WASHINGTON, April 26, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Saylor Foundation held its inaugural Digital Education Conference (#DigEdCon) April 11-12, 2013 at the headquarters of Microstrategy, Inc., in Tysons Corner, VA. More than 100 attended the invitation-only event, which brought together a range of stakeholders in funding, philanthropy, technology, academia, and open education. These diverse friends of digital education convened over one of education's largest looming issues: how innovators must collaborate -- and cooperate -- to provide the highest quality education available, common to all and at the click of a button.
"What made the Saylor event stand out was its audience -- knowledgeable, opinionated and active listeners," said Dean Florez, CEO of 20 Million Minds Foundation and keynote panelist. "That is rare at a conference and it made the entire event a success."
#DigEdCon was designed to allow convergence. Featured keynotes and speakers identified areas of need or growth in digital education in front of an audience with various perspectives - educators, tech experts, financiers, angel investors, entrepreneurs, open education proponents, and edtech leaders commingled. Problems and a solutions shared space to invite realizable change in the education market through new partnerships and collaborations.
Michael J. Saylor, Trustee of The Saylor Foundation, related in the welcome keynote that "there's just a palpable sense over the past 12 months that technology is shifting underneath us in a good way, that awareness of the opportunities of digital education is growing and its breaking into new areas....We're on the cusp of on an industry where even one person, even any two of you that might get together and have a conversation, might actually change the world." [Video]
Keynotes, Panels, Sessions
Keynotes were introduced by David Wiley (Brigham Young University, Lumen Learning) and Lou Pugliese (CEO, Moodlerooms, Inc.), and featured Michael J. Saylor (Chairman, CEO, MicroStrategy, Inc.; Trustee, The Saylor Foundation), Abe Murray (Senior Project Manager, Google, Inc.), and Dr. Kenneth C. Green (Founding Director, The Campus Computing Project).
Panel discussions on The Future of the College Credit and BYOIdea: Sustaining the Next Wave of Digital Education were chaired by Paul Fain (Senior Reporter, Inside Higher Ed) and Aneesh Chopra (former CTO of the White House under President Obama and current candidate for Lt. Governor in the Commonwealth of Virginia).
Sessions were distributed across four content tracks -- technology, content, funding, and implementation:
Technology
- MOOCs for Teacher Professional Development - A Content and Technology Partnership
- Create, Remix, Adapt, Assess and Accredit: New Models in the Age of OER
- Transforming LMS Data into Information: The X-ray Approach
- Pathways for Organizations to Adopt and Adapt Open Content
Content
- Stranger in a Strange Land: OER and Online in K12 Education
- Talent Acquisition: How do You Make Open Lucrative?
- Designing the Next Generation of Online Education
- The Content Problem is Not Solved
Funding
- The Gap in Education No One is Talking About
- Catalytic Philanthropy: Coordinating Cross Sector Collaboration to Craft Actionable Public Policy Solutions
- Impact Investing: How to Maximize Economic and Social Return
- Opportunities to Invest in EdTech
Implementation
- Global Impact of Online Higher Ed: Customized Programs at Scale Enable Dramatic Expansion, More Flexibility, and Lower Cost
- Shifting Models: Accelerated and Competency Based Learning
- Surviving the Perfect Storm: OER, Big Data, and MOOCs
- Open Resources in Practice; Present and Future
For a complete list of presenters, visit the DigEdCon 2013 Agenda page.
Additional video, audio, and session notes may be found at: http://www.saylor.org/event2013/
About the Saylor Foundation
The Saylor Foundation (under its legal name, The Constitution Foundation) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Foundation was established in 1999 by Michael J. Saylor, the Chairman and CEO of the business intelligence company MicroStrategy. Mr. Saylor serves as the Foundation's sole trustee. Since 2008, the Foundation's Free Education Initiative (www.saylor.org) has focused on exploring the promise of the Internet to drive the cost of education to zero. Through more than 280 free courses as well as college credit pathways, Saylor.org serves as a zero-cost alternative for individuals who lack the resources to attend traditional brick-and-mortar institutions and as a complement to mainstream education providers.
A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=18381
