The K-12 Online Conference is a free, online, annual professional development conference offering opportunities for educators around the globe to share innovative ways web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. Our conference this year will take place in October, and will include four different strands: Student Voices, Leading the Change, Week in the Classroom, and Kicking It Up a Notch. Our conference is entirely organized and facilitated by volunteers, which include a conference organizer for each strand. Our conveners for 2010 include:
- Amanda Marrinan, an educator in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Jose Rodriguez, an educator in Los Angeles, California, USA
- Maria Knee, an educator in Deerfield, New Hampshire, USA
- Wesley Fryer, an educator in Edmond, Oklahoma, USA
Today we are pleased to announce our keynote speakers for the 2010 K-12 Online Conference: Cultivating the Future! As we have the past four years, we will kick off the conference with a pre-conference keynote (the week of October 11, 2010) and follow that up with forty different presentations over the next two weeks. These will include two keynote presentations per week, in each of four different conference strands. “Live events” will also be planned during and following the conference, to provide opportunities for conference attendees to engage in interactive discussions with presenters following the Ustream “Echo webcast” model we utilized in partnership with EdtechTalk in 2009 and early 2010. This year’s conference will also feature an exciting closing keynote!
| Our 2010 pre-conference keynote speaker will be Dean Shareski. Dean is a Digital Learning Consultant with the Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was recognized with the 2010 Outstanding Leader Award by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in July, and has been both a past presenter as well as convener for the K-12 Online Conference. Dean blogs at ideasandthoughts.org, and is @shareski on Twitter. |  |
| For the first time in 2010, our conference will include a “Student Voices” strand. Colby Ratzlaff will keynote this exciting strand which begins the week of October 18, 2010. Colby is a 9th grader this year attending Emporia High School in USD 253 in Emporia, Kansas, USA. Previously Colby attended Turning Point Learning Center, a public charter school in Emporia. In addition to the support of his parents for this presentation, Colby is sponsored by one of his former teachers, Ginger Lewman. Ginger is @gingertplc on Twitter as well as Plurk. The Student Voices strand is convened by Wesley Fryer. |  |
| Our second “week 1″ strand in 2010 will be “Leading the Change.” Dolors Reig will keynote this strand. Dolors is a university professor and social media consultant in Barcelona, España (Spain.) She blogs at www.dreig.eu/caparazon and is @dreig on Twitter. Dolors will present her keynote in Spanish with English subtitles, as Diego Leal did in last year’s conference. The Leading the Change strand is convened by Jose Rodriguez. |  |
| For the third year, our conference will include a “Week in the Classroom” focus. In 2010, Kiwi Allanah King will keynote this strand. Allanah is a year 4 primary teacher in Nelson, New Zealand. She is an Adobe Education Leader and was a finalist for the 2008 New Zealand Microsoft Innovative Teacher Awards. Allanah blogs at allanahk.edublogs.org, and her classroom blog is moturoa.blogspot.com. She is @AllanahK on Twitter. The Week in the Classroom strand is convened by Amanda Marrinan. |  |
| Our fourth strand for the 2010 conference is “Kicking It Up a Notch” and will be keynoted by Darren Kuropatwa. Darren’s unique skill set “ an in-depth knowledge of pedagogy, leading edge technology skills and boundless creativity “ make him a strong change agent in 21st century education. In 2010 Darren is a “Pedagogical Consultant responsible for Literacy with ICT” with schools for his provincial government. His leadership and vision in the field of educational technology are known world-wide through his work as one of the founding conveners of the “K12 Online Conference” and his professional blog “A Difference“. Darren is @dkuropatwa on Twitter. The Kicking It Up a Notch strand is convened by Maria Knee. |  |
| Our 2010 conference will feature a closing keynote for the first time. We are thrilled David Warlick, an internationally recognized 34 year educator, author of four books on instructional technology and 21st century literacy, and learning consultant will present the closing keynote. David’s most recent book, “A Gardener’s Approach to Learning,” focuses specifically on our theme of “Cultivating the Future.” David shared the pre-conference keynote for the K-12 Online Conference in both 2006 and 2007. David blogs at davidwarlick.com/2cents/ and is @dwarlick on Twitter. |  |
Please mark your calendars for the 2010 K-12 Online Conference, and plan to participate starting the week of October 11th! We’ll publish a call for volunteers soon, as well as announce our selected presenters in upcoming weeks. Remember our call for presentations has been extended till August 23rd, so you STILL have a few more days to submit your own proposal! It’s going to be a GREAT conference this year as together we “Cultivate the Future!”