half-day & full-day facilitations

Today, in a world where change is the constant, you can't trust your eyes. As a result, the implications of global trends can only be understood by seeing them as part of the continuum from where these trends have come from to where they're heading. By carefully examining the significance of seven exponential trends (Moore's Law, Photonics, the Internet, InfoWhelm, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, and Neuroinformatics) this presentation profoundly challenges your fundamental assumptions about the world we live and the future that awaits us. It explores the impact these trends will have on our lives both personally and professionally and considers how they are and will affect our children, our learning institutions, the nature of teaching and learning, and even our definition of intelligence.

With this as a context, the presentation then outlines how these changes will affect the classroom, the curriculum, learning, instruction, evaluation and assessment. It identifies the shift in curriculum and thinking necessary to equip students for success in the 21st century, and discusses what this signifies for education, specifically in terms of our staff development models.

How can schools prepare students for this world? Perhaps by focusing simultaneously on content and information processes, critical thinking, problem solving, information fluency, useful failure, project-based learning and new mindsets that will be needed to survive in the culture of the 21st Century. How do we effectively engage learners so that they can not only perform exceptionally well on state exams, but also simultaneously learn the critical twenty-first century fluencies needed to excel in both school and life?

It then takes a pragmatic look at traditional teaching practices, considers why they are becoming increasingly out of sync with our rapidly changing world, and identifies several principles and processes that transcend the new technologies. Participants will come away from the presentation with a clear understanding of how to meet both their curricular goals, as well as prepare students to meet the new realities of the 21st Century.

Included is an overview of the 4Ds (Define, Design, Develop, and Debrief), the 7-layered curriculum model (content, process, tools, school to career, school to community, school to home, and contiguous assessment) , the 5As (Asking good questions, Accessing data, Analyzing and Authenticating data, Applying data turned to knowledge, and Assessing process and product) as well as a variety of resources to support the transition to this new model. Participants should come prepared to have many of their present assumptions about education challenged. Counseling will be provided.

Presentation type: Half/Full day, interactive workshop
Theme: Technology driven change and its impact on our institutions
Audience: Leadership and Vision
Duration: Five hours

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2009

It is said that those who live by the crystal ball shall eat crushed glass. Invariably when futurists make predictions we can be certain of two things. First, in many cases it will take longer than we predict for some things to happen. But conversely, when they happen the impact will be far more pervasive than any of us can imagine.

This presentation is about the extreme future 10, 15, 20 or more years out. This is not a crystal ball, Ouija board future, but an educated and informed look ahead at the good, the bad, the ugly, the scary, the beautiful, the terrifying and the sublime.

Participants will be given an overview of the Extreme Future: the new Energy Age, the new Innovation Economy, the future of globalization, Moore's Law revisited, the new Age of Communication, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Neurotechnology, the new workforce, longevity medicine, tomorrow's climate, weird science and the future of the individual. They will then be asked what the Extreme Future holds for the way we work, the way we play, the way we communicate, the way we learn and the way we view our fellow citizens. This presentation is not for the faint of heart. Come and get your assumptions about almost everything challenged.

Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, Future of Schools
Audience: General
Duration: One to five hours

NEW SEPTEMBER 2009

We all know the future will be greatly impacted by the development of new digital tools. But have we considered what the digital world is doing to the students that enter our classrooms?

This workshop begins by exploring the effect digital bombardment has on digital kids in the new digital landscape, and considers the profound implications this holds for the future of education. What does the latest neuroscientific and psychological research tell us about the role of intense and frequent experiences on the brain, particularly the young and impressionable brain? Based on the research, what inferences can we make about kids' digital experiences and how these experiences are wiring and shaping their cognitive processes? More importantly, what are the implications for teaching, learning and assessment in the new digital landscape?

But there's more to consider if we are going to get a complete picture of what instruction will look like in the future. How can we reconcile these new findings with current instructional practices, particularly in a climate of standards and accountability driven by high stakes testing for all? What strategies can we use to appeal to the learning preferences and communication needs of digital learners while at the same time honoring our traditional practices and assumptions related to teaching, learning and assessment?

The implications of how this new digital generation processes, interacts, and communicates in current learning environments and effective instructional strategies are examined against current findings from the social, psychological, and neurosciences as to how effective teaching and learning occurs.

The presentation then provides a comprehensive profile of 10 core learning attributes of digital learners and 10 core teaching and learning strategies that can be used to appeal to their digital lifestyle and learning preferences.

The presentation then looks at the modern workplace and examines the new entry skills students will need to be successful in the digitally infused working environment. How has the world of work changed? How is it likely to change in the future? What are the new thinking skills workers will require? And how must we shift instruction to ensure we are equipping our students with these skills?

A new model of instruction to address these issues is then introduced. Learn how schools can use a research-based constructivist approach to encourage students to search for understandings - and still have students excel at the test.

This presentation focuses on a fundamental shift in the basic paradigm of teaching that is required to prepare students for the Communication and Information Age. It provides a pragmatic look at current teacher practices and explains why they are becoming increasingly out of synch with our rapidly changing world. It then asks how we can teach effectively in an age when new technologies cascade onto the new digital landscape at an astonishing rate and identifies the principles and processes that transcend these new technologies.

Participants will come away from the presentation with a clear understanding of various research-based strategies that can be used to optimize learning by the digital generation in the new digital landscape, how to address learning standards and improve test scores, while at the same time, meeting both curricular goals and preparing students with the skills, knowledge and understandings above and beyond content recall necessary to meet the new realities of the 21st Century. Co-developed with Ted McCain.

Presentation type: Half day, full day interactive workshop
Theme: What current research tells us about learning
Audience: Leadership and Vision
Duration: Three to five hours

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2009