QSITE State Conference 2011
PROGRAM AT A GLANCE - FULL PROGRAM
General Information for Accommodation, Dinner and travel.
28th September 2011 - Pre-Conference Workshops
29th - 30th September 2011 - Conference
Location: St Aidan's Anglican Girls' School - 11 Ruthven Street Corinda
| Gold Sponsor | Empowered Learning |
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Keynote Speaker - Tom March - 29 September
"It's Broke. Let's Fix it" - inventing Next Era Education
We are entering an era when self-motivated students with personal devices and broadband access can learn more than they could in school. Although we have seen it coming, almost overnight society hsa changed around us, undermining cultures focused on standardised outcomes and the myth of uniform excellence. In other words, cultures like "school." the world surrounding schools has moved from a "one-size-fits-all" mentality to one where digital customisation enables a world "all-fit-to-one's-size". Given this new reality, four critical pieces will transform the 20th Century construct of schooling into the Next Era of Education that can focus on the joy of learning, individual excellence and significant achievement. Learn how you can get students and staff started today.
Tom March Bio:
Tom March began his career in education as a high school English teacher who loved using technology to engage students in authentic learning activities. This, plus a willingness to take risks and to work hard, saw him recognised as a Teacher of the Year finalist for San Diego County after just five years in the classroom. Graduate school and University lecturing led Tom into a Fellowship where he worked with Professor Bernie Dodge to develop the WebQuest. Since those early days, Tom has been "working the Wed" and contributing "Bright Ideas for education" by designing online curriculum, developing tools like Filamentality and Web-and-Flow, as well as fresh conceptual frameworks like ClassPortals and CEQ•ALL ("Seek All"). These days, Tom focuses on supporting systemic change toward the Next Era of Digital Education - "NextEraEd" - where 1:1 digital access can shift us from Assembly line schools to places where the joy of learning thrives. Tom March frequently keynotes, writes, and facilitates workshops focused on making learning more Real, Rich and Relevant through research-based pedagogies interpreted for actual classrooms.
Keynote Speaker - Paul Holland - 30 September
“Collaborative Creativity – using technologies to be very human.”
Creativity flourishes in the very young. Actually creativity flourishes in all of us if given a chance, but in the very young it is exceptionally visible. School has not yet shaped them into logical creatures who constantly battle against ‘being wrong’. The institutionalisation of ‘avoiding being wrong’, if not started in the school, is reinforced by it. This is poison to creativity, which sings the song of risk and reward. It is the song all creatives hear and are captivated by. It song we are born to hear.
This presentation references the work of world figures in the field of creativity including Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi and Sir Ken Robinson, who identify the key aspects of creativity and how to maximise their impact in all our lives.
As a professional body there are two great challenges in the school that call to us to take up arms in the cause of creativity. One, we are well equipped to engage. It was why QSITE was created. The other is one where all educators, no matter what their position on the uses of emerging technologies, must take a stand.
Creativity is a very human state of being that craves the freedom to take risks and the opportunity to collaborate. We sense that the emerging wave of social technologies can provide platforms for this kind of interaction. However, as in the world of business, which desperately seeks innovation as a means of staying competitive, an organisational culture that allows the risk takers and the dreamers to flourish is essential to allow ideas to flow.
So it is a double challenge. For we specialists it is to craft opportunities and shape the use of social technologies enabling connectivity, cooperation and collaboration to amplify creativity in compulsory education. For all educators it is to ensure that a generous culture of curiosity and questing without the stigma and fear of failure underpins all we do at school, and that young creative minds are allowed to pursue their paths of enquiry and dreams.
Paul Holland Bio:
Paul began teaching in the 1970’s and was fortunate to be in that first wave of teachers who introduced microcomputers into schools. In the mid-eighties he was selected to manage a group of educators designing software and courseware for primary and secondary schools. During this time Paul joined CEGQ as an individual member and soon became active in all aspects of the professional body. In his departmental role Paul designed and produced Pieces of Eight, one of Australia’s most successful educational software packages for schools.
Paul served as President of CEGQ and was in that role when the organisation became QSITE. He was also President of ACCE. In the nineties he joined the private sector and has had a successful career in management and technology as a General Manager, CEO and Managing Director.
Workshop link - Sarah Prestridge
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