FETC 2006 to Target 21st-Century Learning
Ed-tech industry set to convene for major annual conference.
THE FLORIDA EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE (FETC; www.fetc.org) 2006 kicks off its 26th year with a promising lineup of professional development workshops targeting 21st-century skills, and will feature more than 200 sessions focusing on current and emerging technologies, and more than 500 companies displaying the latest in technology resources.
The conference will be held March 22-24 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. The opening night’s session features keynote speaker Rudolph Crew. An educator for 25 years, Crew has served in school districts and universities across the nation as a teacher, an administrator, a college professor, and a coordinator of special programs and staff development. Now the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (FL), he has set three priorities: eliminating lowperforming schools, increasing academic achievement for all students, and bringing cost-efficiency to the district’s construction and business practices. At FETC, Crew will set the tone for local, state, and national dignitaries, who will discuss the newest trends in educational technology and share their visions for technology’s role in learning.
FETC’s yearly gathering highlights the advances that technology has helped make in today’s educational system; this year’s conference will take up, among myriad topics, technology environments and distance learning. Speakers will include such industry luminaries as Peter Reynolds, the CEO and founder of educational multimedia company FableVision (www.fablevision.com); Chris Dede, professor of learning technologies at Harvard’s (MA) Graduate School of Education, who will discuss “Neomillennial Learning Styles”—how digital media such as video games and smart cell phones are shaping new, immersive middle and high school gamelike simulations; and Julie Young, the CEO and president of Florida Virtual School (www.flvs.net), who will advocate online learning as the practical way to address high school reform and prepare students for college and work expectations. For further information on the upcoming conference, visit www.fetc.org/fetc2006/2006/index.cfm.
This article originally appeared in the 03/01/2006 issue of THE Journal.