Indiana Educational Technology Summit: Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age

Tuesday, Nov. 16 9:30 AM -- 3:00 PM
Indiana Educational Technology Summit: Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age
9100 Keystone Crossing, Suite 100A

Smith Weaver Smith presents an important discussion among major policyshapers and stakeholders in education. K-12 educators face increasing demands for student performance, accountability, and new methods of tracking each student’s progress as well as informing the public about the schools’ and districts’ performance. Nevertheless, there are various constraints of information, understanding, resources, and professional development that may interfere with these upgraded mandates. This event’s purpose is to engage educational, business, and government leaders to learn, share, discuss, and recommend ideas for how Indiana and its schools can best invest in educational technologies to advance pre-K through 12 educational goals. Speakers, presentations, and panels will provide an informational context. Participants, in interactive focus groups, will jointly prepare a set of policy and practice statements to improve their mutual understanding of how schools can acquire and implement educational technologies to meet the needs of 21st century learners. These policy recommendations will be disseminated to the Indiana General Assembly and other stakeholders. Educational attendees will include Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents, Principals, Curriculum Coordinators, and School Board Members. Business attendees will include representatives of technology companies and others interested in workforce development, educational technology, and economic development in Indiana. Members of the Indiana General Assembly are also invited to participate.

Keynote speaker will be Marc Prensky, an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001), the founder and CEO of Games2train (whose clients include IBM, Nokia, Pfizer, and the US Department of Defense) and creator of the sites dodgamecommunity.com and socialimpactgames.com. He has created over 50 software games for learning, including the world’s first fast-action videogame-based training tools and world-wide, multi-player, multi-team on-line competitions. He has also taught at all levels. He has been featured in articles in The NY Times and The Wall Street Journal, has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and the BBC, and was named as one of training’s top 10 “visionaries” by Training magazine. He holds graduate degrees from Yale (Teaching) and Harvard (MBA).