Durff's Blog: November 2011

The 2011 Global Education Conference will be held November 14 - 18, online and free. Sessions will take place in multiple time zones and multiple languages over the five days.Chris Dede
Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies
Harvard Graduate School of Education Harvard University

Chris Dede is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. His fields of scholarship include emerging technologies, policy, and leadership. His current research includes six grants from NSF, Qualcomm, and the US Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences to explore immersive simulations and transformed social interactions as means of student engagement, learning, and assessment. In 2007, he was honored by Harvard University as an outstanding teacher, and in 2011 he was named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association.

Chris has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Foundations of Educational and Psychological Assessment and a member of the 2010 National Educational Technology Plan Technical Working Group. His co-edited book, Scaling Up Success: Lessons Learned from Technology-based Educational Improvement, was published by Jossey-Bass in 2005. A second volume he edited, Online Professional Development for Teachers: Emerging Models and Methods, was published by the Harvard Education Press in 2006. His latest book, Digital Teaching Platforms, will be published by Teachers College Press in 2012.

Howard Gardner
Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education Harvard University

Howard Gardner is the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a leading thinker about education and human development; he has studied and written extensively about intelligence, creativity, leadership, and professional ethics. Gardner’s most recent books include Good Work, Changing Minds, The Development and Education of the Mind and Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons. His latest book Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed was published in the spring of 2011.

Ed Gragert
Executive Director
iEARN-USA

Dr. Edwin H. Gragert is Executive Director of iEARN-USA. During his 21 years at iEARN (International Education and Resource Network), he has pioneered the use of connective technologies and teacher professional development to facilitate on-line educational project work (“Exchange 2.0) on the primary and secondary school levels. Since its creation in 1988, iEARN has become the world’s largest educational telecommunications network involving project-based Learning through virtual exchanges. It currently links students and teachers in over 130 countries. Approximately 2,000,000 students are working daily on collaborative projects through the iEARN network.

From 1979-90, he was the Executive Director of ICYE-US, an international youth exchange program with both high school and community service volunteer exchanges among 30 countries. At ICYE-US, he worked closely with ECA at the US Department of State to initiative service-learning exchanges at the high school level. He was one of the founders of CSIET and the Alliance for International Educational & Cultural Exchange and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Alliance.

He worked for the International Relations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, concentrating on US-Korean relations.

Ed received his BA in Japanese political science from the University of Washington (Seattle), MA in Korean History and certificate from the School of International Affairs at Columbia University. He has had extensive language experience in Korean, Japanese and Classical Chinese. His PhD at Columbia University was in Japanese history, focusing on landownership changes brought about by Japanese colonial administration in the early 20th century. His book, Landownership Under Colonial Rule: Korea's Japanese Experience, was published by Columbia University and the University of Hawaii in 1994.

Ewan McIntosh
NoTosh digital | learning | design thinking

Ewan McIntosh is CEO of NoTosh Limited, a startup that works with creative industries on the one hand, and then takes the processes, attitudes and research gained from working on those projects to the world of education, providing schools, districts and Governments all around the world with ideas, inspiration and research on how to better engage teens.

McIntosh was a French and German High School teacher, before moving from the classroom into technology research and leadership as Scotland’s first National Advisor on Learning and Technology Futures. He later helped set up one of the most ambitious investment funds from a public service broadcaster in the UK, the $100m 4iP Fund from Channel 4 Television.

His latest creative projects include helping to redesign the 40th anniversary summit of the ITU, the United Nations agency responsible for telecommunications technologies, and co-directing the digital side of the Scottish National Party's re-election campaign, resulting in a historic landslide majority win that technically ""wasn't possible"".

Education projects are many and varied, working with schools on design thinking and developing leadership, helping create the world’s first TEDx event by and for eight year olds, and turning the textbook on its head through our interactive developments.

Ewan and his team are all about engaging people, whether they're voters, customers or kids in a classroom.

Alan November
Senior Partner
November Learning

Alan November is an international leader in education technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. While Alan was a computer science teacher in Lexington, Mass, he was probably the first teacher in the world to have a student project on line in 1984, a database for the handicapped. He has been director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant, and university lecturer. He has helped schools, governments and industry leaders improve the quality of education through technology.

Audiences enjoy Alan's humor and wit as he pushes the boundaries of how to improve teaching and learning. His areas of expertise include planning across curriculum, staff development, new school design, community building and leadership development. He has delivered keynotes and workshops in all fifty states, across Canada, and throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and Central America.

Alan was named one of the nation’s fifteen most influential thinkers of the decade by Technology and Learning Magazine. In 2001, he was listed one of eight educators to provide leadership into the future by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse. In 2007 he was selected to speak at the Cisco Public Services Summit during the Nobel Prize Festivities in Stockholm, Sweden. His writing includes numerous articles and two best-selling books, Empowering Students with Technology and Web Literacy for Educators. Alan was co-founder of the Stanford Institute for Educational Leadership Through Technology and is most proud of being selected as one of the original five national Christa McAuliffe Educators.

Each summer Alan leads the Building Learning Communities summer conference with world-class presenters and international participants. Visit novemberlearning.com/blc for more details.

Michael Lees
Educational Consultant
Global Issues - African Network of Teachers for Service

Michael has enjoyed an eclectic professional journey, including roles as restaurateur, flight instructor, drama/science/math teacher, community service coordinator, guidance counselor, school administrator and now educational consultant. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in educational leadership with a focus on service learning cultures in international schools. Having been anesthetized by suburban Canada in his early life, Michael kept his sanity by living vicariously through National Geographic magazine articles, television specials by Jacque Cousteau and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. His quest to explore this ‘pale blue dot’ has led him to meet some truly inspiring people from around the globe. The past two decades in international school settings has provided the opportunity to participate in some exceptionally rewarding and transformative community service learning experiences for both him and his students. Michael’s passion lies in bridging the islands of our individual efforts and building collaborative networks of people who seek to effect positive change in their communities and beyond. Michael is the founder of the Service Summit and a co-founder of the Global Issues-African Network of Teachers for Service (GI-ANTS). He has also been working towards developing a strategic partnership with the Association of International Schools in Africa.

Greg Jacobs
Co-director, Louder Than a Bomb
Siskel/Jacobs Productions

Greg Jacobs is the co-founder, with Jon Siskel, of SISKEL/JACOBS PRODUCTIONS, an award-winning Chicago-based television and documentary production company.

Greg and Jon produced and directed the documentary feature Louder Than a Bomb, which follows four Chicago-area high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in the world's largest youth slam. Since its premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival in March 2010, the film has won sixteen festival prizes, including ten audience awards, as well the 2011 Humanitas Prize for documentaries. It was also selected for the 2011 American Documentary Showcase, a program created by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs ""to cultivate greater understanding among people around the world.” After a national theatrical rollout in the spring of 2011, Louder Than a Bomb will have its television premiere on the Oprah Winfrey Network as part of the OWN Documentary Club.

Prior to Louder Than a Bomb, SJP produced the Emmy-winning History Channel program 102 Minutes That Changed America, which reconstructs—in real time—the events of 9/11 in New York City, using only sound and video from that morning. The two-hour special premiered without commercial interruption on September 11, 2008, followed by I-Witness to 9/11, a look at the stories behind the footage. More than five million viewers tuned in to the premiere, making it the second most-watched telecast in the network’s history, and the program has now been seen by over twenty million viewers worldwide. One of the most acclaimed documentaries of recent years, 102 Minutes won three Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Nonfiction Special, as well as the Most Innovative Program Award at the 2009 History Makers International Summit, a CINE Masters Series Award, a Silver Telly, and a FOCAL International Award. The show was also named the Best Nonfiction TV Episode of 2008 by iTunes. Most importantly, 102 Minutes has become standard viewing in high school and college classrooms across the country, a way for teachers to introduce their students to the emotional and historical impact of 9/11.

SJP is currently in production on additional episodes of its groundbreaking Witness series for the National Geographic Channel. The shows that have already aired include Witness: Katrina, which won the 2011 News and Documentary Emmy for historical documentaries, Witness: D.C. 9/11, Witness: Disaster in Japan, and Witness: Tornado Swarm 2011. SJP also produced Head On, a two-hour special about the obsessive subculture of ""team demolition derby"" in Joliet, Illinois, which aired on Discovery in December 2006. In March 2009, Siskel/Jacobs Productions was named to Realscreen Magazine's ""Global 100""—its annual list of the world's most influential factual production companies.

Prior to launching SJP, Greg served as VP/Chief Creative Officer at Towers Productions, where he oversaw the content of more than two hundred documentaries on five different networks, including award-winning shows and series for A&E, History, Discovery, The Weather Channel, and CNN. A graduate of Yale University, Greg has a master's degree in history from Ohio State, and is the author of Getting Around Brown: Desegregation, Development, and the Columbus Public Schools.

Geetha Narayanan
Dr.
Srishti School of Art Design and Technology

Geetha Narayanan is a teacher and educator, a curator and a research scholar who has been working in the allied and overlapping fields of education, training, research, arts and culture for over three decades. Geetha has

B.Sc. Honours degree in Mathematics from Central College Bangalore University
B.Ed from MES Teachers College Bangalore University with a gold medal in School Organization and Management
MA (with Distinction) in Education from Oxford Brookes University, Oxford UK
Honorary Doctorate of the University from Oxford Brookes University, Oxford UK

She was awarded the Charles Merrill Distinguished Teacher Educator award from Cornell University, USA in May 1999 and a Certificate for Service of Merit by the Association of School Curriculum Development USA in the same year.

In 2005 Geetha Narayanan won the prestigious Ars Electronica curatorial award which she used to curate an exhibition of new media art called TANA BANA which was shown in Linz Austria that year.

Geetha has written and published widely and her latest paper titled Crafting Change-why new media arts makes critical pedagogy possible has been published in August 2006 by the MIT press in its arts science and technology journal LEONARDO.

At present Geetha Narayanan is the Director of Mallya Aditi International School and Srishti, School of Art Design and Technology.

Geetha Narayanan is the author and Principal Investigator of Project Vision, an design and research initiative which is looking at the development of appropriate instructional strategies and technology-related tools that foster integrative thinking, greater mind-body unity and pedagogies that facilitate leapfrogging in young children from both elite and urban poor communities.

She is currently an International Advisor to the Consortium of School Networks USA.

Nikos Theodosakis
Founder
OliveUs Education Society and The Director in the Classroom

Nikos Theodosakis is an advocate for meaningful education. Filmmaker, educator and author, Nikos is founder of the OliveUs Education Society, and the architect of the InStill Life, Preserving Your Culture and The Director in the Classroom projects. His book ""The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking Inspires Learning"" examines connected learning through digital media production in the classroom and is a resource for teacher training around the world.

Nikos provides professional development to schools around the world by videoconference and consults with schools and organizations to help grow meaningful learning projects that connect and matter to students, teachers and their communities.

Links:
http://www.nikostheodosakis.com
http://www.oliveus.ca
http://www.thedirectorintheclassroom.com

Carrie Wagner
Author, Photographer, International Educator
Self Employed

A professional with over 20 years of international experience, Carrie has expertise in community development, training/facilitation, project planning and implementation, small business proprietorship, and intercultural relations. A graduate of North Carolina State University with a degree in Environmental/Visual Design, Carrie has used her formal education as a foundation for a career in education and training. Her 11 years with Habitat for Humanity International included working at the grass-roots level to establishing and directing the International Training Department. In this capacity, Carrie developed standards for curriculum and training procedures to be used in 74 countries, collaborated with and advised 5 regional vice presidents (US, Africa/Middle East, Europe/NIS, Latin Ameri-ca/Caribbean and Asia/Pacific) to assess and meet training needs throughout the organization. As International Training Director, Carrie developed and hosted three International Trainers Conferences, bringing together 15 trainers from different parts of the world and directed the Global Leadership Conference, hosting participants from 42 countries for a tri-lingual event. Since leaving HFHI in 2002, Carrie has worked independently as a photographer, writer and educator. Her book, Village Wisdom; Immersed in Uganda, Inspired by Job, Changed for Life, was published in 2010. Carrie has recently completed the first edition of Village Wisdom Global Education Kit: Tools and Resources for Teachers.

'I am committed to planting seeds for global citizenship. My life has encompassed incredible opportunities to engage in many cultures and places around the world. 3 years in Uganda, 3 years in South Africa, 5 years in International Training for Habitat for Humanity International, travel to over 25 countries; all have given me an appreciation for the gifts of wisdom nestled in every culture. My experiences have also given me a deeper understanding of common core values. While I’m thankful for my college education, I place higher value on the lessons I have learned through experience. Embracing diversity, I create opportunities that empower individuals to grow into their own global citizenship. I do this by designing and delivering presentations and workshops – for learning communities and for those who have civic and global service at heart. Sharing my life lessons through writing, photography and telling stories, is what I do best. Inspiring youth to see their potential for contribution to the world and seeing their sparks of curiosity make my work fulfilling. I am sometimes called a visual artist, an inter-culturalist, or an international educator, depending on the task at hand. I call myself a global cultural artist.'

http://www.carriewagner.com
http://www.villagewisdombook.com

June Lee
Assistant Vice President
Sesame Workshop

June Lee is Assistant Vice President of Global Research in the department of Global Education at Sesame Workshop. She joined Sesame Workshop in 2005 and currently oversees content development, research and outreach activities for Sesame Street co-productions in Indonesia and China. She also directs all of the summative evaluations that examine Sesame Street’s impact around the world and has managed over 25 research studies to date. June graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1999, where she majored in psychology and economics. In 2004, she received a doctorate in Human Development and Family Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin.

Louise Mares
Associate Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Louise Mares is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the implications of developmental changes for responses to television content. In particular, she is interested in educational and prosocial outcomes of viewing, examining how children interpret the messages that adults create for them. Most recently she has been studying how children interpret television content about race and ethnicity. She has received a Fellowship from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study to write up the results of this research during her sabbatical.

Fernando Reimers
Ford Foundation Professor of International Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director of Global Education and of International Education Policy at Harvard University. He teaches courses on the relationship between education policy, democratic citizenship, instructional improvement and educational innovation and social entrepreneurship.

His current research focuses on educational innovation and the impact of education policy, leadership, and teacher professional development on literacy competencies, citizenship and advanced skills and competencies. He is conducting research on school leadership in Brazil; evaluating a multi-country initiative to support civic education in Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Paraguay; evaluating the impact of a curriculum to teach entrepreneurship to high school students in the Middle East, and leading the development of a global studies K-12 curriculum for a global network of independent schoos. He recently served on a subcommittee appointed by the Secretary of Education of Massachusetts to close the achievement gap for English Language Learners and immigrant students.

He earned Doctoral and Masters degrees in education at Harvard University and obtained a Licenciatura en Psicologia at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters by Emerson College for his work advancing global education.

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