Please check this post, published June 2, with an update on the summit.
Like many of you, I am locked up at home, experiencing the world around me change and a result of the coronavirus pandemic. As an educator, I am particularly concerned and excited about what this change means for teachers, students, and society.
When I wrote “Maker Education Revolution“, I argued that significant change in Education is necessary if we really want the next generations to continue to live in a society of prosperity and abundance. I could not have imagined a scenario where this change (perhaps a revolutionary change?) could have been made necessary and urgent in the blink of an eye.
Now, on April 3, 2020, I want to know what this change will be like.
So …
I have an important announcement to make:
We are working on a virtual summit dedicated to Teaches and STEM Education.
Back in December 2019, we published a Virtual Summit dedicated to Makers. It was a blast and a huge honor for me to bring together 22 amazing Makers who talked about their craft and inspired thousands of attendees.
We are now doing something similar, but for Teachers and STEM Education.
Our vision is to connect Educators across the world so that they can learn from each other for the benefit of their students and our societies.
We want to help Educators be the best they possibly can be.
What is this Summit about?
The Tech Explorations STEM Education Virtual Summit is a unique, one-of-a-kind event where Educators from around the world come together to share their best insights on the technologies, methodologies, and philosophies they use to teach and inspire the next generation of amazing humans.
The Summit will take place on the Web, and is open to all Educators. The content of the Summit will also be appealing to parents, homeschoolers, education policy makers, and school principals.
The overarching theme for this Summit is “education in a changing world.” The COVID19 pandemic is a catalyst for widespread changes in almost every aspect of modern life: social trends, business practices, and objectives, political conduct, international relations, and of course, education, are undergoing rapid and forced change.
We all have an opportunity to instigate positive change in Education.
In this summit, I invite presenters to think about how their specific education niches are affected by these forces, and how educators can take advantage of the latest education methodologies, technologies, and philosophies of practice.
Below are some indicative sub-themes of this Virtual Summit:
- Project-Based Learning.
- Growth Mindset.
- Problem Solving.
- Art and the Sciences.
- New educational technologies.
- How to plan and document an experiment.
- Understanding the world through Data Science.
- Critical thinking.
- STEM teaching and classroom methodologies.
- STEM teaching at home.
- Visual Thinking.
- STEM curriculum and resources development methodologies.
- Teaching K-12 online during a crisis (i.e., COVID19 pandemic).
- Assessment techniques, pedagogical outcomes, and feedback.
- Science education.
- Classroom diversity.
- How to educate and inspire students.
- Life-long learning for Educators.
- Curriculum and pedagogy.
Who should care?
In my humble opinion, everyone.
But especially if you are in one of the following fields, I invite you to attend the Summit, and also to consider being a Speaker:
- K-12 STEM teachers.
- K-12 Principals.
- Parents and guardians of students in K-12.
- Education policymakers at the local, state, and federal government levels.
- Education researchers and practitioners from Academia.
A list of confirmed Speaker (as of May 3):
The growing list of experts who will present at the summit include
- Celinda Corsini,
- Meridith Ebbs,
- Jorge DeSousa Pires,
- Peter Ellerton,
- Prof John Fischetti,
- Jesse King,
- Joseph Murdoch,
- Kieran Nolan,
- Richard Park,
- Matt Richards,
- Karsten Schulz,
- Kurt Yang,
- Seven Vinton,
- Dr Ken Dovey,
- Nicola O’Brien,
- Gil Poznanski,
- Kurt Yang,
- Marianne Malmstrom,
- Jim Taylor.
Would you like to participate as a speaker?
We welcome submissions for Presentations from any member of our community who can demonstrate thought leadership in Education. If you would like to be a Speaker, please read the attached document (see at the bottom of this message), and then complete the Call For Speakers form.
Dates
- April 13, 2020: Deadline for presentation outline submissions and booking of presentation recording.
- April 27, 2020: Presentation recordings begin.
- June 1, 2020: Presentation recordings end.
- July 4, 2020: Event starts (tentative).
- July 4, 2020: Event ends (tentative).
If you are interested in being a Speakers, please submit the Call For Speakers form before April 13, and expect to do the recording of your presentation between April 13 and June 14. We will allocate recording dates that work with my and the Speaker’s schedules but on a first-come-first-served basis.
With your help, this will be a fantastic event 🙂
Be well,
Peter
Answers to questions you may have:
- Is this a free event to attend? Yes. All presentations will be free to all registered attendees for the duration of the summit. There is the option to purchase a Full Access Pass for attendees that can’t make it, or want to re-watch.
- I want to be a Speaker, will I be paid? No. As with a traditional conference, Speakers are not paid. As the organizer, I take on all of the financial risk and recover costs through sponsor support and full access pass sales. What I give back to Speakers is a high-quality, stress-free opportunity to publish their work, access to thousands of motivated attendees, a boost in online (global) reputation, and a community of presenters who are all influencers in their niche.
- Do Speakers need to develop original content? No, unless you really want to. You were invited because you are an expert in a specific field and have already created valuable content and thought leadership. We encourage you to build on this. Use material that you have already developed and presented. We only ask that you update it so that it is current, and adapt it for an online audience.
- What is the audience hoping to get out of a Summit presentation? The audience of this Summit will be mostly teaching practitioners. Therefore they want to learn about new ways of being excellent teachers. Your presentation should have a sizeable action-led component, in which you explain the process and mechanism of achieving a specific outcome. Also, we find that answering the “why” questions (as in “why should I care about what you have to say”) extremely important. We believe that every excellent presentation should start with “why” and finish with “how.”
- Can Speakers help spread the word? Yes! Please do! The success of the Summit depends much on Speakers being active in publicizing their participation. If you are a Speaker that works hard to deliver a fantastic presentation, why wouldn’t you? Also, we have an affiliate system in place so that you can earn revenue from every Full Access Pass sale that you generate.