I am happily (ecstatically) home … for about 12 hours. Then off again for some more conferencing. But this one is going to be special. I’ll arrive in Toronto, for the Ontario Library Association’s Super Conference 2008, just in time to see Stephen Heppell’s keynote. Microsoft calls Heppell, “Europe’s leading on-line education expert.” I’m not that thoroughly familiar with the ed scene in Europe, but from what I’ve learned, he’d knock our socks off. Plus, people with British accents are just so smart anyway.
His message is on target and explosive, and I can’t wait. But what especially impresses me is the Be Very Afraid project.
Each year a selection of ingenious students – from primary to university age – are invited along to BAFTA in London’s Piccadilly to show and talk about the extraordinary things they are doing with new technologies in their learning.Guests attend by invitation: from the senior policy making echelons of the Whitehall Department of Education & Skills, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; from BAFTA’s own membership of film and theatre arts luminaries; from other influential organisations.
I’ll have the honor of being on stage with Heppell talking about teaching and learning in a time of rapid change and engaging in conversations with the audience. Great fun and the only ones with accents in the entire room 😉
Image Citation:
Muir, David. “244/365: Stephen Heppell @ Scottish Larning Festival.” DavidDMuir’s Photostream. 19 Sep 2007. 30 Jan 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/daviddmuir/1409399593>.
Stephen Heppell is indeed a true gent and an educational visionary the kind of which we have few of in Britain. We must be thankful therefore that he has been able to influence poilcy in the way that he has. Anyone who gets to hear him (and you) talk at a confernece is priviliged indeed.
Sounds like it’ll be a great discussion. Stephen Heppell is definitely a giant of online education. Enjoy OLA, if you’re touring around the publishers booths, visit Orca Publishers, I’ll be there signing my newest book on Friday from 2pm. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on the Heppell’s keynote.
Thought you’d be interested in some footage we shot with the young people at the last Be Very Afraid events 🙂
http://www.mediasnackers.com/report/2007/October/25/493/
DK
MediaSnackers Founder
David — First, it was great seeing you this weekend in Philadelphia…especially since it has taken longer than I would have expected to finally do so F2F.
Second (and more important), it will be a great experience for everyone to see the two of you engage these topics together. A bit envious that I’ll be on this ‘side of the pond’ for what appears to be a great event.
I had the chance to work with Stephen in the Cayman Islands last year as the country was doing a giant re-think of their entire educational system from the the design of all of their learning spaces (i.e. ‘schools’) to what they mean by ‘learning’. (http://buildingcaymansfuture.blogspot.com/)
Stephen was also a gracious judge for the international school design awards program I oversaw at DesignShare.com…and constantly added tremendous depth, challenge, and vision to the judges’ discussion all last summer. Please tell him I said hello…and thanks (once again) for all he added to our conversations last summer!
Really pleased to see that DK jumped into the comment thread (above). Not only did he do an interesting podcast with Stephen Heppell last year (http://mediasnackers.com/report/2007/June/08/373/), but he’s also at the center of much of the ‘digital native’ and emerging technologies conversation in the UK and beyond as of late. Check out what is going on with the MediaSnackers team…and their focus of harnessing young voices into “digital journalists” (something definitely up your alley, David). Plus, I think the two of you would become fast friends once you get a few Skype calls under your belt.
Enjoy the conference, David. And I hope that we’ll get a chance to cross paths again one day sooner than later.
Cheers,
Christian