Monday, April 14, 2008
1:30 - 2:45
Tom Vander Ark, President, X Prize Foundation, Former Executive Director of Educational Giving, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
"The Personalization Revolution"
Young people's skill and interest are continuously assessed and delivery is customized -- unfortunately it's not in schools, it's when they are playing computer games. We've finally got a picture of the personalization revolution that will become the primary learning delivery mode in the next decade. While public and private investment remains limited, the new generation of learning tools being introduced gives us a glimpse of things to come.
BIOGRAPHY: Tom Vander Ark is President of the X PRIZE Foundation, an educational non-profit prize institute that offers multi-million dollar awards for breakthrough innovations that benefit humanity.
As Executive Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Vander Ark developed and implemented more than $3.5 billion in scholarship and grant programs to improve education throughout the United States.
Prior to his role with the Gates Foundation, Vander Ark served as superintendent of one of Washington State's larger school districts that has been recognized for narrowing the achievement gap and reducing administrative cost. Vander Ark also has extensive experience in the private sector serving as a senior executive for a start-up retail chain that achieved $5 billion in revenue, as well as management and consulting experience in energy, telecommunications and business formation.
Beginning his career in energy, Tom has a MBA in Energy Finance from the University of Denver and a BS in Mineral Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
9:15 am - 10:30 am
>>> CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD MR. PERCY's PRESENTATION!
Bernard Percy, Noted Educator, Communicator and Author & Director of Community College Programs for Green Technology
"Putting Tomorrow in Today's Classrooms - Authenticity and Education"
George Bernard Shaw commented, "What we want is the _________ in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the _________." What word would you use to fill in the blank space? Who or what would you like to see in pursuit of knowledge?
The keynote addresses the best practices and ideas that help to achieve true authenticity in education, i.e., an education that taps into technology to make schools genuinely relevant to the interests, needs, and ambitions of students and educators. The dream of educators is to have students (and staff) in pursuit of knowledge and excellence. Examples are given that demonstrate how school leaders can overcome the reluctant learner, the uninspired teacher, the lack luster staff employee? And just as importantly, how to maintain and strengthen those who are motivated and engaged in their work and studies.
There is a question we need to ask ourselves, and those we work with, "Attitudes are contagious, IS YOURS WORTH CATCHING?" Citing examples from leading educators, the keynote looks at what is being done that creates ‘contagious attitudes that are worth catching'.
BIOGRAPHY: A noted educator and communicator, Bernard Percy brings has over 35 years of education experience in both the public and private sectors; from 1998 to 2003 he was co-founder and editor in chief of Converge magazine, an award winning education and technology magazine.
Among his activities is the creation of an educational program: The Foundations of Brilliance® is an educational and career consulting organization that provides the foundation with which individuals, can think, create, select, and enhance activities and programs that foster their brilliance, as well as challenge and inspire them. His current activities include being the Director of Community College Programs for Green Technology, an organization dedicated to strategy and leadership for clean and sustainable communities.
He was an elementary school teacher for 14 years, 12 years with the New York City school system, and two years with Los Angeles Unified School district. He has served in the university and adult education areas, including work with the Desegregation Training Institute at California State University at Northridge. Percy has developed training programs and materials for high tech companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, GTE, Itran Corporation, and others. He also developed programs and trained educators and artists in how to “teach” the arts to students of all ages.
Percy is the author of several books on education including: Co-author of Recapturing Technology for Education: Keeping Tomorrow in Today’s Classrooms [released in January, 2005 by Rowman and Littlefield]; "Help Your Child in School"; "The Power of Creative Writing".
As a professional communicator, Percy has lectured, presented at, facilitated and helped develop conferences, workshops and seminars on a variety of educational topics, both stateside and internationally at such distinguished institutions as City University of New York, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Waseda University in Tokyo, and Moscow University. He has helped developed conferences for such organizations as the California Department of Education, Los Angeles and New York City school systems, for both K12 and higher education audiences.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
11:30 - 12:45
"California and the Global Economy"
Hon. Steve Poizner, California Insurance Commissioner, Silicon Valley Pioneer and founder of EdVoice
California Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner, took the Oath of Office on January 8, 2007. A highly-successful businessman and entrepreneur, Poizner's company developed life-saving technology which placed GPS receivers into cell phones. As a result, 9-1-1 emergency responders are able to locate cell phone callers with pinpoint accuracy during an emergency.
In 2001-02, Poizner served as a non-partisan White House Fellow in Washington, D.C., where he was the Director of Critical Infrastructure Protection in the National Security Council. He is also a co-founder of EdVoice and has served on the boards of several organizations committed to assisting disadvantaged children in K-12 schools. Poizner also spent a year teaching 12th grade government at Mount Pleasant High School in East San Jose.
As Insurance Commissioner, Poizner oversees the California Department of Insurance (CDI), the largest consumer protection agency in the state. CDI has more than 1,300 employees, a $200 million budget and regulates more than one-seventh of the California economy.
