communication. Don't miss this opportunity to sieze the future!

Digital Reggio: Reinventing Elementary Education for the 21st Century

Program Description
Join a multi-national learning consortium dedicated to fuse two cultures - the educational culture of Reggio Emilia and the computer culture of the “high-tech” school in an effort to influence the future of primary education. Despite two decades of attempts at school computer integration, little has been done to provide primary- age children with meaningful, constructive, computationally-rich learning opportunities. Digital Reggio is an attempt to rethink all aspects of the primary learning environment. The innovative marriage of Reggio Emilia education and ubiquitous computing offers a model for the future of learning.

Short Program Description
Digital Reggio is an attempt to rethink all aspects of the primary learning environment. The innovative marriage of Reggio Emilia education and ubiquitous computing offers a model for the future of learning.

Session Description
The innovative marriage of Reggio Emilia education and ubiquitous computing offers a model for the future of learning. Learners benefit from the resulting cultural shift.

Schools in Australia and the United States are working to fuse two cultures - the educational culture of Reggio Emilia and the computer culture of a high-tech school - in an effort to influence the future of primary education. Despite two decades of attempts at school computer integration, little has been done to provide primary-age children with meaningful, constructive, computationally-rich learning opportunities. Primary classrooms have too few computers, most used in trivial ways. While societal concerns about the crisis in secondary education have dominated the agenda, few reform efforts have been attempted in the lower grades. Digital Reggio is an attempt to rethink all aspects of the primary learning environment.

Named for the Italian city of its birth, Reggio Emilia education is a revolutionary approach to learning grounded in the belief that children of all ages are capable of learning powerful ideas when immersed in a culture of respect, authentic materials, collaboration and documentation. Adults guide the learning process through reflective practice and careful listening to the hundred languages of children.

Teachers of young children are exploring exciting computing projects as a way of engaging their students in the construction of knowledge and as a prism through which to shift classroom practice. Thus far, multiage groups of children as young as eight years of age have worked on cutting-edge robotics and digital radio project. The goals of the consortium include the design and dissemination of developmentally appropriate technology-rich projects for preschool through the fourth grade.

Podcasting with Garageband (Macintosh)

The new Garageband 3 software features podcasting and videocasting functionality in a powerful, but easy-to-use interface. Audio enhancement, live interviewing, on-the-fly sound-effects, auto-ducking (music automatically lowers when voice-over occurs and raises when there is no narration), royalty-free music composition and film scoring are all part of Garageband and will be featured in a curricular context during this workshop.

Audience: K-12 and higher education faculty, students and school leaders
Format: 1-hour presentation
3-hour workshop – hands-on or demonstration
6-hour workshop – hands-on

iLife ’06 Across the Curriculum (Macintosh)

Apple’s new creativity suite, iLife ’06, offers students and teachers with unparalleled opportunities for creativity. The software eliminates the need to battle ugly technical issues and focus on human expression. Learn how digital video production, podcasting, photocasting, music composition, film scoring and brilliant, DVD mastering, web publishing are all within reach. Project ideas integrating the curriculum and strategies for successful classroom practice will be shared. iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, Garageband and iWeb will be explored.

Audience: K-12 and higher education faculty and school leaders
Format: 1-hour presentation
3-hour workshop – hands-on or demonstration
6-hour workshop – hands-on

Preventing Your 1:1 Dreams from Becoming Nightmares (Mac/PC)

1:1 computing is inevitable and its backlash growing. Learn to be the imaginative articulate leader required to inspire public support and sustain classroom innovation.

American schools are finally embracing the notion of 1:1 computing. However, in the absence of strong leadership based on an imaginative vision of what students might learn and do with a personal computer, many laptop initiatives fail. The presenter, a pioneer in 1:1 computing, believes that the recently publicized laptop debacles in places like Virginia and Georgia are the result of a lack of imagination, and poor salesmanship, on the part of educators and hardware vendors.

This presentation is intended to help educators dream bigger and engage taxpayers in sharing that dream for what education could be. Such development of the public's hearts and mind are not only essential for funding initiatives, but in sustaining classroom innovation.

Numerous examples of what children could be doing today with their own personal computer will be presented as the sort of tangible responses that should be offered to our growing chorus of critics. This presentation is equally relevant to school leaders and the vendors who wish to serve them.

Audience: K-12 and higher education faculty and school leaders
Format: 1-hour presentation
3-hour workshop –demonstration

Beyond 1:1 Computing – An Expert Perspective on What Students Might Do

Gary Stager led professional development in the world’s first laptop schools way back in 1990. Since then he has worked with countless “laptop schools” around the world. This unique session embraces the eventuality of truly personal computing and will help maximize your investment.

Gary will use his experience, passion and yes, actual classroom examples, to make the case for a renewed commitment to learner-centered school computing. While challenges abound for teachers confronting the second generation of computer fluent children, there are even greater opportunities to revolutionize the learning process. The case will be made for using computers in constructive ways and as a catalyst for creative teaching based on learner-driven decision-making. We need expand our concept of educational computing if schools are to remain relevant and if more children are to be engaged in the rich learning adventures they deserve.

A Joyful Noise – Digital Audio Across the Curriculum

This workshop will teach participants to harness emerging technologies such as podcasting, videocasting, film scoring and music composition in educational contexts across the curriculum.

Learn how computers and new software provides students with opportunities for creative oral expression. This workshop will explore the potential of emerging technologies such as podcasting, videocasting, film scoring and music composition in educational contexts. An educational rationale for audio broadcasting and music composition will be provided.  In the hands of creative educators, this low-cost low-barrier vehicle for self-expression offers learners the ability to create their own regularly scheduled broadcasts online. Best of all, members of the community can listen to or watch podcasts at their leisure as new programs are automatically downloaded and installed on their iPod or other digital media player.

This workshop will share the hows and whys of podcasting and music composition, complete with ideas for innovative learning adventures and school-to-home communication. Project ideas for using digital audio across the curriculum and grade levels will be presented. A variety of free, low-cost and accessible tools will be explored, including Garageband 3.

Outline:

Audience: K-12 and higher education faculty, school leaders and students
Format: 1-hour presentation
3-hour workshop – hands-on or demonstration
6-hour workshop – hands-on

Total Cost of Dependency and the Need for Zero-based Networking

This presentation will make the case for rethinking the TCO of networking, the educational costs of an over-reliance on the Internet and reevaluating the structure of learning networks given the existence of new technology.

• Explore concept of Total Cost of Dependency and how this impacts on education and budgetary decision-making.
• Discuss the educational costs of net dependency.
• Design more efficient, lower-cost learning networks based on emerging technology
• Get personnel-related support costs under control
• Maximize for decreasing technology budgets

This session will introduce a new concept, the total cost of dependency, an educational computing variable that may doom our efforts regardless of our intentions and implementation strategies. Leadership failures exacerbated by school networking will make schools less relevant and inspire fewer computer-using teachers. The policies and practices implemented by poorly supervised network managers are making computers virtually impossible to use by classroom teachers. The result of this leadership gap is a colossal waste of money and lack of productive resources for learners. TCO does not account adequately for over-promising and under-delivering

From Sydney to the South Bronx, complications from network fever have left administrators lightheaded and put many a school on life-support. This isn't an affliction cured by additional professional development; nor is it the merely the result of a generational shift. Investing unprecedented sums of money on bandwidth, servers and network personnel without common sense and a clear understanding of how networks work will create incurable complications for schools. The installation, implementation and maintenance of educational networks could be the number one challenge facing contemporary school leaders. Innovations such as Rendezvous, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and peer-to-peer networking require us to redesign the learning network. We must rethink everything.

Some schools are less educationally effective since the installation of a network. Fears related to the democratization of knowledge, power and expertise causes schools to respond reflexively in order to maintain the status quo.

The future of computing is not a server-client, but rather something more peer-to-peer, yet schools are investing billions on the central command model. Teachers and students have expectations about how networks behave and are constantly frustrated by needless obstacles created by non-educators. The bandwidth fetish has created paralysis and a vision of the future in which computers are passive content delivery vehicles reinforcing undesirable instructional practices.

The Adventures of Gopher-cam and Other Amazing Tales of At-Risk Kids & Technology

Program Description
This is the inspirational story of the role computing can play in the intellectual development of severely at-risk learners. The alternative high-tech learning environment within Maine's prison for teens emphasized the construction of personally-meaningful long-term projects. Personal access to computers, high expectations and a variety of constructive materials were instrumental in the ways habitually unsuccessful students embraced the learning process. Remarkable examples of student robotic inventions and research based on the project will be shared.

Session Description
Since September 1999, the presenter has worked with Seymour Papert to develop a high-tech alternative learning environment inside the Maine Youth Center, the state prison for adjudicated teens This multiage environment provides each student with a personal computer and access ta variety of constructive materials: MicroWorlds software; LEGO robotics; wood; electronics; video; clay; books. The experience of trying to reacquaint or acquaint these previously unsuccessful students with the learning process teaches us many lessons about just at-risk our entire educational system has become. Amazing examples of incredible projects created by these kids and tales of the struggles associated with building such a learning environment will be shared.

These students engaged in numerous robotics, guitar building, aeronautics, computer programming, drama, video editing, engineering, computer repair, science and humanities projects based on their interests and their ingenuity regardless of the labels applied to them by society.

Improvisational Robotics - An Interdisciplinary Approach to Suit All Learners

Program Description
Robotics represents a rich opportunity to apply basic and more sophisticated technology skills while learning powerful ideas from mathematics, science, engineering and other disciplines. An emergent approach to classroom robotics offer unparalleled educational experiences for all children.

Session Desciption
Robotics offers a tactile constructive microworld in which powerful ideas in math. science and engineering become accessible to learners. The availability of LEGO's programmable brick and associated construction materials has brought robotics to children in classes across the globe.

Math, science and engineering come alive through a unique approach to the use of educational robotics. A more organic improvisational approach that challenges preconceived assumptions about curriculum, grade-level applicability and learner outcomes are replaced by a more constructionist approach based on authentic problems and the natural gifts of children. Participants will learn through doing that kids are much more capable than they imagined. Interdisciplinary benefits of robotics, sources of project inspiration and strategies for successful classroom implementation will come to life.

Robotics offers students a high-tech high-touch improvisational medium for interdisciplinary learning. An ability to identify rich problems is required to engage learners of all ages. We will explore different approaches to bringing the curriculum alive through an improvisational approach to robotics. The new MicroWorlds EX Robotics software will be used to create interdisciplinary projects that combine the real world with the screen.

LEGO's packaged print materials and bundled RoboLab software make several assumptions about curriculum, learning, grade-level applicability and ease-of-use that are challenged by a more constructionist approach based on authentic problems and the natural gifts of children. Participants will learn through hands-on experiences that learners of all ages are much more capable of using programmable LEGO robotics materials to experience what Eleanor Duckworth called, "The Having of Wonderful Ideas." They will also explore interdisciplinary benefits of robotics, identify sources of project inspiration and discuss strategies for successful classroom implementation.

However, robotics is too rich a learning vehicle for curriculum to be determined by one vendor through the publication of support materials. A more organic improvisational approach to learning through robotics is warranted. If the programmable LEGO robotics materials are to be used as creative tools or scientific apparatus, they require an approach nurturing experimentation and personal expression.

Examples of outstanding and novel student projects will be shared via video. The new MicroWorlds EX Robotics software will be used for robotics control.

For a nominal materials fee, the presenter will bring all of the necessary building materials to ensure a world-class workshop experience.

Session Desciption
While much attention has been paid to informational aspects of educational technology computing offers untapped potential for learning and human expression. Robotics, music composition, digital movies, streaming radio, simulations and software design are within the reach of teachers. Computing provides an authentic context for students to construct knowledge through the explicit act of making things. Children engaged in thoughtful projects might impress citizens desperate for academic rigor. Emphasizing the use of computers as intellectual laboratories will make life easier for teachers, more exciting for learners and lead schools into what should be education’s golden age. Close the imagination gap through the exploration of provocative examples created by all sorts of kids.

Participants will:

Session Desciption
While the societal impact of the Internet cannot be overstated, this is not the case regarding the dominant role networking plays in our discourse about educational technology. The common aphorism, the network is the computer, has been interpreted too literally by educators and policy-makers. The power of computing is in its ability to be used as a constructive medium for making all sorts of ideas and artifacts. Ideally, the Internet would serve this construction of knowledge by providing access to resources, collaborative partners and a potentially infinite audience. However, in far too many schools, “The Internet,” has become a verb synonymous with some peculiar notion of computers as passive information appliances. When combined with irrational policies and hysteria about children’s access to knowledge and each other, the network is destined to fuel escalating student alienation.

This presentation introduces a new concept, the total cost of dependency, an educational computing variable that may doom our efforts regardless of intentions or implementation strategies. Leadership failures exacerbated by school networking will make schools less relevant and inspire fewer computer-using teachers. The policies and practices implemented by poorly supervised network managers are making computers virtually impossible to use by classroom teachers. The result of this leadership gap is a colossal waste of money and lack of productive resources for learners. TCO does not account adequately for over-promising and under-delivering. TCD does.

Teacher reports of frustration with computer reliability and functionality are really describing problems created by an over-reliance on the network. Ironically, this frustration reinforces a passive curricular-centric approach to computer use. Teachers' ability to support more progressive practices, such as project-based learning, is marginalized by the demands of keeping networked computers functional.

This presentation will:

Session Description
This session will provide the historical context necessary for schools to prepare for the inevitability of personal portable computing. Schools blessed with laptops have a special obligation to create sustainable models of school reform. The positive examples of student learning observed in laptop classrooms should provide overwhelming leverage for making such structural changes. However, the nature of school computing continues to be trivialized over time. This presentation will review what I have learned since I led teacher development efforts in the world's first two 'laptop schools' (in 1990) and challenge stakeholders to dream bigger in order to close the imagination gap threatening contemporary education. The growing number of laptop schools in North America creates an even greater demand for compelling models of outstanding classroom practice.

It appears that the most powerful idea of educational computing is school's immunity to powerful ideas. Ignorance of the existing technology - its affordances and constraints - is causing school administrators, with and without laptops, to make imprudent implementation decisions.
Schools blessed with laptops have a special obligation to create sustainable models of school reform. The positive examples of student learning observed in laptop classrooms should provide overwhelming leverage for making such structural changes. Even the nature of school computing continues to be trivialized over time. This session will review what we have learned and challenge stakeholders to dream bigger in order to close the imagination gap threatening contemporary education. A report card will be provided for laptop schools to use as a self-assessment tool to see how they are living up to their potential.

This unique session will help shine light on misconceptions and share strategies for success. Learn from those who have come before you so you may construct even greater opportunties for your students.

Advanced iMovie - You Won't Believe What You Can Do!

Program Description
Learn to use iMovie in sophisticated ways never imagined. Multiple cameras, masking, picture-in-picture, chroma-key, scoring and compression techniques will be explored. Additional iLife resources will be identified. COULD BE FULL-DAY WORKSHOP!

Session Description
This workshop will help iMovie-using educators uncover secret techniques for producing sophisticated videos with simple tools. Participants will learn tips and tricks for doing multiple camera shoots; picture-in-picture, chroma-key (blue screen), masking and other powerful video editing all within iMovie and low-cost extensions. New iMovie add-ons, models of terrific digital video and analysis of video effects will be explored. Workshop participants may even make a music video.

A little ingenuity enables iMovie users to produce impressive videos thought to require expensive sophisticated technology.

Strategies for data storage, compression and publishing (on CD, Web and DVD) will be shared with participants comfortable with basic iMovie use. Simple strategies for musical scoring and foley editing will be explored. COULD BE FULL-DAY WORKSHOP!

The Feeling of Wonderful Ideas - Implications for Teacher Development

Program Description
Research based on a constructionist high-tech alternative learning environment for at-risk kids has enormous implications the future of schooling and teacher professional development. The emphasis of this ground-breaking learning environment is the development of intellectual habits through the construction of long-term personally-meaningful.

Session Description
For three years, the presenter worked with Seymour Papert to develop a high-tech alternative learning environment inside the Maine Youth Center, the state facility for adjudicated teens. This multiage environment provides each student with a personal computer and access to a variety of constructive material. The experience of trying to reacquaint or acquaint these previously unsuccessful students with the learning process teaches us many lessons about just at-risk our entire educational system has become. This presentation shares some of the data, analysis and conclusions of this groundbreaking work. Research suggests that exciting implications for systemic school reform.

In The Having of Wonderful Ideas, Duckworth (1996) supports the educational efficacy of student projects when she says that intelligence cannot develop without matter to think about. Making new connections depends on knowing enough about something in the first place to provide a basis for thinking of other things to do -of other questions to ask - that demand more complex connections in order to make sense. The more ideas people already have at their disposal, the more new ideas occur and the more they can coordinate to build up still more complicated schemes. This suggests that a child comfortable tinkering with familiar items and playing with ideas will gain the confidence and self-awareness required to solve a wide variety of problems.

This author suggests that students and teachers alike need learning environments in which they can experience the feeling of wonderful ideas. This feeling can have great implications for future learning and teaching

Everything A Educator Needs to Know about Digital Media
Popular full-day hands-on workshop

Program Description:
Come learn how your students can use free or very low cost software tools and servers to broadcast digital audio and video on the web. The iLife tool suite will be used as the basis for our creative process. The promise of low-cost DVD, CD and podcast publishing will also be explored. Simple ideas for classroom projects and technical hints will be shared so you can broadcast online right away! (Cross platform options will be discussed)

Session Description:
Increasingly powerful and inexpensive multimedia streaming technologies allow students to create radio and TV broadcasts available to parents and anyone else on the World Wide Web. Writing for radio and TV is a rich opportunity for improving literacy skills and cuts across all disciplines. Come learn how your students can use free or very low cost software tools and servers to broadcast streaming audio and video on the web. Podcasting, MP3 audio, QuickTime, iMovie, Garageband and iDVD will be explored. Simple ideas for classroom projects and technical hints will be shared so you can broadcast online right away! Participants will create a variety of projects through hands-on activities and demonstrations by the presenter.

While this workshop will use Macintosh computers, most of the skills and concepts are transferrable to the PC. Click here for a more detailed look at this workshop's learning objectives.

Constructing Knowledge with MicroWorlds

Program Description
MicroWorlds EX, the latest generation of constructionist software, supports project-based learning in remarkable ways. Robotics, multimedia publishing, web-based simulations are within reach of all learners!

Session Description
Learn how MicroWorlds EX, the latest generation of constructionist software, may be used across the curriculum by students of all ages. This new software allows students to create computationally-rich interdisciplinary projects using text, graphics, multimedia, animation and robotics. Best of all, the software is programmable and extensible embodying that which has been learned over the past four decades of Logo use.

MicroWorlds EX is designed to support a variety of disciplines by students of all ages engaging in personally meaningful projects. Robotics, multimedia programming and constructing computational models will be explored in the presentation. Participants will learn how the same software used to make multimedia presentations offers the material necessary for the construction of scientific models, interactive web content, robotics made with found material and hand-made replicas of popular software like "The Sims."

The presenter has led workshops such as this one all over the world for the past 20 years. In fact, he wrote the project book that comes with MicroWorlds EX.

There are four decade's worth of research about the application of Logo and similar constructionist software in learning environments. This approach enhances the NETs through the celebration of computation, creativity and epistemology.