Illinois State’s educator preparation program is hosting the 7th annual Teaching in the 21st Century Conference (T21Con) from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. on Friday, September 23, in the Bone Student Center. T21Con is free to attend and is open to all practicing educators as well as Illinois State’s education students.
The aim of the conference is to help educators weave technology into the classroom. Attendees must register by Thursday, September 22, at T21Con.IllinoisState.edu. Professional development hours will be offered to practicing educators.
The conference keynote is TED speaker Ramsey Musallam, who serves as a chemistry teacher at Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep in San Francisco. His mission is “to meaningfully integrate multimedia into a hands-on, inquiry-based learning cycle” and to empower other educators to do the same. Musallam is a vocal advocate for tools like flipteaching, tabcasting, video podcasting, and screencasting in the classroom. He runs the education blog Cycles of Learning, where he gives written and video tutorials on how to turn everyday apps like Google Docs, screencasting from an iOS device, YouTube, and word clouds as effective teaching tools.
T21Con will feature 18 session presentations by P-12 educators from across the Midwest, including several ISU alumni, who are leading their schools and districts in the use of classroom technologies.
Presentation topics include assistive technology in special education to flipped learning, attendees can choose from a wide range of session options presented by experts across P-12 education.
The event is jointly organized by the College of Education and the Student Education Association (SEA). It is funded by Robert and Mary F. English, two retired educators and Illinois State alumni.
