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OPENING PLENARY :: Tuesday, March 6
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Douglas Thomas is an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. His research focuses on the intersections of technology and culture. It has been funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, and the Annenberg Center for Communication. Doug is also the author of the book Hacker Culture and a coauthor or coeditor of several other books, including Technological Visions: The Hopes and Fears that Shape New Technologies and Cybercrime: Law Enforcement, Security and Surveillance in the Information Age. He is the founding editor of Games and Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media, an international, interdisciplinary journal focused on games research.
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Karen Cator is the Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. She has devoted her career to creating the best possible learning environments for this generation of students. Prior to joining the department, Cator directed Apple's leadership and advocacy efforts in education. In this role, she focused on the intersection of education policy and research, emerging technologies, and the reality faced by teachers, students and administrators. Cator joined Apple in 1997 from the public education sector, most recently leading technology planning and implementation in Juneau, Alaska. She also served as Special Assistant for Telecommunications for the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. Cator holds a Masters in school administration from the University of Oregon and Bachelors in early childhood education from Springfield College. She is the past chair of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and has served on the several boards including the Software & Information Industry Association—Education.
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Mark Edwards currently serves as superintendent of the Mooresville Graded School District (MGSD) in Mooresville, NC. Previously, Dr. Edwards was superintendent of the Danville, and later, Henrico, VA school districts. He was Virginia Superintendent of the Year in 2001 and was named a Harold W. McGraw Prize In Education recipient in 2003. Dr. Edwards began his career in education as a science teacher in Brooksville, Florida immediately following his graduation from the University of Tennessee. He went on to obtain a Master of Arts degree in school administration from Tennessee Technological University, and subsequently completed his doctorate in educational leadership from Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee. For more than thirty years, he has served students in Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Alabama and North Carolina as teacher, assistant principal, principal, dean and most recently, superintendent. As eSchool News Magazine’s 2002 Tech Savvy Superintendent, Dr. Edwards is considered a pioneer of 1:1 computing in public schools. He is currently leading his second district one-to-one laptop initiative, equipping more than 5400 students in the Mooresville district with 21st century tools via laptops, interactive boards, and iPads. Both as a renowned public educator, as well as a father of three, he exemplifies the MGSD motto, Every child, Every day.
Read EdWeek article on Mark Edwards
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CLOSING PLENARY :: Wednesday, March 7
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John Seely Brown is a visiting scholar and an adviser to the provost at the University of Southern California and an independent co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. He is an author or a coauthor of several books, including The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion; The Only Sustainable Edge; and The Social Life of Information, which has been translated into nine languages. He has also authored or coauthored more than 100 papers in scientific journals. Prior to his current position, John was the chief scientist of Xerox and, for nearly two decades, the director of the company’s Palo Alto Research Center. He was also a cofounder of the Institute for Research on Learning. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education. |
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Bailey Mitchell has spent 23 years as an educator, and has held the position of Chief Technology and Information Officer for Forsyth County Schools for the past 11 years. He is responsible for both the educational and administrative technology enterprise, with a focus on online learning, collaborative classrooms, parent communication and teacher support. Bailey’s technology enterprise is nationally recognized as a leader in educational technology. Prior to working for Forsyth County Schools, Bailey served as the Director of Instructional Technology at the Georgia Department of Education, where he directed the state’s education technology initiatives and was instrumental in building a network of 15 Technology Training Centers, located in universities and regional education sites across the state. Bailey has a bachelor’s degree in career and technology education and a master’s and specialist degree in educational administration and curriculum and supervision from the University of Georgia.
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Nichole Pinkard is a Visiting Associate Professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University in Chicago. She is the founder of Digital Youth Network and co-creator of Remix World, a social learning platform that connects youth’s learning opportunities in school, home, and beyond. In collaboration with the Chicago Public Library, Dr. Pinkard helped found YOUmedia, a public learning space that immerses high school students in a context of traditional media – books – to make and produce new media artifacts like music, games, videos, and virtual worlds. Dr. Pinkard is the recipient of a 2010 Common Sense Media Award for Outstanding Commitment to Creativity and Youth, the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies, an NSF Early CAREER Fellowship, and a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for research on how digital media affects literacy. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, and on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Games Research program. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, an M.S. in Computer Science from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University.
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Arana Shapiro has been working in the field of education since 1999. She started teaching in the Inglewood Public School District, where she taught for first grade. In Inglewood, Arana served on the district curriculum review team, helping to develop and implement new curriculum in this small district. Upon moving to New York City, Arana began working at Teachers College (TC), Columbia University’s Early Childhood Education Program. At TC, Arana helped develop the Early Childhood Education department’s new student teacher program by visiting New York City public school classrooms and finding appropriate placement and mentorship for TC students. It was during her work at Teachers College when Arana began working with a group of educators to develop curriculum for a new school, The School at Columbia University and subsequently became a founding faculty member of The School in 2003. Arana's desire to bring new media technologies into the classroom prompted her to migrate from the classroom to the technology team at The School and later to the Lead Educational Technologist position at the Ross Institute, where she integrated technology into K-12 classrooms at both The Ross School in East Hampton and Ross Global Academy Charter School. In addition, Arana was a reading specialist for Groundwork for Youth in East New York Public Schools. She has presented research at many national education conferences, including AERA and NCTM. She received her Masters of Arts in Education with an emphasis in Second Language Learning and Acquisition from Pepperdine University, and did coursework in TC’s Communication and Education program. Currently, Arana is pursuing her Master’s in School Leadership from Bank Street.
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Travis Allen is a young visionary for Digital Learning in the classroom. Before graduating high school, Travis created a viral YouTube video on revolutionizing education in America through mobile learning. Today, Travis is a junior at Kennesaw State University (KSU), where he operates his growing non-profit organization, the iSchool Initiative. Working closely with the Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) organization at KSU he has been able to turn his vision into a full blown movement with schools all over the world adopting the iSchool Initiative's concept. Travis manages a team of thirty people who are touring the country providing seminars, workshops, publications, and a network for students and educators, to motivate them to embrace becoming life-long digital learners in the Information Age. Travis is quickly becoming one of the top leaders in the emerging digital learning revolution movement.
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