KEYNOTE:
xPod Learners: How Technology Trends and the Next Generation
of Students Might Change the Way YOU Teach.
Francis
Rabuck, CCP, PCLP, CWNA
President,
Rabuck Associates, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
ABSTRACT:
Are you ready for the xPod* generation of learners? This session will examine the members of
the xPod generation, their learning styles, and the educational possibilities
of emerging consumer, computing and electronic gadgets and gizmos.
This generation of students will be the first to be exposed to
multiple, small devices with portable storage, video, audio and more. They grew
up as the Nintendo generation on games and have evolved into a unique group –
that needs no instructions for interaction, consume all the bandwidth they can
get, collaborate in an instant, and collect and gather more information than
most of their elders can ever remember. They are at the right point in time.
Technology options are keeping pace well ahead of what they can imagine.
This
session will provide a technology background for what’s in the near future, and
will extrapolate the possibilities beyond the decade. We’ll look at storage,
input alternatives, wireless and broadband speeds, visualization options and
possible xPod alternatives. We’ll also
examine the trends in software. How is consumer software changing the world of
education? Our LMS investment is a necessary evil, but the learner wants
Peer-to-Peer, Instant Messaging, Blogging, and Group collaboration. We work
hard to create structure for our information, but can Google and searching be
the wrong approach for finding information? Finally, we’ll look at technologies
that are changing the classroom and the medical environment itself.
*xPod is a
generic reference to future models of devices like the mobile Apple iPod
player.
Prerequisites: Participants should have an interest in peeking into the
future and opening their minds.
Francis Rabuck, CCP, PCLP, CWNA
President, Rabuck Associates
7414 Battersby St
Philadelphia, PA 19152
Phone: 215-708-0772
Fax: 215-708-8765