Keynote: Strategic Deployment: Maximizing Impact, Readiness and Student Learning with New Technologies Rushing to place networked computers in every classroom regardless of readiness is a recipe for disaster. It makes far better sense to pace the introduction of new technologies to match the readiness of classrooms. In this speech, Jamie McKenzie shows how districts can save money while improving results by slowing things down and paying attention to effective program development and professional development. Index Keynote: Reaching the Reluctants: Strategies to Win the Participation of Late Adopters In the first twenty years of bringing new technologies into schools we have paid far too little attention to the special needs of the reluctants and late adopters. We end up with 60-70% of our colleagues not fully engaged. In this speech, Jamie McKenzie outlines the strategies which schools must consider if they wish to see technologies embraced by all teachers in all classrooms. Index Keynote: Strategic Reading, Writing and Thinking New technologies could make a big difference in the reading, writing and thinking performance of students if they are introduced with the right emphasis upon learning and appropriate investment in strategic teaching. In this speech, Jamie McKenzie describes the elements of a powerful and successful technology program which takes staff and students well beyond the equipment to a different kind of classroom and a higher level of accomplishment. Index Keynote: Virtual Research and the Fox in the Hen House Eager to convince schools that laptops and computers will work miracles, computer and software companies are invading the world of educational research with studies which do not pass the most basic tests of reliability and validity. Teams of non-educators produce reports which are self-serving, thinly disguised marketing tools based on thin data. The press, with little understanding of educational research, all too often picks up these reports and spreads their findings as if they had substance and credibility. Mediocre, flawed research findings are transformed into "conventional wisdom" as all standards for reliability are ignored. McKenzie argues that educators must exercise caution when it comes to corporate research and reports. He suggests a dozen questions designed to challenge ersatz findings. Index Keynote: Making Sense of the World with Digital Resources This session explores the amazing potential of digital resources to support a new generation of powerful student thinkers and inventors. McKenzie shows how digital images (and other resources) may be set alongside each other for comparison, how this juxtaposition may provoke cognitive dissonance which may in turn inspire the search for resolution, resonance and harmony, all leading to an AHA! - the creation of insight, a new idea, an invention, a discovery, an illuminating perception of reality. He then explores ways that schools may harvest this rich potential. Index Keynote: Virtual Change and Spare Change vs. Real Change Schools put billions of dollars into reform efforts, most of which end up creating very little improvement in student performance. McKenzie portrays the "rise and fall" of some of the 33 bandwagons that he has witnessed since entering teaching in 1967 and then explores the underlying reasons why schools sometimes opt for the "appearance of change" rather than real change. The presentation includes a set of strategies to avoid educational "run-off" and "trenditis" - a summary of the best advice research on change can offer about making life truly better for our colleagues and our students. Index Keynote: Finding Money and Time for Robust Professional Development Even though the US ED Department suggests that 30% of every technology dollar go to professional development, most districts have trouble reaching 5 per cent. In this presentation, McKenzie outlines a dozen practical strategies to create a balanced technology initiative . . . one with plenty of time and funding for teachers to build readiness and effective classroom lessons that will lead to significant student progress. Index

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