Spotlights and invited guests

Damian Allen  Executive Director of Children and Family Services for Knowsley Council in the north west of England.

Through the UK Government's Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF), Knowsley has invested £250m to radically transform its secondary education system, demolishing all of its previous secondary schools and opening seven state of the art ‘Centres for Learning’, all of which opened during 2009-10.

Damian led the design of this local system transformation programme for change. This multi-award winning innovative approach is known as 'Future Schooling in Knowsley and is nationally regarded as best practice, informing and driving change across the country. He led the team responsible for the  procurement and design and build aspects of the programme, which was inspired by a visionary conceptual design blueprint.  More

Spotlight Abstract

for Damian and Elaine in the Town Hall Auditorium

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Elaine Ayre  Service Director for Schools and Early Years in Knowsley Council’s Children and Family Services Directorate.Elaine was part of a small team who wrote the specification for Knowsley's seven new Centres for Learning as part of the UK Government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF).

She is currently the sponsor for Education Transformation across the Primary, Special and Secondary sectors in the borough and led research projects in Leadership and Management, Governance, Curriculum and Pedagogy, that underpinned the borough's Future Schooling in Knowsley programme. Prior to becoming Service Director, she was Principal Officer for School Improvement in Knowsley, following three Primary headships in a different local authority. 

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INESS creator, Brett Lee , worked as a Queensland Police Officer for 22 years, 16 of those as a Detective predominantly in the field of Child Exploitation. In his last five years of service, he was a specialist in the field of undercover internet child exploitation investigations. More

Spotlight Abstract for Brett Lee in Town Hall Auditorium

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Sharon Friesen is a founding partner and president of the Galileo Educational Network and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
She consults on a wide range of teaching and learning topics related to curriculum reform and school reform.

Her research interests include 21st century learning, one-to-one laptop computing, curriculum inquiry, professional development, mathematics education, instructional leadership and school reform. She has co-authored three books: Back to the Basics of Teaching and Learning: Thinking the World Together, winner of the 2004 AERA Division B Book Award, Curriculum in Abundance and Back to the Basics of Teaching and Learning: Thinking the World Together 2nd edition.

Spotlight Abstract for Sharon and Candace in Town Hall Auditorium

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Derek Wenmoth  is currently director of eLearning at CORE Education. In recognition of his work Derek was designated a “Global Six” award by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, recognizing individuals making a difference in education. http://www.edutopia.org/daring-dozen-2008

Spotlight Abstract for Derek Wenmoth in Town Hall James Hay Theatre

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Dr Julia Atkin is an independent education and learning consultant who works across education settings in Australia and internationally. Her work with educators over the past twenty years has focused their reflection and dialogue around two key questions: What is powerful learning? and What is it powerful to learn? Julia is passionate about developing educational services that:

• nurture the human spirit of individuals and the organisation
• are personalised and customised
• help the learner learn to think and learn to learn
• integrate the best of learning technology with information and communication technologies
• are collaborative
• result in learning that has deep personal meaning and is thus transferable from one context to another.

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A former teacher, Tony Ryan is an educational consultant and writer, and offers professional support to school organisations throughout the world on issues such as change leadership, lifelong learning and quality classroom practice. He has presented numerous keynotes and workshops at state, national and world conferences in the past 10 years. He has been engaged as a teacher-in-residence in over 400 schools throughout several countries. In this role, he teaches extensively, and offers guidance to teachers with their everyday practice. Many of his ideas used in his work can be found in his blog at http://tonyryan.edublogs.org

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Dr Cheryl Doig (EdD, MEd, DipEdMan, BEd, DipTching, CertQA, FNZIM) has been an educator for over 30 years - as a student, teacher, principal, Teaching Fellow in Educational Management, ERO reviewer and board member. Her depth of experience includes 14 years as a school principal; service on boards and trusts such as NZ Institute of Management and Core Education; and 25 years of part time university study!

Cheryl has a Doctorate in Education, with a particular focus on leadership, change management, futures thinking, information technology and innovation. She has been involved in the development of the NZ Curriculum and leadership for principals. Cheryl’s company, Think Beyond, helps leaders move from good to great.

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Chris Betcher is an Australian educator, writer, speaker, blogger and podcaster, and is currently the ICT Integrator at PLC Sydney where he works with teachers and students across K-12 to enrich the curriculum with the wise use of technology.
He blogs regularly about education, technology and ideas at www.chrisbetcher.com, and his blog was recently awarded the inaugural Australasian Educational Media Award at ACEC 2010. Chris produces numerous podcasts, screencasts, tutorials and other online media and is an active voice in the global edtech community.  
He has presented on the use of educational technology at conferences and workshops in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and China. He is also co-author of "The Interactive Whiteboard Revolution", a book and online community focused on the effective use of interactive technology to support sound pedagogy.  
Chris is also a member of the Adobe Education Leader program for the Asia Pacific region.

Spotlight Abstract for Chris Betcher in Town hall Auditorium

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Betcher Blog - http://chrisbetcher.com/

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Westley Field is Director of Online Learning and Manager of IT at MLC School in Sydney.
Westley presents around the world on topics such as Education in Virtual Worlds, Making 1 to 1 work, Heuristics of implementing elearning, Educational Technology, Connecting Students in a Web 2.0 world and Leading in a Flat World.
In 2008, Westley received the ASLA John Lee Award for innovative us of IT in learning. Westley has previously received a Churchill Fellowship, Computerworld Honours (Smithsonian), Apple Distinguished Educator, Macromedia Ed Leader and Adobe Ed Leader for his work with schools and communities. Westley is also on the Board for the NSW and Sydney branches of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.

Spotlight Abstract for Westley Field in Town Hall James Hay Theatre

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David Anderson is a highly respected Australian teacher and educator who works nationally and internationally as a consultant, staff developer and project development specialist. Co-director of Hands On Educational Consultancy, he has worked by invitation across Australia , New Zealand, the UK, and with schools and teachers in Turkey, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines.

David is a former school principal and consultant for Schools of the Future, with an extensive background of experience in classroom teaching and special education K-12. He has specific expertise in supporting whole school development, leadership coaching and in developing inclusive classrooms that challenge all students.

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