Keynote Speakers
Invited Speaker
Monday, March 6th, 8:30 AM in Capitol Ballroom D & E
Keynote Speaker: Leah Buechley, MIT, USA
Maker Education for All, Diverse Practices = Diverse Communities
Abstract: The ascendancy of the “Maker Movement” in education has created exciting opportunities for some, but it has arguably exacerbated educational inequalities—providing resources to a privileged few while reinforcing a troubling lack of diversity in STEM. This talk will explore how many cultural traditions of “making” are rich with STEM content, but remain largely invisible in educational contexts. It will examine historical connections between different creative practices, diversity, and Maker/STEM education. It will also provide examples of inclusive educational platforms and present guidelines to help educators and technology designers connect with a broad range of people and practices.
BIOGRAPHY: Leah Buechley is a designer, engineer, and educator whose work explores intersections and juxtapositions–of “high” and “low” technologies, new and ancient materials, and masculine and feminine making traditions. Her inventions include the LilyPad Arduino kit. From 2009-2014, she was a professor at the MIT Media Lab where she founded and directed the High-Low Tech group. Her work has been exhibited internationally in venues including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ars Electronica Festival, and the Exploratorium, and has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Boston Globe, Popular Science, and Wired. Leah received a PhD in computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a BA in physics from Skidmore College. At both institutions she also studied dance, theater, fine art, and design.
Monday, March 6th, 1:45 PM in Capitol Ballroom D & E
Invited Speaker: Peggy Ertmer
Baby Steps: Scaffolding Teachers’ Uses of Innovative Learning Pedagogies
ABSTRACT: Helping teachers achieve real gains in the use of innovative learning strategies requires teacher change on multiple fronts: adopting new strategies for engaging students’ interests, facilitating new roles for both teachers and students, and supporting student agency throughout the problem-solving/learning process. Unfortunately, achieving these gains is not easy; we need to begin by building teachers’ capacity – in all aspects of innovative learning – for them to be successful. Further, in order to sustain these changes, we need to support teachers’ initial small steps toward these bigger changes. In this presentation I describe ways to initiate and sustain the change process via small strategy adjustments that, over time, can lead to impactful student learning outcomes.
BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Peggy A. Ertmer is Professor Emerita of Learning, Design and Technology at Purdue University. Her research interests relate to technology integration, teacher beliefs, and innovative learning pedagogies, including case- and problem-based learning methods. She is the founding editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal, published by Purdue Press, and is co-editor of four editions of the ID CaseBook: Case studies in instructional design. Dr. Ertmer served as a content expert for a series of videos (http://www.edutopia.org/video/five-keys-rigorous-project-based-learning) about project-based learning for Edutopia, a George Lucas Educational Foundation. She has published over 75 peer-reviewed articles and has been cited nearly 25,000 times on Google Scholar. Dr. Ertmer was selected to join the 2015 Class of AERA Fellows.
Tuesday, March 7th, 8:30 AM in Capitol Ballroom D & E
Keynote Speaker: Charles Miller, Flipgrid, USA
Simplicity over complexity
Abstract: How did a modest tool built for 12 PhD students spark the largest early round venture investment in the state of Minnesota, ignite social learning in more than 50,000 classrooms across 137 countries, and empower voice in millions of PreK to PhD students on all seven continents? The answer is simple. Well… simplicity. Join Dr. Charlie Miller as he shares a story of design, failure, opportunity, inspiration, student empowerment, and the world’s most creative educator — you.
BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Charles Miller is the Cofounder and Chief Design Officer of Flipgrid, a Minneapolis company focused on enabling video-driven social learning in classrooms and enterprises around the world. Dr. Miller is also an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development and former founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Design Innovation at the University of Minnesota (UMN). In 2012 Miller cofounded Flipgrid, an asynchronous video communication platform for use in his PhD design courses. Today, Flipgrid is used in more than 30,000 classrooms and by 1000s of organizations and enterprises across 136 countries on 7 continents. From Harvard to the World Health Organization, the Boy Scouts of America to Microsoft, and Orange County Public Schools to Medtronic, Flipgrid has transformed active video collaboration based on a single founding principle: Community is built at the point where our stories intersect. The technology, research, and design sparked the creation of Flipgrid, Inc., established in February 2015, that closed a $17 million Series A round to drive future expansion and adoption of Flipgrid in the education technology and enterprise learning development markets.
Miller’s research explores the transformation of education, communication, and collaboration through design, bridging the gap between aesthetic learning experiences and contemporary interaction design.
Wednesday, March 8th, 8:30 AM in Capitol Ballroom D & E
Keynote Speaker: Denise Schmidt-Crawford, SITE President Elect, Iowa State University, USA
Teacher Educators Who Inspire: Innovative Practices Making a Difference
BIOGRAPHY: Denise is an Associate Professor and the Director for the Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching (CTLT) in the School of Education at Iowa State University. Her research focuses on critically examining Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) in the contexts of teacher education and K-12 schools. This research uniquely contributes to the field’s understanding of teachers’ development and application of TPACK with the ultimate goal of preparing teachers who effectively integrate content, pedagogy and technology into classroom practice. Denise teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in instructional technology and coordinates an undergraduate Learning Technologies Minor offered in the School of Education. She is a co-editor for the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education (JDLTE), a refereed journal published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and its Teacher Education Network (TEN).
Thursday, March 9th, 8:30 AM in Capitol Ballroom D & E
Keynote Speaker: Troy Cline, NASA STEM Innovation Lab, USA
NASA STEM Innovation Lab: Extreme Events Call for Extreme Makers
ABSTRACT: You have likely heard about environmental conditions that lead to extreme weather events on earth but did you know that there are also conditions far above Earth’s atmosphere that lead to extreme events in space called solar storms? This presentation will showcase two of NASA’s latest missions that study these events, share a variety of real-world DIY applications and introduce one of NASA’s newest outreach projects, “The STEM Innovation Lab”.
The STEM Innovation Lab is located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and provides a collaborative (physical and virtual) space for the exploration, development and research of new ideas related to infusion of media and educational technology into STEM activities, programs, and approaches. The lab is divided into eight (or more) interchangeable STEM outreach exploration stations. Stations include: virtual reality (Oculus Rift, Vive), model building, media, digital fabrication (2D/3D printing), digital books (iBook, transmedia, ebook, etc.), iSWAC development, robotics, and webinar training. Each station is available to NASA scientists, engineers, educators and partners to investigate how new and existing technologies can be effectively blended together for greater impact and integration into existing education communications and/or public outreach programs and projects. Participant input is collected and shared with education communities in a variety of effective and meaningful ways including video blogs, social media, monthly working group meetings and webinars. In addition, the University of North Texas (UNT) will conduct an empirical research design to produce data that can be used both for formative assessment as well as the long-term impacts of the program.
Hands-on demonstrations of NASA innovations available for the fireside chat time after the presentation will include hands-on demonstrations, spacecraft card modeling, virtual reality headsets, NASA apps, iPad teacher tools, and ‘magnetic’ demos. The presentation will conclude with information about a Total Solar Eclipse that will happen across the United States on August 21, 2017!
BIOGRAPHY: Troy Cline is the Director of NASA’s STEM Innovation Lab. This lab provides a collaborative (physical and virtual) space for the exploration and development of new ideas related to infusion of media and educational technology into STEM activities, programs, and approaches. Prior to this role he was the Education and Public Outreach Lead for NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. He has extensive experience in educational technology, social media, cross-cultural classroom instruction, project management and public speaking. His research based approach has contributed to the development of new education products designed to teach the public about NASA’s ‘Earth and Space Science’ programs while providing a solid foundation in science and engineering design methods. Many of these projects are enhanced through digital fabrication and virtual reality.