Presenter: Karen Wilkinson – Director, Tinkering Studio Location: San Francisco, CA / United States @TinkeringStudio
Presentation Description: The Tinkering Studio is a public space within the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where we design opportunities for people to “think with their hands” in order to construct meaning and understanding through STEM-rich learning experiences. In this talk, I’ll touch on some of the underlying ideas behind this work and hopefully show why a constructionist theory of learning is ideally suited to maker-centered education.
Presenter: Kevin Hodgson Location: Southampton, MA, USA @dogtrax
Presentation Description: Everywhere you look, young people are playing games and mostly, they are playing games on their screens. But are they merely consumers of content or are they creators of it? With a nod towards the ideas of gamifying the classroom, this keynote presentation will delve into detail around encouraging young people to design and publish their own content-area video games, while still meeting pedagogical aims of teachers. By tapping into the elements of “play” and teaching the concepts of “design,” educators can engage students of all ages in gaming in a very positive way.
Presenter: Wesley Fryer Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA @wfryer
Presentation Title: Igniting Innovation in Teaching and Learning
Presentation Description: What ignites your spark for teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom? What sustains your spark for creativity and innovation? What can be a spark of innovation to encourage teachers who are not early adapter / innovators in our schools? These questions and more are addressed by Wesley Fryer, Rachel Fryer, Brad Wilson, Autumn Laidler, Jess McCulloch, Cheryl Oakes, Amy Burvall, Richard Byrne, Kevin Hodgson, Brian Crosby, Jennie Magiera, Jason Neiffer, Diane Woodard, and Michelle Roundy in this opening keynote presentation for the 2014 K-12 Online Conference. Come travel with us from Oklahoma City to Michigan, Chicago, Australia, Maine, Nevada, Montana, California, New York and Wyoming as we explore the theme of “Igniting Innovation” for this year’s conference. Please take the challenge posed by Wesley in this video: Record and share a short (60 second) video answering one of these questions about “igniting innovation!” Share your video on YouTube with the hashtag #k12onlineIgnite under a Creative Commons license. By sharing with a CC license you will permit and empower others to engage in “combinatorial creativity” and make combined remix videos including your ideas! Also, please make sure your video is PUBLIC on YouTube. Share the link to your video using the following Google Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1j53vNvuSY6T3kqqyO3SyarNu-2UAeJEzQawjAH5DzuQ/viewform?usp=send_form
