Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jason Ohler

www.jasonohler.com

 

Sponsored by:

 
Dr. Jason Ohler is a speaker, writer, teacher, researcher, and lifelong digital humanist who is well known for the passion, insight, and humor he brings to his presentations, projects and writings. A quarter century ago at the University of Alaska he helped create one of the first educational technology programs in the U.S. devoted to teacher empowerment, and has been involved in the world of digital learning ever since. He has worked both online and in classrooms at home and internationally for over a quarter of a century helping students develop digital stories, new media narrative, and the literacies they need in the digital age. He is a passionate promoter of "Art the Fourth R" and of combining innovation, creativity and digital know-how to help reinvent teaching and learning. He has won numerous awards for his work and is author of many books, articles, and online resources. His column, subTechst, is free to educational organizations for blogs, newsletters and other publications. His next book, due out in the Summer 2009 is titled Digital Citizenship and the Reimagination of Education. His current book, Digital Storytelling in the Classroom reminds us that he is first and foremost a storyteller, telling tales of the future that are grounded in the past.

"The goal is the effective, creative, and wise use of technology...to bring together technology, community, and learning in ways that work. And while we are at it, to have fun."
 

Thursday, December 4, 2008
8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

LACUE Opening Keynote Session:

Beyond Essays: New Kids, New Media and New Literacies
Transforming learning through digital creativity and the power of story

Students need to be able to "write the media they read" so they can be active media creators rather than just passive media consumers.

It is up to us to help digital kids migrate from text centrism to media college literacy in creative, thoughtful ways. We need to help them cultivate their new media talents, adopt art as the 4th R and use storytelling to convey their ideas in rich, compelling ways. We need to help them create media, stories and projects that are articulate and transformative. And we need to help them collaborate and share their work and talents within the collaborative community of the social web.

This keynote features an overview of the move to media collage literacy, and includes several examples of student produced digital stories and new media narrative.

Based on Jason's book: Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity (Corwin Press, 2007).
 

Thursday, December 4, 2008
10:30 a.m. - 11:20 a.m.

Feature Session:

Telling Your Story with New Media

Following from the keynote in a Featured Speaker session, Jason will demonstrate practical tools and processes for implementing new media storytelling projects in classroom activities in exciting, creative ways. He will address a number of topics, including assessment, media grammar and how to include media development, digital stories and movie creation in the curriculum. Above all, he will focus on the power of story, and how to help students create rich, compelling narrative that engage, teach and transform.