Connecting and Reflecting: Preparing Learners for Life 2.0

Henry Jenkins
Director, Comparative Media Studies
Program, and Professor of Literature
MIT

Belle Wheelan
President
Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools

Robert Young
CEO, Lulu Enterprises
Cofounder, Red Hat

Join us as we explore:

• What skills prepare us for Life 2.0?
• What educational approaches will best prepare students for Life 2.0?
• How will we update our definitions of learning as well as rethink many of our assumptions about teaching, learning, and our profession?
• What unique capabilities does IT offer to help colleges and universities ensure today’s learners are successful?

In the ELI tradition, the annual meeting is a setting for interactive, hands-on learning and networking, with a variety of presentations, discussions, and workshops. Sessions will fall into one of three interest areas: learners, learning principles and practices, and learning technologies.

Featured Speakers

• The 2008 Horizon Report—Laurence F. Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, The New Media Consortium (NMC)
• Teaching Metacognition—Marsha C. Lovett, Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence Associate Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
• Technology and the Conative Learning Domain in Undergraduate Education—Thomas C. Reeves, Professor of Instructional Technology, University of Georgia
• Virtual Worlds as Web 2.0 Learning Spaces—Sarah Smith Robbins, PhD Candidate, Ball State University and Director of Emerging Technologies, MediaSauce
• Connectivism—George Siemens, Associate Director, Learning Technologies Centre, University of Manitoba
• Exponential Change in Traditional Organizations: McMaster University Libraries—Jeffrey G. Trzeciak, University Librarian, McMaster University
• Designing Spaces for New Media Literacy Learning—Kathleen Tyner, Assistant Professor, Radio-TV-Film, University of Texas at Austin
• Human Futures for Technology and Education—Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Kansas State University

Audience

Background

We live in exponential times:

• 2.7 billion searches are performed on Google each month.
• The number of text messages sent and received each day exceeds the population of the planet.
• The amount of unique, new information generated worldwide this year will be more than in the previous 5,000 years.
• Graduates can expect 10–14 career changes in their lifetimes, some into fields that don’t even exist today.

Many of these changes are catalyzed by technology, which continues its own rapid pace of change.

Highly valued skills—for life and work—include teamwork, applying learning to real-world situations, critical thinking and analytical reasoning, creativity, reflective thinking, and a sense of integrity and ethics. Even the demands on the curriculum seem exponential as society expects colleges and universities to prepare students for work, life, and global citizenship.

How does one prepare for life in a world of exponential change? There is so much information that no one can master it all. Only by connecting to the Web and connecting with others can individuals stay abreast of change. However, access to an abundance of information and connecting with others does not equate to an education. Reflection is critical to the educational process—reflection about information, problems, creative solutions, and underlying values.

Through authentic learning experiences, many of which are enabled by IT, we can provide students with opportunities to be active participants and cocreators in a network of experts and novices—with faculty and other students—within and outside the institution. Characterized by creativity, critical thinking, communication, and reflection, these virtual communities connect learners and researchers across multiple disciplines. This problem-based approach is motivational, encourages transfer of learning to unique situations, and prepares students for a world of constant change.

The conference will demonstrate:

• Ways to help students connect with information, faculty, each other, and professional communities in authentic learning environments.
• The importance of reflecting—on learning and its application to real-world problems, professional goals, skill development, and values.

Education for Life 2.0 is not education as usual. Join us at the 2008 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, "Connecting and Reflecting: Preparing Learners for Life 2.0," to explore educational approaches that may better prepare students for a world of exponential change.

Important Dates

• Early conference registration deadline: December 31, 2007
• Hotel registration deadline: January 4, 2008

ELI meetings often fill up well before the event. We encourage you to register early, as space is limited. Note that seats are not automatically held for ELI members. You must register to attend. Please register early to ensure your place at the annual meeting.

(Note: On July 1, 2007, ELI annual membership dues were reduced to $2,500 and complimentary event registrations discontinued in favor of deeply reduced member registration rates. This simplifies institutional management of ELI membership and ensures that members only pay for events they attend. For more information, please see our Membership page.)

Attend As a Team

We encourage you to attend as a member of a team. Attending the ELI Annual Meeting with a team can be particularly valuable for:

• Focusing on an upcoming project;
• Rewarding and motivating innovators;
• Building cross-disciplinary collaboration through
• Sharing the common experience and reflecting on the implications for your own campus, and
• Traveling to and from the meeting, on-site discussions, and on-campus follow-up, which build rapport, solidify plans, and enrich collaboration.