Back to the Future: Preparing Students for the Eighteenth Century
It is a pattern in our culture that periods of extreme economic, technological, and social
change are invariably followed by a tremendous resurgence in self-examination and a reassertion of basic truths. Students will find themselves in a time of information, expression, and rigorous reassessment of authority. In other words, the eighteenth century. What is new this time around is a trained teacher force and technologies that (ironically) allow a return to communication arts that were nearly lost. The sciences revealed much about who we are and we can use that knowledge to craft educational strategies with technology. We'll need them. Be warned! The next Enlightenment has already begun.

The Future Isn't What It Used To Be-- Good Thing for Classrooms

Technologists assert the astounding rate of hardware improvement will continue for another 10 years. Cultural anthropologists tell us the workplace is irresistibly evolving away from traditional models. Fortunately for teachers, the intersection of these trends opens the way for comfortable integration of technology into learning. With the alarming gap between the rich and the poor more or less equaling the gap between the learned and the untrained, the role of the educator has never been more important. A dynamic look at the data, the details, and the models.

Why the American Dream is Failing and Only Teachers Can Save It

A cornerstone of the American Dream is the hope that American children will do better than their parents: a better job, a better lifestyle, a better world. But technology and trade have reshaped American economic reality with terrible speed. In the '90s, the "decade of downsizing", more than 20% of the working American economic strata has actually been losing income. More and more people are doing worse and worse and the gap between the top and the bottom has widened alarmingly. Students risk graduating into a society of technological apartheid. By building "gold collar" skills into the curriculum, teachers get the American Dream back on track. Guidelines on how the teacher's traditional role can be extended to accomplish this and examples from Kindergarden to high school of how it's being done.

Brain Danger in the Mousepad: Restoring the Original Digital

Very recent studies in the evolution of the brain suggest that the brain and the use of the hand evolved together, making the whole body a problem solving instrument. The intricate complexities of the real world's physical problems (including math) are handicapped by the two-dimensional restrictions of the mousepad. Companies have discovered computer-trained engineers aren't as good at problem-solving as those that worked on their own cars. Religious practises, both old and new, commonly include a physical element. These ancient wisdoms and in new findings provide warnings we should heed as we set up our technology centers. Learn how to work toward full dimensional learning. A recap of the research and a checklist for making sure your own workstations are critical thinking oases, not digital deserts.

Standards Sizzle When Students Use Technology

While state mandates and accountability dominate educational dialogue, teachers have discovered that
technology can engage students and push their understanding to new heights. Integrating standards and
technology into project-based learning enhances knowledge synthesis while giving students the skills and instincts they will need to be productive members of society. Hall Davidson, nationally known for presenting student work, and Emmy- winning Director of Education Services at Southern California PBS station KOCE-TV will share projects from Kindergarten through college. From primary grade Hollywood moguls to cutting edge high school web work, even non-tech teachers have shown what students can learn when empowered with technology tools.

The New 3 "Rs": Real World, Real Kids, Real Projects

Technology has leveled the playing field between working adults and students. By allowing students access to real tools and real problems, the hypothetical world of "Train X leaving Station Y" becomes the real world. Across the country, students are finding their skills increasingly useful to the real world. PBS station KOCE has used students as instructional designers for programs and produced "real" programs with student-designed computer graphics. Hear how from Kindergarten to high school, teachers can put animation, multimedia, and media tools into student hands for fun and curriculum. Then face the next dilemma of technologically sophisticated students with marketable skills should I bother going to college?

Concurrent Sessions

The Inner Game of Projects: The Winning Projects from the 34th Media &
Multimedia Festival

The California Student Media and Multimedia Festival has found again and again that projects of worth begin with material closest to students.Their inner loves and fears, environments, and friends bring out
projects that motivate the mastery of technology tools. A high school student wrestles with her racial identity. A middle school special education class with a love for a movie genre reaches very deep
to make a monster "movie". An elementary class finds the world around them can stimulate poetry, art, and satire in multimedia. The poignant inner dialogue of a middle school class clown, the redemption of the 10,000 pound kid, the definitive history of horror movies and a museum quality exhibit and you get a sense what you will see in this collection of winning student projects from the 34th annual California Student Media and Multimedia Festival. Come and raise your own inner game standards.

Everything You Know is Wrong

When mixed together, copyright and education seem to produce misunderstandings, mistaken practices, and fear and trembling at every level. This is not surprising since misinformation, misunderstanding, and downright falsehoods come from lawyers, institutions, and the popular press. Copyright and intellectual property have firm roots in the US Constitution and educators, and knowledge-based segments of society have clear and deep safeguards. But in a time when the Fifth Estate (the press), entangled in large conglomerates and no longer free, has become part of the problem, where can you get the straight stuff? Where can you sort through the shades of grey? This session! Come, feel free, and take home the famous Copyright Quiz! Get the No FAT (Fear and Trembling) low down on copyright.


From The Mouse of Babes : The Winners of the California Student Media & Multimedia Festival Winners

Amazing projects from students and teachers. Digital grandmothers, QuickTime VR, swing music, and FDR--in one elementary project! A tour of the astounding award-winners from individual projects to multiple-task class efforts plus organizational tips on how to execute projects in your own classroom. Move backward from finished products to bare beginnings to learn how teachers can integrate meaningful projects into the curriculum, manage time, and still match the standards.

Getting Ready for the Big Bandwidth Age: Digital Convergence to Try Now

Everyone's turn to be a media mogul is coming. Student teams will turn out projects with digital video, music, and text to match whatever form the big bandwidth in your community will take. They will fill channels that don't exist now. They'll do it with an education-size budgets. And they can begin on Monday. Explore some powerful convergent programs under $30 that bring big impact to content. Convert curriculum based multimedia projects (or school information) to QuickTime for the Web. Watch how nonlinear editing, digital music, and graphics can be used in subject areas to engage students.

Digital Television: What the Future Will Looks Like and What it Will Mean to Classroom and Education

A heads-up at how the coming Digital Television will effect your living room and your classroom. Learn what "digital" actually means in media and how to explain it to your students and staff. Demos of DTV and a self-test on whether or not you're ready.

The Nuts and Bolts of Digital Editing

Off the shelf computers can now do what television stations with $200,000 editing stations did only five years ago. The ability to digitize original video can be as cheap as a HyperStudio demo disc (free) or as powerful as Adobe Premier. Old VHS or new digital video blend into finished programs. A $30 program like QuickTIme Pro can work with layered video, squeeze sound and video into matching times in Macs and PCs. Morphs and other visual tweaks blend together with original video to arrest, inform, and engage.

Camcorders and Computers: Convergence You Can Try at Home!

The trusty camcorder and VCR remain powerful but underused tools for students and teachers to create group-based, research-centered projects in the curriculum in a medium that can be shared with parents and the school at large. With the advent of inexpensive videocards and nonlinear editing programs for computers, camcorder video can appear in multimedia projects, web pages, and more. Camcorders can serve as scanners and audio recorders and VCRs can serve as "printers" for multimedia. Learn how the old and the new technologies are blending together to make technology easier and more fun to integrate into curriculum-based lessons. Get strategies and worksheets for planning and managing student projects. Optional: Bring your own camcorder (new or old) and learn the buttons you've never pushed. Don't forget to bring tape and charge the batteries!

To contact Hall Davidson, e-mail hall@cccd.edu or call 323-466-2236. For bookings or further information ask for Gina.

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Bookmark this page for updates in the coming week. Revisions begin Feb. 7, 1999.