(Note: Conversation alternates between Spanish and English.)Картини

January 27, 2010

11:30am – 1:30pm

At the next Horizon Forum, you are invited to join the discussion, moderated by Arthur Harkins and John Moravec, with special guests, as we probe into the deep future of education.

The New York Times’ John Tierney published an interview with Ray Kurzweil on accelerating change:

Now, [Kurzweil] sees biology, medicine, energy and other fields being revolutionized by information technology. His graphs [of accelerating technological change] already show the beginning of exponential progress in nanotechnology, in the ease of gene sequencing, in the resolution of brain scans. With these new tools, he says, by the 2020s we’ll be adding computers to our brains and building machines as smart as ourselves.

What does this mean for schools today? Kurzweil’s vision of the Singularity is criticized for being technologically deterministic. But, are there relevant social and cultural aspects related to the human experience? At the Horizon Forum’s next open roundtable, will explore what changes could take place in our schools and learning institutions within the next 35 years as technology transforms the human mind and human potential… and what we can start doing today!

Lunch and validated parking will be provided. Please RSVP your attendance by 10am on January 25 to Carole MacLean at cmaclean@umn.edu or call 612-625-5060.

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The Horizon Forum is sponsored by the Preparation to Practice Group in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. For for information about the Horizon Forum, contact John Moravec at moravec@umn.edu or call 612-625-3517.

Slides from Saturday’s talk at World Future Society‘s World Future 2009 conference in Chicago:

Destination Imagination is the world’s largest creative problem solving program for kindergarten through college-aged learners. DI participants develop life skills while solving challenges through their unique, hands-on experiences in the sciences, technology, mechanics, engineering, theater, improvisation, goal setting, time and budget management, team building, and leadership. The University of Minnesota’s Leapfrog Institutes builds positive futures for human capital development through the infusion of creativity and innovation in education. DI’s collaboration with Leapfrog Institutes extends the organization’s creativity and imagination program with knowledge construction, innovation, and active futuring components.

[More information...]

The e-competencies conference is over –and, by all measures, it seems to be a resounding success! Many, many thanks go to Cristóbal Cobo and Jutta Treviranus for the co-organization of the event.

I am particularly grateful for our amazing participants. A few of their presentations are already online:

• Martín Parselis (Video) [UCA]
• Guillermo Lutzky (Video) [ORT]
• Tom Elko (Video) [Independent Media Producer]
• Janet Murphy (Video) [UToronto]
• Miguel Raimilla (Video) [ONE ROOF ]
• Florencio Ceballos (Video) [IDRC]
• Suzanne Miric and Patrick Walker (Video) [UMN / METAMORF Tech.]
• Roberto Balaguer (Video) [U de la R ]
• Pablo Muñoz (Video 1 and 2 ) [UDD]
• Germania Rodríguez (Video) [UTPL]
• Víctor Zárate and Marilú Casas (Video ) [ITESM]
• Jorge Silva (Video) [U.Toronto]
• Jayson Richardson (Video) [UMN]
• Stian Haklev (Video) [U.Toronto
• Edgardo Lurig (Video) (ICT Policy Advisor of RNTC and UCSF)

Also, we had some great real-time presentations. Cristóbal Cobo posted many of our slide sets at Issuu:

• D.Sutch [presentation], FutureLab
• I.Peña [presentation], UOC
• T.Lara [presentation], UC3M
• L.Lach [presentation], Intel Educar
• D.Uribe [presentation], U.Buffalo
• A. Pisanty [presentation] UNAM, A. Piscitelli [presentation]
• F.Santamaría [presentation], U.León
• M.Quintero [presentation], ILCE
• G. Andrade [presentation], UNAM
• A.Harkins [presentation], UMN
• Rolando Palacios [presentation] (Tical)
• J.Moravec [presentation], UMN

Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to the amazing support team at FLACSO-México that made the conference possible, especially Ana Karla Romeu, Aarón Láscarez, Javier Cruz, Edgar Gutierrez, Déborah Monroy and Marduk Pérez de Lara. Thank you all!

On top of all these thank you’s, additional thanks goes to Cristóbal Cobo for compiling above lists of presentations.

• In English:  www.mogulus.com/ecompetencias_en 
• In Spanish: www.mogulus.com/ecompetencias_es 

Also, updates will be posted via Twitter:  http://twitter.com/ecompetencies

Read on for the event program:

Programa preliminar 24.10.08 (20:00)

9:00 Welcome and opening remarks

Giovanna Valenti [FLACSO], John Moravec [UMN] and Jutta Treviranus [UT]

9:10 Real time conference (starting with Europe) 5hrs

10:20 Virtual/ In Person Conferences

11:55 – 12:00 Break

12:00-14:00 Virtual/ In Person Conferences

14:00 LUNCH

15:00 – 16:00 Panel Discussion (English)

Miguel Raimilla (USA)
Florencio Ceballos (CND)
Jayson Richardson (USA)
Suzanne Miric and Patrick Walker (USA)
Diego Uribe (USA)
Tom Elko (USA)
Víctor Zárate (María de la Luz Casas) (MEX)
Luis Lach (MEX)

16:00-16:55 Virtual/ In Person Conferences

17:00-17:05 Break

17:05-18:00  Virtual/ In Person Conferences

Gabriel Adrián Curi (Video 10 mins) [UCA]
17:15 Martha Cruz del Valle (In Person 15 mins) [Telefónica]

17:15- 18:15 Panel Discussion (Spanish)

Roberto Balaguer (URU)
Rolando Palacios (CHI)
Pablo Muñoz (CHI)
Edgardo Lüring (ARG)
Gabriel Adrián Curi (ARG)
Martín Parsellis (ARG)
Manuel Juárez Pacheco (MEX)
Guillermo Lutsky (ARG)

18:15-19:00 Closing remarks

Cristóbal Cobo, John Moravec, Jutta Treviranus

19:00-19:30 Toast

This is just a reminder that the submission deadline to participate in this FLACSO-México, University of Minnesota and University of Toronto co-organized event on e-competencies and e-skills is coming up this Friday (September 26).  Participants can join in person or virtually, and need not present to join the event (although presentations are encouraged!). We already have many outstanding proposals from throughout the Americas (and beyond), and welcome a few more!  Feel free to contact me with questions, etc., at moravec@umn.edu.

More information is at the conference website: www.e-competencies.org (or, in Spanish: www.e-competencias.org).

Upcoming event:

October 31, 2008

Mexico City, Mexico

Conference website: www.e-competencies.org

The Knowledge Society demands that we leapfrog ahead in our education systems, build a new digital literacy, and improve soft skills (creativity, innovation, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking, among others) that could help all 21^st century citizens become productive, effective knowledge workers. Educators, policymakers, business leaders, parents, and youth must identify and develop new sets of e-skills and e-competencies to help youth succeed, and build a capacity for success toward the 22^nd century.  The purpose of this event is to identify, project and discuss the e-skills and e-competencies required for success in the 21^st and early 22^nd centuries. This event will explore, gather and analyze relevant experiences in training and development of e-skills throughout North America.

The activity builds from the collaborative work of scholars from FLACSO-México, the University of Minnesota and the University of Toronto.  This public session invites thought leaders and innovators in the development of the e-skills to share their work and experiences. Guest presenters will be invited to participate physically or virtually, and all presentations will be recorded, translated into Spanish and English, and available for viewing online and discussion.

This event is funded through the support of PIERAN, the Interinstitutional Program for North American Studies at El Colegio de México, and the collaborating institutions.

This is not your typical conference!

To facilitate focused discussions and innovative approaches to dialogue on e-competencies, the organizing committee has established the following rules:

• No presentation may be longer than 10 minutes (this is the maximum length allowed by YouTube, and will be strictly enforced).
• A maximum of four PowerPoint (or similar) slides will be allowed.  It is the presenter’s responsibility to ensure both English and Spanish versions of their slides and any accompanying materials are available.

In addition:

• There are no registration fees for this conference!
• Although in-person presentations are encouraged, presenters may participate virtually (via Skype or Adobe Acrobat Connect) or in-person.
• Participants that find it difficult to participate via live video or in person may contribute a pre-recorded YouTube (or similar) video to be shown during the event and made available in the online library.
• Presenters and participants from throughout the world are invited.
• All participants will be invited to continue our discussions online at this conference website and elsewhere.
• All conference products will be made available for further dissemination and development through a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.

To submit a proposal, click here. (Deadline: September 26, 2008)

Please let me know what you think! The resultant image will become the new logo for the Leapfrog Institutes.