Marc Prensky

Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, futurist, visionary and inventor in the critical areas of education and learning. Marc is the founder of Games2train, an e-learning company whose clients include IBM, Bank of America, Nortel and Nokia. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001).

Marc's professional focus has been on reinventing the learning process, combining the motivation of video games and other highly engaging activities with the driest content of education and business. He is considered one of the world's leading experts on the connection between games and learning. His innovative combination of educational tools and game technology - including the world's first fast-action videogame-based corporate training tool – is being accepted throughout schools, government and corporate America.

Strategy+Business magazine called Marc "That rare visionary who implements." Marc has designed and built over 100 software games in his career, including world-wide, multi-user games and simulations that run on all platforms from the internet to handhelds to cell phones. Marc has created the most advanced and engaging technology for education, business training and e-Learning.

Marc's presentations inspire audiences by opening up their minds to new ideas and approaches to technology and education. Marc's products and ideas are innovative, provocative, challenging, and clearly show the way of the future.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time and Fortune all have recognized Marc's work. He has appeared on MSNBC, CNN/fn , and PBS's Computer Currents. In 2000 Marc was named as one of training's top "New Breed of Visionaries" by Training. Marc also writes a column for On the Horizon, a publication for leaders in academia.

Marc's background includes masters degrees from Yale, Middlebury, and The Harvard Business School (with distinction). He is a concert musician and has acted on Broadway. He has taught at all levels from elementary to college. He worked in Human Resources and in Technology at Bankers Trust Company, and spent six years as a corporate strategist and product development director with the Boston Consulting Group.

Marc is a native of New York City, where he lives with his wife Rie Takemura, a Japanese writer.

"Engage Me or Enrage Me" – Marc Prensky
Educating Today's "Digital Native"

Monday July 31st, 2006 8:30 - 9:50 am

All educators are struggling to find ways to get today's kids more involved in their schoolwork. The key, says Prensky, is not curriculum, certification or testing, but rather ENGAGEMENT. He argues forcefully that this generation is NOT in need of better content, but of more engaging approaches, more understanding, and 21st century skills. To best help today's unengaged students learn, says Prensky, we need to provide them with learning that motivates them, and the first place to look for help is where the kids are already involved most - in their games. In this talk, through numerous examples, Prensky shows specifically how games engage kids, and how educators can employ and benefit from not only existing games but also the powerful educational principles behind them.

 

Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry

Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry is the President and Co-founder of the Institute for Health & Human Potential. IHHP is a world leader in developing and delivering unique training programs in Emotional Intelligence to Increase Performance and Leadership. IHHP will deliver their work on four continents this year to a variety of organizations including: US Navy, Hostess Frito-Lay, Merck, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, Mercedes, RBC, Coors, Labatt's, John Hancock Insurance, Alcan, the US Government, Boston Consulting Group and many others.

Dr. Pawliw-Fry is also a highly sought after speaker on leadership and performance. As well as being one of the highest rated lecturers at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management Executive Education Program, he has received acclaim for his work in personal leadership with sales organizations, leadership retreats, and motivational seminars across the world - last year he reached audiences in places such as London, England, Greece, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Australia.

His training includes Queen's University, Harvard Medical School's Mind Body Medical Institute, and The University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

J.P. has recently become a contributing columnist for Call Center Magazine and The Economic Times (second highest circulation newspaper in the world).

J.P.'s high-content and enormously inspiring leadership presentations includes a fascinating multimedia show and leaves audiences with something different: strategies that they can implement the very next day to make a real difference.

"Equip Yourself: Emotional Intelligence for Personal Leadership " – Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry

Tuesday August 1st, 2006 11:50 am - 1:00 pm

Equip your organization with an edge. Discover why Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the single greatest driver not only of effective leadership, but of performance at all levels of an organization. It is Personal Leadership throughout the organization that will allow you to outperform the competition.

 

Dr. Tom Carey

As Associate Vice-President - Learning Resources & Innovation at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Carey's mandate is to enhance learning at the University of Waterloo through innovations in teaching and technology. He previously served as the founding Director of Waterloo's Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology, a university-wide strategic innovation unit, and has leadership roles in several higher education collaborations for online learning resources, including co-chair of the Advisory Board for the MERLOT consortium. Dr. Carey is also a Senior Associate of the TLT Group in Washington D.C., a member of the Advisory Board for the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, and a Visiting Senior Scholar in the Chancellor's Office of the California State University.

Dr. Carey is a Professor of Management Sciences in the Faculty of Engineering at Waterloo, and was one of the founders of Human-Computer Interaction as an academic discipline in Canada. He was also co-leader of the Workplace Research theme in Canada's TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence, where he directed research projects in workplace learning with government, not-for-profit and corporate organizations including IBM Canada, Nortel Networks, and the Bank of Montreal's Institute for Learning.

Before returning as a faculty member to Waterloo - where he did his M.Math and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science - Dr. Carey had management responsibilities in other Canadian universities as Executive Director of Graduate Program Development and Co-Director of Teaching Support Services. He has advised numerous higher education institutions on learning and teaching strategy, and has received awards for his pioneering contributions to curriculum development, for research papers and for corporate-university partnership.

"From Database to Teaching Commons: Directions for the Next Generation of Learning Object Repositories" – Dr. Tom Carey

Wednesday August 2nd, 2006 7:30 - 9:00 am

As use of Learning Management Systems spreads across our institutions, we have a new opportunity to extend and share teaching expertise through the LMS. While we are already seeing growth in the use of shared learning resources by faculty, the LMS can also be a gateway for mobilizing knowledge from our colleagues and from research on teaching and learning, sustained by communities of teachers with shared instructional challenges [= an Online Teaching Commons].

This presentation will describe how one leading community, the MERLOT cooperative of higher education systems and campuses, is experimenting with enhanced products, services and processes that would extend the MERLOT learning object repository as an Online Teaching Commons - including reports from pilot studies of new repository content, innovative partnerships with faculty development centers and teaching support offices, and initiatives to enhance the scholarly contributions of faculty work with learning resources and pedagogy expertise.