K-12 School Networking Conference: Conference Schedule Overview

CoSN's 9th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference

March 4, 2004
3rd Annual International Research-Policy Symposium: Moving from Rhetoric to Reality
Eugene Black Auditorium (B1 Level), World Bank

In Partnership with:

Goethe Institut

Sponsored by:

Media Partner:

The need for research as a basis for creating ICT policy and informing practice is widely recognized. There is little value in reiterating the need for research. Moving from the rhetoric of the importance of research to the reality of creating the type of research literature which can have impact for the effective use of the literature presents many complex issues. The 3rd Annual International Research-Policy Symposium will delve into these issues and focus on the structures, exemplars and processes that are emerging throughout the world pertaining to efforts to enable research to have useful consequences in the use of ICT in primary and secondary schooling.

Note: You must be pre-registered for this event. Name badges must be worn at all times.

Thursday, March 4, 2004

7:00 AM.	1st Shuttle to the World Bank departs the Hyatt Regency Hotel
7:20 AM.	2nd Shuttle to the World Bank departs the Hyatt Regency Hotel
8:00 AM. - 8:45 AM.	Continental Breakfast
8:45 AM. - 9:00 AM.	Welcome William Gilcher, PhD, Chair, CoSN International Committee Representative TBD, Education Program, World Bank Institute
9:00 AM. - 9:15 AM.	Greetings
9:15 AM. - 10:00 AM.	Keynote Presentation: “ICT and Networking - The English Experience of Research and Development” The presentation will explore some of the tensions and outcomes in British research on the impact of the new technologies in schools. It will suggest that we need new ways of engaging in R&D in the ICT field. This will require not merely different relationships between educators and researchers, but also new ways of networking among schools and teachers. The open source or 'hacker' culture provides a new model for the lateral creation and transfer of professional knowledge. Examples will be given of pioneering work from England. Professor David Hargreaves, Board Chair, British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA)
10:20 AM. - 10:20 AM.	National ICT Research Agendas: The "What" and the "How" This session will examine work being done in several countries on the development of national research agendas pertaining to ICT in primary and secondary schools. The session will focus on content of the research agendas and implementation. Framework presented by: James Bosco, PhD, Professor, Educational Studies, College of Education, Western Michigan University Marianne Bakia, Educational Researcher, Center for Technology and Learning, SRI International, Inc.
10:20 AM. - 11:30 AM.	Small Group Discussions
11:00 AM. - 11:20 AM.	Refreshment Break
11:00 AM. - 11:20 AM.	Large Group Discussion Robert Hawkins, Senior Education Specialist, Education Programs, The World Bank Institute (Moderator)
12:00 PM. - 1:30 PM.	Lunch
1:30 PM. - 2:15 PM.	Keynote Address: “Applying the Scientific Research Model to Education” G. Reid Lyon, PhD, Child Development & Behavior Branch, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, U.S. National Institutes of Health Responders: Shafika Isaacs, Executive Director, SchoolNetAfrica Gerry White, Chief Executive Officer, education.au limited, Australia
2:15 PM. - 2:30 PM.	Refreshment Break
2:30 PM. - 3:30 PM.	Bridging the Gap Between Researchers and Policy Makers There are efforts around the world to develop structures that are intended to ensure better connectivity between researchers and policy makers. This session will explore innovative structures to bridge the gap. Susan Patrick, Acting Director, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education (Moderator) Pierre Gendron, Director, Canada SchoolNet and LibraryNet, Industry Canada Ross Whitcher, Founder and Director, Communities Online Trust New Zealand
3:30 PM. - 4:30 PM.	Closing Keynote Address: “Understanding Understanding” Over the first five years of our lives, we learn by doing, by playing and by interacting with the world, driven by our immediate goals. We learn how to walk, to talk and to develop a great deal of common sense, though nobody is teaching us these as such. Suddenly, at about age five, we are dropped into a system where for the next twelve years most of our learning is expected to be through being told, by people or books. Learning without teaching is considered incidental and usually about bad habits. Children are less driven by desire and passion. Most education is conducted on a promise. A line is drawn in the sand when a child starts school. Most generally, computers in learning can be said to remove that line, to make education more seamless, and to increase understanding through doing. This will become even truer when every child starts school with a laptop, something that will (and should) happen very soon. At such time, the concept of school changes. As poorer countries look to computers for education, the biggest risk is that they will copy the old model of learning and school, itself coming from and still parked in an industrial age. Two specific projects will be discussed, one in Cambodia and one in Colombia, both set in total poverty, as well as extremely rural and terrorized areas, respectively. Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman, The Media Laboratory & Wiesner Professor, Media Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4:30 PM. - 4:45 PM.	Concluding Remarks & Adjourn William Gilcher, PhD, Chair, CoSN International Committee