Keynote Speakers
Thursday Morning
9:00am-10:00am Repeat session 10:30am-11:30am
College Theatre
Cassie Campbell
2002 Winter Olympic Women's Hockey Gold Medalist
Learning From Challenges
One of Canada's most popular female athletes and Captain of Team Canada for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Cassie Campbell has had a stellar rise to the top ranks of women's hockey. Campbell led her team to Canada's first Gold medal in hockey in 50 years, at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Her athletic credentials are exceptional; she's been a member of the National Team since 1994 and she helped her team earn gold five times at World Championship tournaments. She was also part of the silver medal-winning team at the Nagano Olympics in 1998. Campbell has been included on All-Star teams in the National Women's Hockey League and the Ontario Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and has shown uncompromising grit and versatility while playing forward and defense at different times in her career. After gold medals at the 1999 and 2000 World Championships she began to broaden her career by joining the professional Calgary Oval X-Treme in 2001 and captaining it until she left in 2005. Along the way she won gold medals at the 2001 and 2003 Canadian National Championships with Team Alberta, the 2001 and 2004 World Championships, and the 2002 Winter Olympics. At the latter tournament she skated in five games and scored two goals. After a silver medal at the 2005 World Championships, Campbell was chosen as team captain in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and again successfully led her team to a Gold Medal with a 4 - 1 win. After retiring from competitive hockey in 2006, she became the first woman ever to do colour commentary on Hockey Night in Canada, one of the nation's highest-rated programs, and has since done broadcasting work with The Sports Network in addition to working with charities such as the Ronald McDonald House and as a special advisor to Scotiabank. She was inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. She holds an Honors Sociology Degree from the University of Guelph and in 2000 and 2001 did colour commentating for TSN and Headline Sports. Her focus on determination and teamwork shines as she speaks of her gold medal performances and those of her team who "didn't stop believing in one another."
Thursday Afternoon
1:00-2:00pm Repeat session 2:30pm-3:30pm
College Theatre
Debbie Silver
Drumming to the Beat of Different Marchers
Debbie Silver is an award-winning educator with 30 years experience as a classroom teacher, staff development instructor, and university professor. Her numerous recognitions include being named the Louisiana State Teacher of the Year. Along the way she has taught almost every grade level and most every kind of student. Dr. Silver has been an invited author for several educational journals and has given keynotes at state, national, and international conferences in 49 states, Canada, Europe, and Asia. She has been a featured teacher for the PBS OnLine Teacher Chat and for KDS Knowledge Delivery Systems. Debbie's book, Drumming to the Beat of Different Marchers: Finding the Rhythm for Teaching Differentiated Learning, has just been updated and re-released by Incentive Publications. Songs she co-wrote with Monte Selby are featured on his cds. She is married to Dr. Lawrence Silver, and together they have 5 sons. (Audiences everywhere respond to Debbie's use of humor and sensitivity to remind them of how important teachers are in the lives of children. Through research-based theory, poignant stories, and hilarious characterizations she connects with the souls of all who are involved in education.)
Information for keynote:
- Go to www.debbiesilver.com
- Use the login password: iamateacher (no caps or spaces)
- On the list of hand-outs locate the ones for Medicine Hat and download them.
Friday Morning
9:00am-10:00am Repeat session 10:30am-11:30am
College Theatre
Yong Zhao
Yong Zhao is currently Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education, College of Education at the University of Oregon, where he also serves as the director of the Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE). He is a fellow of the International Academy for Education. Until December, 2010, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology, executive director of the Confucius Institute, as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. His research interests include educational policy, computer gaming and education, diffusion of innovations, teacher adoption of technology, computer-assisted language learning, and globalization and education. Zhao has extensive international experiences. He has consulted with government and educational agencies and spoken on educational issues in many countries on six continents. His current work focuses on designing 21st Century Schools in the context of globalization and the digital revolution. Zhao has published over 20 books and 100 articles. His most recent books include Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization and the Handbook of Asian Education. He has also developed computer software, including the award-winning ZON (http://enterzon.com), the world's first massively multi-player online role-playing game for studying Chinese. Zhao was born in China's Sichuan Province. He received his B.A. in English Language Education from Sichuan Institute of Foreign Languages in Chongqing, China in 1986. After teaching English in China for six years, he came to Linfield College as a visiting scholar in 1992. He then began his graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993. He received his A.M. in Education in 1994 and Ph.D. in 1996. He joined the faculty at MSU in 1996 after working as the Language Center Coordinator at Willamette University and a language specialist at Hamilton College.
Friday Afternoon
1:00pm-2:15pm College Theatre
Bill Belsey
"From Banned to Planned" Exploring the challenges and learning potential of cell phones and Mobile Learning Technologies (MLTs) in the classroom
Bill Belsey's teaching career has included living and working with the Inuit of Canada's Arctic for nearly twentyyears, where he introduced the very first computer into Canadian Arctic schools. In the early 1990's he also helped to bring the Internet to the community of Rankin Inlet and established the very first Community Access Centre in the Canadian Arctic called "Igalaaq".
This pioneering work was honoured with the Royal Bank and Conference Board of Canada's National Partners in Education Award.
In 1997 Mr. Belsey was invited to work with Dr. Seymour Papert and Nicholas Negroponte at the world-famous M.I.T. Media Lab to work on issues re. the innovative use of ICTs to support teaching and learning.
He was asked by CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Bank to present his thoughts and his work at the Global Knowledge '97 conference in Toronto on the topic of "Universal Access to Information and Communication Technologies".
http://www.inukshuk.com/gk-97.html
At this conference, former World Bank President, Mr. James Wolfenson, praised the impact of this work. He has also been an advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the U.S. Peace corps. His pioneering work has been featured at an exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization as one of Canada's "Global Heroes".
He is a winner of the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Technology. He is also a recipient of the Royal Bank Fellowship from the Mathematics, Science and Technology Group at Queen's University and the Roy C. Hill Fellowship for Innovations in Education. He has been named as a finalist for the annual Canadian New Media "Educator of the Year" Award. He has also been chosen to be a recipient of the prestigious CANARIE IWAY Awards (IWAY is short for Information Highway). These awards honour Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to Canada's world-recognized information society %u2013 celebrating innovators behind Canada's advanced broadband development and use. From 1999 until 2003, he was a Senior Educational Advisor for Canada's SchoolNet and was Coordinator for Canada's National Network of Innovative Schools (NIS).
For nearly a decade, Mr. Belsey was the volunteer Executive Director for iEARN-Canada, the Canadian chapter of iEARN, the International Education and Resource Network.
iEARN is the world's largest and most-experienced K-12 professional learning community with over three million members in over 120 countries who share the vision of "Connecting Youth and Making a Difference" by working on international collaborative projects using information and communications technologies.
He is the founder and President of Bullying.org Canada Incorporated, a nationally registered non-profit organization that is dedicated to the prevention of bullying through education and awareness.
One of his projects, www.bullying.org, was honoured with the Cable and Wireless ChildNet Award, which goes to projects that make the Internet a better and safer place for children. This project was also named as a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge Awards, an award that has been called the Nobel Prize of the Information Technology (IT) world.
www.bullying.org has received as many as one million visitors and contributors and is often listed as the number one bullying-referenced Web site in the world.
Mr. Belsey also created www.cyberbullying.ca, thought by many to be the first Web site in the world to address the issue of cyberbullying. He is often cited as the first person to use the word and define the behaviour "cyberbullying".
In 2002, Mr. Belsey conceived of, and helps to coordinate Canada's annual National Bullying Awareness Week, see www.bullyingawarenessweek.org
In 2004, Mr. Belsey was honoured as Cochrane, Alberta's "Ambassador of the Year".
He created the award-winning www.childsoldiers.org, (no longer online) that helped to raise global awareness about the issue of child soldiers with stories, artwork and multimedia exposes from youth who have been affected by war.
Mr. Belsey and his students collaborated with Palestinian students in Jerusalem and Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan to address the question, "How do you see peace?" Their online collaboration can be viewed online at www.seeingpeace.net.
Mr. Belsey and his grade five students collaborated with High School students at Gabarone Secondary School in Gabarone, Botswana to collaborate and create www.net4nets.net, a project that serves to raise awareness about the issue of Malaria and its affects on children. Mr. Belsey's students raised funds to purchase mosquito bednets for families in Botswana that were later delivered by their partner students at Gabarone Secondary School.
In June 2005, Mr. Belsey was also asked to share his work about bullying and cyberbullying with the United Nations International Research Study on Violence and Children in Bangkok. See http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/irc/newsdesk_articles.asp?SCID=1625
Mr. Belsey has been interviewed by the late Peter Gzowksi on CBC Radio's national "Morningside" radio show and has also appeared numerous times on the CTV and CBC National News. He has been a consultant to "The Dr. Phil Show", ABC News 20/20 with Diane Sawyer, CNN %u2013Anderson Cooper AC360 and was also asked to offer his input into the United National International Research Study in Bangkok on Violence and Children. His print interviews have appeared in Parenting Magazine, the Globe and Mail, and the Christian Science Monitor. In an interview with Mr. Belsey on CBC TV's "The National", Peter Mansbridge referred to www.bullying.org as "One of the best Web sites in the world for children".
In May 2006, Mr. Belsey received Canada's National Technology Innovations Award from The Learning Partnership and his presentation "Change the World 101" was given the "Conference Award" as the most outstanding work presented during the entire gathering. See http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/NTIA/NTIA_2006_I and L_conference_awarddinner.htm
In October 2006, Mr. Belsey was named as a Fellow of the World Technology Network in the Education category at a gala event at San Francisco's City Hall. At this same ceremony, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore was inducted as a Fellow in the Environment category and Tim Burners-Lee, one of the co-creators of the World Wide Web, was honoured in the Internet category. See http://www.wtn.net
In September 2007 he launched Canada's very first online courses and Webinars about bullying and cyberbullying for parents and educators at www.bullyingcourse.com. Mr. Belsey has created a partnership with Colombia's CES University. As a result of this collaboration, his "E101 - An Introduction to Bullying for Educators" online course will be offered to educators around the world in Spanish in the Fall of 2010.
In November 2007 he was nominated for the YMCA Peace Medal.
In June 2010, he began to create and offer free online learning courses for educators and students at www.wecanlearnonline.com.
Mr. Belsey now lives in Cochrane, Alberta, with his wife, Helene (also a teacher), and two teenage children. He currently teaches grade five at Springbank Middle School for the Rockyview School Division. To check out his students' innovative work, do a Google search for "Canada's Coolest Class" then click on "I'm feeling lucky", you will be directed to www.coolclass.ca.
He is a much sough-after speaker and presenter on the topics of bullying, cyberbullying, cyberparenting, technology integration, innovation, community development and global education. He has presented at many conferences across Canada and around the world.
If you are interested in having Mr. Belsey present to your organization or at your conference, he is represented by the National Speakers' Bureau, see http://nsb.com/speakers/view/william-belsey.
Friday Afternoon
1:00pm - 2:15pm S159
James Nguen
James Nguen is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and a member of South Sudan community in Calgary, Alberta. Mr. Nguen is a graduate at the University of Calgary in Development Studies.
Mr. Nguen is the founder of the Biluany Water and Literacy Society, co-founder of the "Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan Association of Calgary" and a subject of the Award Winning documentary "The Long Journey Home of James Nguen." Nguen is a Public Speaker and a fierce advocate of world peace and child rights to education. He was featured in "Avenue Magazine 2008" and University of Calgary's U Magazine 2011."
Currently, Nguen is working as a School Support Counsellor for Calgary Board of Education in partnership with the Wood's Home. He is also a Chief Coordinator of Biluany Water and Literacy Society and an External Relations officer for South Sudan Civil Society for Development.
In the past two years, Mr. Nguen spoke in well over 256 social events and facilitated dozen forums across Alberta. For example, Nguen spoke in Teacher's Conventions, symposiums, Schools, Organizations' conferences, Churches and TedXcalgary.
Nguen came to Canada as a refugee on September 26, 2001, fifteen years after he was forced to leave South Sudan at the age of seven. His story provides a psychological, social, political and cultural context for the understanding of the refugee experiences and the impact of conflict on human populations. From South Sudan to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Nguen has endured and overcome an incredible hardship that is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit; which provides the basis of his presentation.