Announcing the 2013 Global STEMx Education Conference & Call for Proposals

We are pleased to announce the Global 2013 STEMx Education Conference, the world’s first massively open online conference for educators which focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and more.

The conference will be held online, around the clock, over the course of three days, September 19 - 21, 2013, and will be free to attend! Our founding sponsor is HP, and core conference support also comes from the International Society for Technology in Education® (ISTE).

STEMxCon will be a highly inclusive and engaging event that will encourage primary, secondary, and tertiary (K-16) students and educators around the world to share and learn about innovative approaches to STEMx learning and teaching. Register at http://www.STEMxCon.com to be kept informed, and check out the conference information and menu links to the left and at the top of each page.

Presenting:

The conference seeks to present ideas, examples, and projects related to STEM in a changing world.

The Call for Proposals for the conference opens May 30th, 2013. Presenters can submit proposals for general sessions focused on one of the conference strands. While the final deadline for submissions is 
September 1, 2013, presenters will be notified of acceptance on a rolling basis starting June 15th, 2013. There is a motivation for early submission and acceptance, since once accepted presenters are able to schedule their own presentation times and the options become more limited as time goes on.

As a conference that is focused on being participatory, we encourage new presenters as well as more experienced ones to submit to present.

International Advisory and Outreach Board:

Anyone can apply to be a member of the international advisory and outreach board. Advisory board members are recognized on the website and are asked to:

• Promote both participation and attendance at the conference
• Help us find partner organizations in their region(s)
• Help support and potentially train presenters in their geographical region
• If possible, help moderate sessions during the actual conference

To sign up for the advisory board, please make sure you have joined the STEMxCon online network, and then join the advisory board group HERE.

Conference Partner Organizations:

Whether you are a small school or a multi-national non-profit organization, we want to encourage you to become a conference partner. You must be non-commercial and primarily or substantively focused on STEMx activities to be approved. Once approved, your organization will be listed with a link, logo, and a short description; and you will be provided with a "spotlight" speaker session in the conference.

Our goal for the conference is to have it be a milestone event, bringing together organizations and individuals from all over the world. We recognize that much (if not most!) of the outreach for this conference will come from schools and organizations who advertise the conference to their memberships, and we want to recognize and "reward" those who do this!

There are no financial obligations for being a partner organization--all we ask is that you actively promote the conference to your membership and network, and encourage participation as well as presentations and submissions. To apply to be a conference partner organization, please make sure you have joined the STEMxCon online network, and then join the partner group HERE.

Conference Sponsors:

There are opportunities for commercial sponsorship of STEMxCon, and both recognition and authentic appreciation for financial support will be given to those who choose to sponsor. Sponsorship levels and benefits can be discussed with Steve Hargadon directly at steve@hargadon.com or 916-283-7901.

More Information:

STEMxCon's founding sponsor is HP. As one of the world’s largest technology companies with operations in more than 170 countries, HP is helping to solve environmental and social challenges by uniting the power of people and technology. The HP Sustainability & Social Innovation team focuses on improving lives and businesses every day by focusing on the environment, health, education, and community. By bringing together the expertise of their more than 300,000 HP employees in collaboration with our partners, HP makes technology work for people in powerful ways that create a positive impact on the world.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) is also a core conference supporter, and is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving learning and teaching by advancing the effective use of technology in PK–12 and teacher education. ISTE represents more than 100,000 education leaders and emerging leaders throughout the world and informs its members regarding educational issues of national and global scope.

We are looking forward to this fun event, and to your participation!  For further updates, please join the STEMxCon network and follow the conference hashtag #stemxcon, the STEMxCon Twitter account, and the STEMxCon Facebook page.

Thank you for your interest!

Lucy Gray
Co-Chair
lucy@lucygrayconsulting.com
http://lucygrayconsulting.com

Steve Hargadon
Co-Chair
steve@hargadon.com
http://www.SteveHargadon.com
http://www.Web20Labs.com

Jim Vanides, M.Ed, BSME
Co-Chair
Global Education Program Manager
Sustainability and Social Innovation
Hewlett Packard Company
Twitter: @jgvanides

Tuesday Interview: Education, Success, and What Really Works - Dan Willingham and Doug Lemov

Join me today, Tuesday, May 28th, for an unique live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with authors Dan Willingham and Doug Lemov to talk about education, success, and what really works. Please note that this show is earlier in the day than usual.

In When Can You Trust the Experts: How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education, psychology professor and returning guest Dan Willingham laments that "the last fifty years have encapsulated a flood of educational quackery and nostrums. The innovation and implementation continues, while teachers, administrators, and policymakers have a hard time separating the wheat from the chaff. What makes this so difficult for individuals in the American educational system? They're on their own. There is no research team to evaluate every new idea. But there is pressure to effect change through these innovations." Dan offers a four-step process for discerning which of the latest educational models, programs, and approaches are actually worthy of attention.

Doug Lemov, author of best-selling Teach Like a Champion, joins us as well to discuss his newest book, Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better. Doug and his co-authors want to put the art of practice "front and center," and show that "anyone, in any field, can come to appreciate that practice... makes champions," and that "deliberately engineered and designed practice can revolution our most important activities."


Date: Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
Time: 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-05-28.1412.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/willinghamlemov.mp3 and http://www.futureofeducation.com.

Daniel T. Willingham is professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1992. Until about 2000, his research focused solely on the brain basis of learning and memory. Today, all of his research concerns the application of cognitive psychology to K–12 education. He writes the “Ask the Cognitive Scientist” column for American Educator magazine and is the author of Why Don’t Students Like School? (Jossey-Bass, 2009). His writing on education has been translated into ten languages. To learn more, go to http://www.danielwillingham.com.

Doug Lemov’s highly influential first book, Teach Like a Champion, was based on his study of top teachers in high-poverty public schools. He uses what he learned watching great teachers work their magic to train educators as part of his work at Uncommon Schools, the nonprofit school management organization he helped found. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College, a Master of Arts from Indiana University, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. To learn more, go to www.teachlikeachampion.com.