We are excited that past participant Thomas Voden (Associate Professor of Mathematics and STEM Grant Director at Glendale Community College) will be returning to Big Ideas Fest this year as an Action Collab apprentice facilitator.
Action Collabs are an integral part of Big Ideas Fest.These small workshops use design thinking and improv to create innovative solutions to challenges. As an apprentice facilitator, Tom will assist a group collaborating through that process.
Let’s hear why Tom is returning to Big Ideas Fest, and why he thinks you should join him:
I’m part of a Facebook group titled “I worked for MTV when it was cool to work for MTV.” It’s fun to reminisce about riding the elevators with Kurt Loder (shorter than you might expect) and Cindy Crawford (taller than you even guessed). I’ll never forget playing pool with Hootie and several Blowfish or the time I sat next to Stevie Wonder at a supper club, and as he swayed to the music, his braids swayed in my face. Good times.
Fast forward, and now I find myself in the marketing department—I am the marketing department—at a non-profit devoted to transforming education.
We love it when educators come to Big Ideas Fest for the first time. It’s even more exciting when they come back year after year. Ainsley Lamberton (Administrative Director, Office of the VP and Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Studies, Lehigh University) is a certified BIFnik, having attended in 2012 and 2013. 2014 will be her third year.
Here’s why Ainsley flies out from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania year after year:
When public K-12 schools are pressured to decrease costs and devote more time to standardized testing, arts programs are one of the first to be cut. Despite a nationally adopted education agenda that seeks to promote creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration among students as well as meaningful ways to connect students to the school environment and thereby increase graduation rates, the arts are still not seen as central to the solution. (more…)
Education is not a simple concept anymore. Like a massive volcano about to erupt and transform the teaching terrain as well as the global learning atmosphere, the fires in education are igniting key issues we need to address as a society: education for whom, when, and where? Who deserves to get it for free or at a discount? When should we take into account economic status, nationality, ethnic background, gender, special needs, and learning styles? Where should learning take place: in the classroom, in the cloud, at home, at work? (more…)
