Keynotes and Workshops

Keynotes

Workshops

Keynote Descriptions

Designing the New American High Schools

The opportunity to build a new high school poses a serious challenge and opportunity to school boards and educators everywhere. What kind of learning, and teaching, is appropriate for students of the 21st Century? What kind of learning environments and facilities will support and enhance the education of today’s and tomorrow’s students?

Bob Pearlman, former President of the Autodesk Foundation and consultant to Napa New Technology High School's replication project, will take you on a tour of the country’s new high schools and re-designed existing high schools. You will learn about and examine the design criteria, design principles, and design elements that characterize these new and re-designed high schools.

New Ingredient for Student Success: Social Networks

The recipe for student success needs an overhaul--it lacks a crucial ingredient. A new report from A.T. Kearney and Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, the 2002 Workforce Study: Connecting Today's Youth with Tomorrow's Technology Careers, finds that a student's social network plays a significant role in both increasing their motivation to pursue education and careers, and in connecting students to adults who can help them.

Bob Pearlman, the former Director of Education and Workforce Development at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network and the former President of the Autodesk Foundation, presents the key findings of this landmark study and shows how business, civic and educational leaders can collaborate to increase students' social networks that connect them to higher education, the workplace, and the community.

Pearlman is the author of "New Ingredient for Student Success: Social Networks".

Getting Together for Education Reform

Can all the key parties in the school community – teachers, administrators, parents, unions, school committees, mayors, business and the community—get together around a common agenda for education reform? Can adversaries forego their special interests and instead unite together for the common good? Bob Pearlman, a veteran school leader of collaborative coalitions on both the East Coast and the West Coast, shares the stories of successful collaborative coalitions in districts and states around the country and the key lessons and processes that make for success.

Linking to the Future with Teaching, Learning, and Technology

Can your school district develop a successful multi-year plan for teaching, learning, and technology? Can it both unite its key stakeholders for implementation and also put together the political coalition and strategy to develop the fiscal resources necessary for success? Bob Pearlman, lead consultant for the Boston Public Schools “Linc 2 the Future (2001-2006)” plan and former President of the Autodesk Foundation, shares the stories of success plans – the key ideas in applying technology as a support to teaching and learning and the key strategies for resource development and implementation.

Inside the Digital Divide

Why didn’t the wild economic expansion of the late 90’s and its enormous workforce gap draw millions of underprivileged youth into great careers in the New Economy? Why did companies in Silicon Valley lose close to $6 billion a year due to lack of a homegrown workforce? Bob Pearlman, former President of the Autodesk Foundation and former Director of Education and Workforce Development at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, takes you inside the Digital Divide to show you the real young people, their hopes, their skills, and the communities and schools that support them. Pearlman shares with you the findings of a seminal study that shows how communities across the country can bridge their Digital Divides and provide their young people with the skills, knowledge, personal qualities, and connections to be successful citizens of the 21st Century.

 

Workshops

All of the above keynote topics are also available as facilitated half-day or full-day workshops. These workshops include an overview presentation, a review of significant case studies from around the country, and a strategic planning session through which participants develop action plans for use in their own communities.