Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Ideas for Business Leader Conference Presos

I was excited to learn recently about an upcoming business technology conference here in Oklahoma City: InnoTech to be held on November 15, 2006. The conference is touted as:

an environment where education, innovation, peer-to-peer networking and the latest technology and business solutions are all available specifically for IT professionals. InnoTech Oklahoma assembles the leading business and technology executives in the state for a day of answers to your IT issues, real world case studies and your best chance to see the latest products and solutions to support your business. InnoTech is your opportunity to meet and interact with those leaders driving the IT industry in Oklahoma.

Sounds to be like a great opportunity for education advocacy! Hopefully they’ll take me up on my offer to share some presentations, geared directly toward a business audience. The topics I submitted are:

21st Century Education and Workforce Needs: If The World is Flat, What Are We Doing About It in Oklahoma?

Thomas Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat,” has caught the attention of many leaders in business and education. What should we do as community, state and national leaders to respond to the challenges and opportunities offered by “the flatteners” Friedman describes? Our educational system has emphasized memorization and rote learning in isolated, simplistic environments. The workforce of the 21st century requires creative, independent workers who can collaborate successfully across barriers of time and distance on complex and dynamic problems using a variety of digital tools. This session explores the implications of “The World is Flat” and offers ideas for how we can promote teaching and learning environments in schools which develop 21st century “digital literacy” as well as traditional literacy skills. Business/education partnerships are essential for communities that seek to thrive in the dynamic flat world in which we live.

Podcasting 101: Leveraging Web 2.0 Communications Technologies to Influence People

Podcasting comes in different flavors: audio-only, enhanced versions with still images, and video podcasts. The ability for people to time and place shift when they consume media like podcasts is transformative, and organizations are only beginning to glimpse the possiblities of podcasting and other web 2.0 technologies to empower collaborative work and influence others directly via their computers, iPods, or other mobile audio players. This session explores the basics of podcasting, the tools and processes required to get started with your own organizational podast, and introduces other web 2.0 tools like wikis and team blogs with powerful communicative potential.

The Case for 1:1 Computing in Schools

The future of education is 1:1. The future will increasingly be dominated by digital tools and digital media, and to prepare students for workforce as well as life success in the dynamic environment of the 21st century. School and business leaders need to work together to provide the tools and learning environments students and teachers need. Every school should be proactively moving toward our 1:1 digital future, providing hardware and software (quickly becoming less expensive than many textbooks) helping teachers develop capacities for engaging students in the learning process through technology. This session provides an overview of research on 1:1 computing projects around the world, information about 1:1 initiatives here in Oklahoma, as well as tips for ways business leaders and educators can make 1:1 immersion projects an effective reality for students, teachers, and the communities in which they live and work.

I usually don’t have many chances to present for business audiences, so if this works out I think it will be a great opportunity. I firmly believe we need to extend the conversations going on here in the edublogosphere outside to the real F2F world, especially with those who may not have had chances to hear about how teaching and learning needs to change in order to better engage students and prepare them for their digital media-rich futures!

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On this day..


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One response to “Ideas for Business Leader Conference Presos”

  1. Gary Stager Avatar

    Check out my contrarian review of “The World is Flat” at http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=1356