"...the best education focused tech conference on the planet!"
--Tom Phelan, Peddie School
edACCESS 2009, our 18th annual conference!,
June 22 - 25, 2009
Williston Northampton School, Easthampton, MA.
edACCESS conferences use a "structured unconference" model - the peer
conference model developed by Adrian Segar (www.segar.com).
On the first day of every edACCESS conference, all attendees join a
facilitated roundtable discussion. Each participant has the opportunity to
briefly introduce themselves, their wishes for the conference, and their
experience. The roundtable provides an opportunity early in the conference
to discover other attendees with similar interests and relevant experience,
and helps to determine focus group topics, the heart of our conference
program.
At edACCESS the participants determine the sessions. Using the roundtable
discussion, and focus group sign up, attendees create a list of session
topics, and conference organizers help find attendees qualified to lead the
sessions. Focus groups can be presentations, panels, discussions, workshops,
tours, etc. This process allows the conference to meet the expressed needs
of participants, and it supports attendees getting to know each other in
informal sessions that reflect actual attendee wishes. Year after year,
edACCESS focus groups receive very high evaluation ratings.
Keynote
Knowledge after Information
Presenter: David Weinberger
As the Information Age comes to a close, the nature of knowledge is
changing. The Information Age and Western culture leading up to it have
assumed that knowledge is scarce and hard to come by, but that it is also of
the highest value when found. But now we are in a time of abundance of
knowledge, information, insights, and opinions ... but also of lies,
deceptions, bias and foolishness. We are not going to be able to squeeze
knowledge back into its old boundaries. Indeed, the new abundance may be
transforming the nature, social role, and social effects of knowledge. In
his keynote, David Weinberger will look at what knowledge is becoming in an
age of abundance.
David Weinberger is an American technologist, professional speaker and
commentator, probably best known as co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto
(originally a Web site, and eventually a book, which has been described as
"a primer on Internet marketing.") Weinberger's work focuses on how the
internet is changing human relationships, communication, and society. His
latest book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital
Disorder
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805088113?ie=UTF8&tag=segarconsu-20&linkC
ode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0805088113> , caught our
attention, because of its immediate relevance to education. As Publisher's
Weekly puts it '"Today's avalanche of fresh information," Weinberger writes,
"requires relinquishing control of how we organize pretty much everything";
he envisions an ever-changing array of "useful, powerful and beautiful ways
to make sense of our world."' Some of David's ideas mirror the peer
conference approach we use for our edACCESS conferences.
A philosopher by training, he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto
and taught college from 1980-1986. He was a gag writer for the comic strip
"Inside Woody Allen" from 1976-1983. He became a marketing consultant and
executive at several high-tech companies, and currently serves as a fellow
at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, where
he co-teaches a class on "The Web Difference" with John Palfrey. He had the
title Senior Internet Advisor to Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign,
and provided technology policy advice to John Edwards' 2008 presidential
campaign.--Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Topical Sessions
Demo Showcase: Bring the Excitement Home!
Moderator: JT Amirault <jamirault@groton.org>, Groton School, MA
This session, brought back by popular demand from last year's conference but
with all new content, will provide many easy ways to bring some of the
conference excitement home. Presenters will provide an assortment of ten to
fifteen minute demonstrations that showcase a variety of useful ideas and
techniques. You'll be able to reproduce some of the demonstrations
post-conference by following written instructions posted on the edACCESS
wiki. The goal of this session is to expose you to at least one useful
technique or tool you can demonstrate back at your school. Please contact JT
if you are interested in offering a demonstration at this session.
The Best Service is No Service
Presenter: Andy Speyer, Choate Rosemary Hall, CT
The challenge is great. Students, faculty, and staff demand more support
than ever. However, there is resistance to formal training. The traditional
models of customer service no longer satisfy the wide spectrum of clients at
our institutions. Based on the book The Best Service is No Service by Bill
Price and David Jaffe, Andy's presentation will examine how to reconstruct
service and professional development to meet today's demands. Eight
principles guide this transformation: 1) challenge customer demand for
service, 2) eliminate dumb contacts, 3) create engaging self-service, 4) be
proactive, 5) make it really easy to contact you, 6) own the actions across
the department, 7) listen and act, and 8) deliver great service experiences.
This session is interactive and will involve audience participation.
Cloud Computing
Moderator: Bill Campbell, Dwight-Englewood School, NJ
Panel: Joe Lorenzatti, Williston Northampton School, MA; Carolynn Parisi,
Mount Saint Mary Academy, NJ; Tom Phelan, Peddie School, NJ
School information technology departments must manage information resources,
struggling with issues such as integration, updates, backup, recovery,
budgets, and replacement cycles. Cloud computing can help reduce our
technical management load. When used appropriately, it can allow us to do
more with less, even with a small staff and tight budgets. Outsourcing
through cloud computing moves some responsibility for hardware and software
maintenance to specialists. We can then concentrate on getting the maximum
utility out of applications and focusing on the needs of our constituents.
Panelists will describe their experience with a variety of cloud computing
applications, including migrating from a traditional email and calendaring
server to Google Apps for Education; automatic asset inventory; help desk;
hosted Moodle CMS; spam filtering; remote backup; college counseling; and
off-site, hot-spare, virtual SQL and Exchange servers.
All the other great stuff:
- Vendor exhibits
- Focus groups - half the conference this year, always a highlight.
- Softball game
- Beer and wine tasting
- Amazing, yet tasteful, memorabilia
Conference information
When: Monday, June 22 - Thursday, June 25, 2009.
Where: Williston Northampton School, (550 students, 90 faculty) located on
125 acres in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
For more information: Detailed information about edACCESS and this
conference can be found at our web site, http://www.edaccess.org
If you have registered for this or any prior edACCESS conference, you can
access our conference wiki (registration required) at
http://edaccess.editme.com. Here you can browse prior year conference
discussions and resource links, discuss topics of interest, and suggest
focus group topics for the 2009 conference.
edaccess 2009 conference registration
Includes conference attendance, accommodations Monday evening through
Thursday lunch, plus all meals, from dinner Monday through dinner on
Thursday, except for dinner on Wednesday.
Cost
Early registration. . . . . . . . . . . . Paid in full before April 1 . . .
.. . . . . $480.00
Standard registration. . . . . . . . .Paid in full before May 6 . . . . . .
. . . .$555.00
Late registration . . . .. At the door, subject to space available . . . .
$630.00
Spouse/significant other meals and accommodations . . . .. . . . . .
.$250.00
A discount of 10% of these fees can be taken for three or more attendees
from the same school. Refunds of conference registrations can be made, less
a $50 processing fee, before June 1. No refunds can be provided after this
date.
To register for the conference, go to
http://www.edaccess.org/annual_conference/registration.cfm
--
Christopher Butler
Academic Technology Director
St. John's Preparatory School
http://www.stjohnsprep.org
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