Learning Academy Fest 2007

“Engage Me or Enrage Me”
Digital Game-Based Learning Guru, Marc Prensky, Addresses Educators @ Learning Academy Fest 2007

Temasek Polytechnic’s annual Learning Fest will address the challenges of educating today’s youth who have grown up in the digital age, and examine how educators can engage them better. Some 300 educators will hear insights from internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant and Founder & CEO of Games2train.Com, Marc Prensky, when he speaks on the topic: ‘Engage Me or Enrage Me: Educating Today’s “Digital Native” Learners’ at 9am on Thursday, 13 September 2007 at Auditorium 1 of Temasek Polytechnic.

The benefits of Interactive Digital Media initiatives for effective learning-teaching is timely given MOE’s ‘Future Schools’ project and the use of virtual worlds like Second Life in current teaching methods. Among the participants at the Learning Fest will be Vice-Principals, HODs and teachers from primary and secondary schools, JCs, the ITE and Institutions of Higher Learning.

Following his keynote address, Mr. Marc Prensky will conduct an interview with “Digital Natives” - he will invite six to eight students and engage them in a discussion that provides ‘ground truth’ to each of his presentations. The objective of this exercise is to set up a model for the kinds of student/faculty/administrator conversations that should be going on in every school, every day.

The Learning Academy Fest 2007 is a 3-day event organised by the polytechnic to provide staff with opportunities for continuing professional development.

The programme for 13 September is as follows: