Program Keynotes

Sir Ken Robinson

By having the courage to dig deep and expand horizons, educators can have a tremendous impact on the individual and collective learning experience of students. They can truly establish a culture and a climate that fosters a lifelong pursuit of new knowledge.

Please join us for a diverse and spirited discussion that showcases different approaches to student engagement from three very different perspectives. Education thought leader Marc Prensky is the author of two works on digital natives and a new book about how “digital wisdom” is the next frontier in cognitive evolution. Shawn Covell is Qualcomm’s Vice President, Government Affairs and has been heavily influential in Qualcomm’s strategy for supporting 24/7 education through integrated mobile and handheld technologies. Actress Mayim Bialik is well known for her movie and television roles, most recently appearing as a regular cast member of CBS’s Big Bang Theory. What many people don’t know is that she’s also a PhD in neuroscience, a physics and chemistry teacher, an author and passionate blogger on the topics of child development and parenting, a STEM advocate, and Texas Instruments spokesperson.

World-renowned creativity and innovation expert Sir Ken Robinson will provide context, perspective, and moderation for the evening’s panel.

ISTE President Holly Jobe will provide opening remarks, along with a brief video address by U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

Shawn Covell

Marc Prensky

Mayim Bialik

Yong Zhao, Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education, University of Oregon College of Education.

How do you prepare students for their future when globalization and rapid technological changes make it almost impossible to predict what the future will be like? In this presentation, Dr. Yong Zhao shows how the current measures of education quality, such as the PISA and TIMSS, are misleading, and how the so-called high-performing education systems do not actually produce the kind of creative and entrepreneurial talents we need. He makes the case for a future-oriented education starting with each child instead of an authoritative prescription of knowledge and skills. He discusses the education necessary to prepare students to be globally competent and creative entrepreneurs.

ISTE CEO Don Knezek will provide opening remarks, with ISTE Past President Helen Padgett presenting appreciations to retiring ISTE leaders Anita McAnear and Don Knezek.

Willie Smits

In 2010 a group of students and teachers from around the world began a collaborative project to combat one of the most urgent man-made global problems on the planet.

Leveraging the power of social networking, collaborative online tools, and new pedagogies, the collaboration was chartered with proving a model by which young people could demonstrate powerful 21st century skills by taking meaningful, powerful action. Now with hundreds of thousands of students across the planet, this project is changing lives and defining what learning could be.

In this session, world famous conservationist Dr. Willie Smits, and dynamic teacher Christopher Gauthier, share a truly inspiring, emotional and important story about human achievement colliding with real-world project-based learning in a time when young people have true voice in the future of the planet they will inherit.

ISTE Deputy CEO and Conference Chair Leslie S. Conery provides remarks, announces the 2013 conference package giveaway, and kicks-off ISTE 2013.