Category: conference

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CMK 2020 Cancelled – Save the date for CMK 2021!

CMK logo

It is with great sadness that we are forced to cancel Constructing Modern Knowledge 2020, our annual summer institute. We have waited for months to make this decision, hoping that the COVID-19 crisis would end and we could all learn together in Manchester, NH this July. Sadly, many states have closed school for the year, travel may still be limited in July, and it would be very difficult to maintain adequate social distancing during the hands-on activities of CMK.

This breaks our heart. CMK is our life’s work and is needed now more than ever. Each year, educators like yourself prove your competence and creativity while demonstrating that things need not be as they seem. The lineup of guest speakers we assembled for July 2020 was spectacular. Our hearts go out to our colleagues in Reggio Emilia, Italy who have also suffered unspeakable tragedy and are unable to join us in July.

The good news is that Constructing Modern Knowledge 2021 is scheduled for July 13-16, 2021 in Manchester, NH. All of the guest speakers scheduled for this summer have been invited to return next summer. Equally stellar replacements will be made if necessary. Our colleagues from Reggio Emilia should be able to join us as well for a spectacular workshop on documentation. We hope we can count on you to join us and help spread the word once life returns to some level of normalcy.

If you would like to learn more about CMK 2021 and other learning adventures as we move forward, please subscribe to our occasional newsletter.

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ISTE 2020 – Accepted and waitlisted sessions

I’m honored to have the following proposals accepted for the ISTE20 program. ISTE 2020 will be in Anaheim, California in June 2020. I will be leading two sessions, maybe more, if some of the waitlisted sessions are accepted!

Maker 2.0 – Now What? 
You have “making” going on in your school, or maybe even a makerspace! Congratulations… but now what? This session will help educators, both teachers and administrators, build a roadmap for their own making and makerspaces programs that will succeed now and in the future.

  • Scheduled:
    • Tuesday, June 30, 9:00–10:00 am PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)
    • Building/Room: Available in May

STEAM to the Future: The 4th Industrial Revolution is Here! 
Let’s time travel fifty years forward to see what science, technology, engineering, and math will be like, and the prominent role that the arts, design ,and creativity will play. This session will provide entertaining and thought-provoking insight into the challenges of adapting today’s classroom and curriculum for the future.

  • Scheduled:
    • Wednesday, July 1, 8:30–9:30 am PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)
    • Building/Room: Available in May

Waitlisted proposals

I was very excited about this new session on ethics, empathy, and educational technology. It wasn’t accepted, but is waitlisted, so maybe it will have a chance!

Ethics, Empathy, and Educational technology 
Go beyond digital citizenship to innovative technology to help students develop ethics and empathy for others. Breakthroughs in AI, algorithm bias, bio-hacking, face recognition, digital assistants like Siri and Alexa, robotics, media manipulation like “deep fakes,” and digital fabrication offer interesting opportunities for students to learn about cutting edge of science and math, and how ethical decision-making can make the world a better place for all.

This session will dive into the role and responsibility of the educational technology community to offer be leaders in how students learn ethics. Ethical behavior is an outcome of identifying with other people, and students of all ages can learn about ethics in the context of cross-curricular projects that include both digital and physical components. This has always been part of school – we want students to understand how their behavior impacts others. But the new role of technology in every aspect of life expands this mandate.

In the past, ethics has been taught to younger children in the context of personal responsibility – knowing right from wrong, behavior, etc. As children grow up, they are exposed to a larger sense of the world – are laws fair, what is justice, how can we make good decisions as a local or global community. In this transition, the child gains a view of the world that grows from the self to the community.

However, the world is changing. There are now decisions to be made about the ethics of systems, of technology, and of inventions that have yet to be invented. How will our children learn about these? How will they make decisions and not feel powerless in the face of this uncertainty? And what can we as educational technology leaders do about this?

Other Waitlisted submissions (panels submitted by others)

  • Bringing Bio into the Makerspace: Accessible BioFabrication and Biomaterial Explorations 
  • Hot or Not? Trending Topics in EdTech Judged by… YOU! 
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Let’s meet at FETC 2020 – Miami in January!

I hope to see old friends and new at FETC 2020 in Miami, Florida, January 14-17, 2020. I’ll be talking Biomaking, Inclusive Makerspaces, STEM/STEAM, The 4th Industrial Revolution, Creativity, Disruptive Leadership Lenses, Ethics & Empathy, PBL for Making, What’s New/What’s Next for STEAM, and more.

If you can’t make FETC – check out these new Invent to Learn workshops in February in Florida!

This is a new city for FETC – after many years in Orlando, the conference is moving to Miami. FETC is always a terrific conference, attracting an international audience with stellar keynotes, a huge exhibit hall, and featured speakers in multiple tracks for a wide variety of educator interests.

Future of Education Technology Conference | January 14 - 17, 2020 Miami Beach Convention Center, Orlando, FLA.

My sessions – collect them all!

Wednesday January 15, 2020

W151$ | Disruptive Lenses for School Leaders: Making, Agile Development, Design Thinking

  • Room: Lincoln Road C
  • Wednesday, January 15, 2020: 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

C024 | PBL Gets a “Make” Over — Prompts and Assessment for Maker Classrooms

  • Room: 224-225
  • Wednesday, January 15, 2020: 1:00 PM – 1:40 PM

C065 | STEAM to the Future: The 4th Industrial Revolution is Here!

  • Room: Lincoln Road C
  • Wednesday, January 15, 2020: 3:20 PM – 4:00 PM

Thursday January 16, 2020

W205$ | Grow is the New Make: Bio-making and Bio-hacking

  • Room: 238-239
  • Thursday, January 16, 2020: 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

C150 | Making for All: Inclusive Maker Projects and Makerspaces

  • Room: 224-225
  • Thursday, January 16, 2020: 11:00 AM – 11:40 AM

C228 | Ethics, Empathy, and Educational Technology

  • Room: Lincoln Road C
  • Thursday, January 16, 2020: 2:00 PM – 2:40 PM

Book signing – NEW edition Invent to Learn – Main Exhibit Hall

  • Exhibit Hall Booth 2740
  • Thursday, January 16, 2020: 12:15 PM – 12:45 PM
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Spotlight at Envision 2030: The annual CoSN conference

Sylvia Martinez will be a spotlight speaker at ENVISION 2030: LEADERSHIP FOR LEARNING – the COSN Annual Conference.

April 2, 2019
Portland, Oregon

STEAM to the Future: What’s Next in STEAM, Design, and Making
9:15 AM – 9:45 AM: Breakout
Room: Atrium Ballroom (Hilton Portland Downtown)
Format: Spotlight Session
Presenters: Sylvia Martinez, Columbia University FabLearn Fellows, Principal Advisor

Brief Session Description: Let’s time travel a few decades forward to see what science, technology, engineering, and math will be like, and the prominent role that the arts, design ,and creativity will play in the future. Right now, scientists and engineers are creating a future where biology and engineering mix with computation and computer science. The future holds things like driverless cars, buildings that heal themselves, “radical mycology,” which are plastics that adopt organic properties from mushrooms, clothes that adjust to the weather, robots, Artificial Intelligence, and holodeck-like experiences that will bend the definition of reality. However, this fourth industrial revolution is not some far away abstraction, all of these futuristic visions will depend on the ingenuity and creativity of people who are K-12 students today. We owe it to them to teach them how to make, design, and create using the most modern technology in their STEAM classes today.

What are the implications for K-12 education when subjects are being reinvented every year? Are we content with providing students with science classes that don’t cover any science invented this century? What questions do education leaders need to answer to make sure that the future of STEAM is part of schools starting today.

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ISTE 2019 Sessions

ISTE 2019 will be June 23-26, 2019 in Philadelphia. Hope to see you there!

Accepted proposals

The case for creativity and design in STEAM

  • Scheduled:
    • Sunday, June 23, 1:30–2:30 pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)
    • Building/Room: Available in May

STEAM to the Future: What’s Next in STEAM, Design, and Making 

  • Scheduled:
    • Monday, June 24, 1:30–2:30 pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)
    • Building/Room: Available in May

We Have a Makerspace, Now What? Four Directions Forward for Leaders 

  • Scheduled:
    • Wednesday, June 26, 8:30–9:30 am EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)
    • Building/Room: Available in May

Panel Conversations

More Stupid Ideas in EdTech (and why you should totally do them) 

  • Scheduled:
    • Monday, June 24, 10:30–11:30 am EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)
    • Building/Room: Available in May

Waitlisted proposals

.Girls & STEAM: Equity, Inclusion, and Excellence

Declined proposals

What’s a microcontroller and why should I care?

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Korea: Creating Tomorrow’s Talent Today

panel conversation
Our plenary panel – Inae Kang – Kyung Hee University, Sherry Lassiter – Fab Foundation, me, and San Ko – CEO A-TEAM Ventures (and former astronaut!)
Recently I was a plenary speaker at the Global HR Forum in Seoul, South Korea. This conference attracted a combination of educators from K-20, press, Human Resource managers, government and policy makers, students, and corporate types mostly from South Korea, but a few from around the world. It made for some interesting conversations about the changing nature of work, and how education is or isn’t changing to meet those needs. Our plenary session was on “Maker Education for Tomorrow” and featured Sherry Lassiter, President & CEO, The Fab Foundation, San Ko, CEO of A-TEAM Ventures, and me, moderated by Inae Kang Professor, The Graduate School of Education, Kyung Hee University. We each got 20 minutes to make our case for how making can make and is making education more relevant and more closely connected to the jobs that really exist today, and will only increase in the future. Then we had the luxury to have a conversation and answer audience questions for another 30 minutes. All of this was being simultaneously translated into English and Korean as needed. It was quite extraordinary. I wish more conferences used a similar format, it gave us all a chance to build on the commonalities of what we were saying, plus expand on the points that the audience was most interested in. Dr. Kang provided expert moderation, helped provide context, and brought some of her lovely graduate students who had some great comments as well! One of audience questions came from a middle school student who was representing a large group of young people who were also attending the conference. All stakeholder groups indeed!
I hope to have video to post soon! Stay tuned…
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Meet me at FETC 2019!

I hope to see old friends and new at FETC 2019 in Orlando, January 27-30, 2019. I’ll be talking STEM/STEAM, Creativity, Making and Makerspaces, PBL for Making, What’s New/What’s Next for STEAM, and more. Use my discount signup page to save an extra 10%!

January 29, 2019 – Tuesday

Book signing – NEW edition Invent to Learn – Main Exhibit Hall

2:30 – 3:00 PM Tuesday Jan 29 – I will be signing copies of the new edition of Invent to Learn.

January 30, 2019 – Wednesday

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ISTE sessions – Chicago in June

I’ll be speaking at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) June 24-27, 2018.

STEAM to the Future: 50 Years in 50 Minutes
Tuesday, June 26, 10:15–11:15 am
Location: Available in May

Let’s time travel 50 years forward to see what science, technology, engineering and math will be like, and the prominent role that the arts, design and creativity will play. This session will provide entertaining and thought-provoking insight into the challenges of adapting today’s classroom and curriculum for the future.

STEAM: The TEA Stands for CrEATivity
Tuesday, June 26, 11:45 am–12:45 pm
Location: Available in May

Creativity is not just being artistic or having new ideas. As many schools are working to incorporate STEM and STEAM into the classroom, design and creativity are the keys to real and relevant experiences in the classroom.

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Video – Design & Innovation in Schools Keynote (TECH 2017)

I keynoted the TECH 2017 UNESCO Conference in Visakhapatnam, India in December 2017. At this interesting conference, they had 15 minute keynotes, then a response panel and audience questions for maximum interactivity. They asked me to be as provocative as possible.

This is a video of just my 15 minute keynote.

Sylvia Martinez keynote Design & Innovation in Schools TECH2017  on Vimeo.

If you liked that – watch the whole thing (about an hour)! Panelists: Mila Thomas Fuller President, Board of Directors, ISTE; Olivier Hamant Research Director, Lyon; Gautam Khetrapal Founder, LifePlugin.com and Head of Product Marketing, Mindvalley

And if you liked that – check out the other videos from this conference, including Sugata Mitra’s keynote, which was very provocative and caused a lot of good conversation throughout.

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Two weeks – ICE, then Spain and Italy

I’m heading out for a string of presentations and workshops – hope to see old friends and new!

ICE 2018 – Feb 26 (Chicago) I’m part of an “All-Star” lineup of presenters who are participating in the Illinois Computing Educators conference. Instead of one keynote they are bringing back keynotes from previous years to do panels and featured presentations. It’s a bit embarrassing to call yourself an “All-Star” but that’s their term, not mine! Check out the whole list and join us!

Then I’m flying straight to Italy where Gary Stager and I will keynote a School Innovation conference in Modena and lead a workshop in Bologna on March 2 & 3. Then we hit the road (by train) for lectures at Universities in Padua, Vicenza, Venice, and Pistoia. Finally a roundtable at the U.S. Embassy in Rome with an innovation policy advocacy working group.

Oh, and in between I’m flying to Valencia, Spain to keynote a conference there! INTED 2018 will be March 5-7 and I’ll be keynoting on March 5.

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