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. 

Andrew Blake, Microsoft Research, LWF Talk, London 2011

Learning with Kinect & the future of human-computer interfaces

Professor Andrew Blake is head of Microsoft Research UK and leader of the team that built the machine learning software for the Kinect visual and gesture recognition system, recently released for the Xbox gaming platform. In this talk Andrew discussed the implication of this technology as it affects other forms of everyday interaction between humans and machines. Andrew calls for greater connection between education and the digital technology industries to develop the talent needed to compete in this fast growing sector.



Kareem Ettouney, Media Molecule, LWF Talk, London 2011

Learning with LittleBigPlanet

Kareem Ettouney is co-founder and art director for Media Molecule the UK studio responsible for the creation of the LittleBigPlanet series which has now reached it's 2nd version that allows players not only to collaborate and create levels to share with other gamers around the world but also entirely new games. Whilst not intended for learning purposes Kareem has been astounded by the way in which LBP has spawned an ecosystem of learning games and levels that are being enjoyed and shared throughout the world.