Lord David Puttnam, LWF Talk, London 2011

Embracing disruption for a better learning future

Lord David Puttnam of Queensgate spent thirty years as an independent film producer with many award winning films including Chariots of Fire, Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express and the Memphis Belle. Retiring from film production in 1998 he has focused his work in education and the environment.

In this inspiring talk Lord Puttnam discusses the future of the creative and digital industries, the importance of ensuring  our learners are equipped for this future and makes a call to action for a positive new disruption that leads to radically improved learning and global access.

Genevieve Shore, Pearson Plc, LWF Talk, London 2011

Is book publishing dead? Embracing digital disruption

Genevieve Shore is the Director of Digital Strategy for Pearson Plc and is responsible for their global strategy for digital technologies. Genevieve describes how she encourages Pearson to embrace the inevitable disruptions that the digital world brings to one of the worlds largest publishing companies and demonstrates how this is being achieved.



Stephen Heppell, LWF Talk, London 2011

The purpose of learning, the challenges of the future

Stephen Heppell is a globally renowned learning consultant and visionary. In this talk he reminds us of why we learn, the purpose, objective and how we may leverage the abundant technologies of the 21st century to drive positive improvements and new practice across the whole of society.

Keri Facer, MMU, LWF Talk, London 2011

Beyond the horizon for learning

Keri Facer is Professor of Education at the Education and Social Research Institute and the Manchester Metropolitan University where she specialises in digital cultures, social justice and radical educational change. In her talk she discusses where she believes education maybe heading and the challenges it faces to meet the future needs of its learners.

Formerly Research Director at Futurelab, Keri led the Beyond Current Horizons Programme for the UK government looking at long term socio-technical change and its implications for education. Keri’s new book 'Learning Futures: Education, technology and social change' will be published in March 2011. She is now working on co-operative education models and digital technologies with a view to rethinking the economic model underlying education.

Katharine Birbalsingh, Teacher, LWF Talk, London 2011

What should be taught in our schools?

Katharine Birbalsingh, is a teacher and author who was recently asked by the Conservative Party to speak at their party conference. Katharine discusses her experiences as a teacher working in inner-London secondary schools and calls for a return to a more traditional, fact-based approach to learning to provide a framework for those who do not have access to the benefits that learners from more affluent or middle-class backgrounds. Katharine draws a comparisons between the education provision in the private and state sectors suggesting that state provision could learn from the private sector more traditional approach to education.