James Surowiecki, Opening Keynote

Sunday, June 29, 5:45–7 pm, Convention Center   

Author, journalist, and historian James Surowiecki kicks off NECC with his perspective on The Wisdom of Crowds and the ways in which a diverse collection of independently deciding individuals is likely to make certain types of decisions and predictions better than individuals or even experts.

In an age when collaborative tools and media are readily available, educators at all levels will benefit from hearing how skilled application of diversity, independence, decentralization, and aggregation can be leveraged in education settings to arrive at transformative solutions.

Jim Carleton And Mali Bickley

Tuesday, July 1, 8:30–9:45 am, Convention Center   

Jim Carleton and Mali Bickley are Canadian educators leveraging the collaborative power of technology to help their students help others worldwide.

Aided by the generous support of NBC's education division, Jim and Mali offer a multimedia-rich, onstage dialogue featuring their inspirational experiences and can-do insights on how they have transcended traditions in education to create dynamic, engaging learning environments. Jim and Mali will be interviewed by by prominent NBC journalist Lester Holt. Holt is the weekend anchor for NBC Nightly News, and is also co-anchor of the weekend edition of TODAY.

Idit Harel Caperton, PhD

Closing Keynote: Wednesday, July 2, 2:45–4:00 pm, Convention Center   

The Transformational Power of Social Media Technology in Learning: Inspiring Stories from the Classroom and Beyond!

Social Networks, Wikis and Blogs are changing the informational, social, political, and educational landscapes. Wikipedia has become the information resource of choice. There are more than 160 million users on MySpace. YouTube is hosting 80 million videos and managing 3 million user accounts. Hundreds of millions of people are gathering daily on the Web to explore, express and exchange media projects and ideas through online social networks. A large portion of them are children and youth.

Dr. Idit Harel Caperton predicted these phenomena after a decade at the MIT Media Lab, and left to start MaMaMedia.com in 1995. As the originator of the term "Clickerati" (the generation born after the mid-90s who cannot imagine life without the Internet), she invented the first Internet media company with special services for Clickerati kids, envisioning their near-addiction to digital learning through creation of rather than consumption of media. To this end, she gave them hundreds of dynamic activities for creating, collaborating, and socializing online. She taught many online networks (AOL-KidsOnly, ATT-WorldNet, Earthlink, Disney-Go, WebTV) and advertisers (General Mills, Nintendo, Disney) how to engage the young and harness business potential within digitally-connected communities of kids.

One of the first graduates of the MIT Media Lab and a student and colleague of learning-technology guru, Professor Seymour Papert, Harel-Caperton has been studying the ways in which learners are empowered with programmable technology since the early 80s.

To close NECC 2008, she will present her recent invention in 1:1 computing—the Globaloria Networks (www.globaloria.org)—complete with cases of how today’s social media technology is creating opportunities for student collaboration and global exchange never before possible. Included will be a synthesis of specific examples hand-picked from content presented at NECC 2008.

Her fast-paced, multi-dimensional tapestry of stories is sure to stimulate and inspire your thinking about contemporary learning ideas in education, and where we are heading. See how the work you and your peers are doing is transforming education!