CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) will kick off the organization’s 2018 Annual Conference on Monday, March 12 in Washington, DC.
 
Themed Exponential Change: Designing Learning in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the four-day global conference will bring together school system leaders, scholars and industry experts for close discussions on how new, rapidly changing technologies are shaping education and society as a whole.
 
“Our society is entering a new industrial era: the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is a transformational period where artificial intelligence and smart machines will change economies globally,” said Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN. “Now is the time for educators to start a conversation about what these changes mean for learning and how we can redesign schools.”  
 
Setting the stage for the full Conference will be the CoSN/UNESCO Global Symposium on Educating for Digital Citizenship on Monday, March 12. Attendees will be a part of lively discussions with experts on how students can become responsible digital citizens. Speakers will include Baroness Beeban Kidron, UK House of Lords; Milton Chen, Senior Fellow / Executive Director, Emeritus, George Lucas Educational Foundation; Professor Fernando Reimers, Harvard Graduate School of Education; as well as David Atchoarena, Director for the UNESCO Division for Policies and Lifelong Learning. If you cannot make it in person, the opening (8:00am – 10:15am ET) and closing sessions (2:15pm – 4:00pm ET) will be live-streamed by Padcaster on CoSN’s Facebook Page.
 
Following the Global Symposium, the Annual Conference will include plenary sessions, dozens of breakout sessions as well as additional workshops for school leaders. Details on the plenary sessions follow:
 
  • Opening General Session: “Designing Learning in the 4th Industrial Revolution” – Monday, March 12. Speakers include: Tom Vander Ark, Author and CEO of Getting Smart (Keynote Speaker); Jonathan Rochelle, Director of Product Management at Google and a Co-Founder of Google Docs and Google Drive; Katherine Prince, Senior Director, Strategic Foresight; and moderated by Dr. Valerie Truesdale, Chief Technology Officer for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (NC).
  • Closing General Session: “Awesome Leadership in Exponential Change” – Wednesday, March 14. Keynote speaker is Neil Pasricha, Happiness Expert and Bestselling Author of The Book of Awesome.
 
Learn more about the CoSN 2018 Annual Conference, including the full lineup of sessions and speakers, at cosn.org/cosn2023.