Our keynotes are seasoned educators, educational leaders, and brilliant minds in the field of learning. Learn more about them here.

John Seely Brown – Opening Keynote

John Seely Brown

John Seely Brown is the Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte’s Center for the Edge and a visiting scholar and advisor to the Provost at University of Southern California (USC). Prior to that he was the Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation and the director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)—a position he held for nearly two decades. While head of PARC, Brown expanded the role of corporate research to include such topics as the management of radical innovation, organizational learning, complex adaptive systems, and nano technologies. He was a cofounder of the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL). His personal research interests include digital youth culture, digital media and institutional innovation.

John, or as he is often called—JSB— is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and of AAAS and a Trustee of the MacArthur Foundation. He serves on numerous public boards (Amazon, Corning, and Varian Medical Systems) and private boards of directors. He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals. With Paul Duguid he co-authored the acclaimed book The Social Life of Information (HBS Press, 2000) that has been translated into 9 languages with a second addition in April 2002. With John Hagel he co-authored the book The Only Sustainable Edge which is about new forms of collaborative innovation and The Power of Pull: how small moves, smartly made can set big things in motion, published April 2010. His current book, The New Culture of Learning co-authored with Professor Doug Thomas at USC, was released January 2011.

JSB received a BA from Brown University in 1962 in mathematics and physics and a PhD from University of Michigan in 1970 in computer and communication sciences. He has received six honorary degrees including: May 2000, Brown University, Doctor of Science Degree; July 2001, the London Business School, Honorary Doctor of Science in Economics; May 2004, Claremont Graduate University, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters; May 2005, University of Michigan, Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, and May 2009, North Carolina State University, Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, May 2011, Illinois Institute of Technology, Honorary Doctor of Design.

Rapid Fire Keynotes

Suzie Boss

Suzie Boss

Suzie Boss is a writer and educational consultant who focuses on the power of teaching and learning to improve lives and transform communities. She is the author of Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World and co-author of Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age. She is a regular contributor to Edutopia and the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and a member of the Buck Institute for Education National Faculty. She and Jane Krauss are looking forward to publication of their next collaboration, Thinking Through Projects, in early 2013.

Darren Cambridge

Darren Cambridge

Darren Cambridge, Ph.D., is senior consultant, education technology and online communities of practice at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC, where he serves as project director and principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Education’s Connected Educators project and Connected Educator Month (August 2012). Darren also advises a range of government, university, and corporate clients on learning technology and professional learning. Previously, he was assistant professor of Internet studies and information literacy and affiliated faculty in the Higher Education Program at George Mason University, a director at the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), a fellow with the EDUCAUSE National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, and assistant director of the Computer Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. He as member and past chair of the board of directors of the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning and co-leads the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research. He has developed internationally recognized technical specifications and award winning educational software. Cambridge won the 2012 MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Faculty Prize for Electronic Portfolios for Lifelong Learning and Assessment (Jossey-Bass, 2010). His work appears in a wide range of scholarly journals and books.

Bruce Dixon

Bruce Dixon

Founding Director, ideasLAB
Co-founder, Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation

From a diverse background over 30 years as an educator, educational software developer, business and social entrepreneur, Bruce’s works as both a strategic consultant or educational activist, depending on one’s perspective; either way he works to be part of moving thinking towards a more contemporary view of what schooling could and should be.

His pioneering educational software developments in the ‘80’s tested the boundaries of games and simulations in learning through one of his early start-ups which he later sold to a large Australian public company. Bruce’s work with colleagues throughout the late 80’s and 90’s led, in partnership with local schools, to the development of the first 1 to1 initiatives in the world, in schools across Australia.

In 1996 Bruce took the concept to North America, Canada and the UK, before co-founding the not-for-profit Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, which provides thought leadership, advocacy and resources to policy makers and educational leaders for the effective implementation of 1-to-1 initiatives world-wide. The Foundation believes all children should have access to unlimited opportunities to learn anytime and anywhere and that they all should have contemporary tools that make this access possible; it is fundamental to their Right to Learn in today’s digital world.

His work in pioneering and evangelizing the transformative opportunities that ubiquitous access to modern technology offers young learners, has been directly and indirectly responsible for hundreds of thousands, now millions of young people around the world having their own personal portable computers as their preferred medium for learning.

In 2008, while working on the Broadmeadows Regeneration Board, he was invited to head ideasLAB, a Contemporary Research and Agile Development Lab, focused on what ubiquitous access to technology now makes possible for modern learners.
The Lab has rapidly developed a strong and enviable reputation for rigorous applied research that supports the work of teachers and school leaders. Additionally it has a brief that is focused around agile application development that ‘pushes the boundaries’ of our use of technology in schools.

Currently he divides his time between his role as Director of ideasLAB, or the pro-bono work he does for the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, and his consulting to Ministries of Education and corporations in the US, Australia, Canada, Europe, and Asia and he still regularly speaks at national and international conferences around the world.

Dr. Jackie Gerstein

Dr. Jackie Gerstein

Dr. Jackie Gerstein’s byline is, “I don’t do teaching for a living. I live teaching as my doing, and technology has amplified my passion for doing so.” She has been teaching face-to-face and online for several decades. Currently, she teaches Master’s level online courses in Educational Technology for Boise State, Argosy, American Intercontinental, and Western’s Governors’ Universities. Her background includes a strong focus on experiential and adventure learning, which she brings into her teaching. She is active in social networks believing that a responsibility of 21st century educator is to share resources, insights, ideas, and strategies with other educators. She tweets and blogs regularly.

Jane Krauss

Jane Krauss

Jane Krauss is a longtime classroom teacher and expert on project-based learning with technology. She is co-author with Suzie Boss of Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age and the new book Thinking Through Projects (Corwin, 2013). Jane teachers professional development workshops and courses on PBL and develops curriculum and programs for a variety of clients, most recently the National Center for Women & Information Technology, Corwin, ISTE and Powerful Learning Practice.

Renee Moore

Renee Moore

Journalist-turned-teacher Renee Moore has taught English for 22 years in the Mississippi Delta. She teaches at Mississippi Delta Community College, working with both adult learners and high school students in hybrid and online courses. Renee has received many awards, including state Teacher of the Year and two Spencer Foundation grants for her classroom research work onCulturally Engaged Instruction, while still teaching full-time high school.

She serves on the Board of Directors of the NBPTS and the State (MS) Commission on Teacher and Administrator Education, Certification, and Licensure. Renee is a member of Teacher Leaders Network (TLN), and she has worked on several of its Teacher Solutions team publications including:Performance Pay for Teachers (2008) and //Teaching 2030// (2011). She also maintains a blog, //TeachMoore//, and her writings have appeared in several books, journals, and websites.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of  Powerful Learning Practice, where she works with schools and districts from across the US, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Australia to re-envision their learning cultures and communities through the Connected Learner Experience.

During a 25-year education career, Sheryl has been a classroom teacher, technology coach, charter school principal, district administrator, university instructor and digital learning consultant. She is the author (with Lani Ritter Hall) of The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age (Solution Tree, 2012) and is in the dissertation phase of completing her doctorate in Educational Planning, Policy and Leadership at the College of William and Mary.

Sheryl is a sought-after presenter at national and international events, speaking on topics of 21st Century reform, teacher and educational leadership, community building, and educational issues impacting marginalized populations such as the homeless. She is an advisor to the U.S. Department of Education’s Connected Educators initiative and a leader in the development of USDOE’s first Connected Educators Month in August 2012. She also serves on the New Media Consortium’s 2012 Horizon.K12 Report Advisory Board.

Sheryl lives near the Virginia shore and spends her spare time playing on the water with her four children, her grandson Luke Skywalker Walblay, and a trio of longhaired dachshunds.

Will Richardson

Will Richardson

A parent of two middle school aged children, I’ve been thinking and writing about the intersection of social online learning networks and education for the past 10 years at Weblogg-ed.com, in numerous journals and magazines such as Ed Leadership, Education Week andEnglish Journal, and most recently at willrichardson.com. I’m an outspoken advocate for change in schools and classrooms in the context of the diverse new learning opportunities that the Web and other technologies now offer.

A former public school educator for 22 years, I’m a co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice (plpnetwork.com), a unique professional development program that has mentored over 5,000 teachers worldwide in the last five years. My first book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Corwin Press, 3^rdEdition 2010) has sold over 80,000 copies and has impacted classroom practice around the world. My second book, Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education, (Solution Tree) was released in May, 2011. And my third book, a collection of blog posts titled Learning on the Blog, was published in August of 2011 by Corwin Press.

Over the past six years, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to speak and work with to tens of thousands of educators in over a dozen countries about the merits of online learning networks for personal and professional growth. I’m proud to ba a national advisory board member of the George Lucas Education Foundation, and a regular columnist for District Administration Magazine.

When I’m not on the road, you can find me in rural New Jersey with my wife Wendy and my children Tess and Tucker.