Learning Technology Center to Host Educational Policy Summit - October 27th, 2009

The Learning Technology Center is pleased to announce that it will host an invitational summit, “Redefining Teacher Education for Digital-Age Learners,” December 6-8, 2009 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. One hundred educational leaders from around the country will meet to develop recommendations for a new model of teacher education that addresses the opportunities and challenges of today’s technology-based global society. The summit is made possible by a generous gift from Promethean, makers of ActivBoard interactive whiteboards.

“Key education stakeholders will be invited, including representatives from local, state, and national agencies, as well as state and federal lawmakers,” says Paul Resta, who developed the concept for the summit and is the Ruth Knight Millikan Professor in Instructional Technology and Director of the Learning Technology Center. “We are also honored to have a distinguished steering committee of educational policy and technology experts who have designed the summit’s format and agenda.” Resta is co-chair of the summit, along with Tom Carroll, President of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.

Summit participants will contribute to a series of working sessions to generate a shared vision of what teacher education should look like and to identify barriers that stand in the way of achieving that vision. A lineup of dynamic speakers will provide context for each session, along with a series of brief papers that participants will study ahead of time.

Featured speakers include Chris Dede, the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, and Barbara Means, Director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International, an independent research center in Menlo Park, California.

Many of the technologies that will be a focus of discussion will be used to facilitate the summit activities. Participants will provide immediate feedback to presenters with an electronic response system, decisions will be captured through Google Docs, and Promethean ActivBoards will be used in small group work sessions. For those interested in the proceedings, the Summit Web site will webcast the keynote presentations live and provide an online forum where presenters can answer questions.

Participants will develop recommendations for policy and action at the institutional, state, and national level to transform teacher workforce development. The recommendations will likely capitalize on new trends, such as the digital technology skills of today’s young teachers, continuous training and evolution of skills, and alternative pathways to teaching. A report on the recommendations will be presented at a reception for Congressional officials in Washington, DC and shared with educational policymakers and leaders throughout the nation.

Along with the report, a book, to be published by the Association of Teacher Educators, will focus on the challenging issues facing the future of teacher education. Summit presenters and other educational leaders will serve as chapter authors.

For more information about the summit, contact LTC External Projects Coordinator Ken Tothero.

—Laurie Caldwell, LTC Communications Coordinator