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Keynote Speakers

JUKES, IAN
Living on the Future Edge
RISCHARD, JEAN-FRANCOIS
Global and Environmental Issues
VIRAVAIDYA, MECHAI
Dynamic Solutions to seemingly Intractable Problems Concerning Education, Youth Development and Gender Equality.


Mid-Day / Morning Symposium Presenters

ARPIN, TERESA
World Cafe EARCOS Futures
LEWIS, CLAYTON
Global Issues Network
Van de LAGEMAAT, RICHARD
TOK & Critical Thinking


Descriptions and Biographical Data


Ian Jukes

Teaching in the New Digital Landscape: New Visions For Teaching and Learning

Description:
This presentation focuses on a fundamental shift in the basic paradigm of teaching that is required to prepare students for the Communication and Information Age. It provides a pragmatic look at current teacher practices and explains why they are becoming increasingly out of synch with our rapidly changing world. It then asks how we can teach effectively in an age when new technologies cascade onto the scene at an astonishing rate and identifies the principles and processes that transcend these new technologies.




Jean-Francois Rischard

High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them

Description: 
The speech analyzes the two big forces that are increasing the rate of change and the complexity of human affairs; the 20 or so global problems that remain unresolved in that context; the reasons for their non-resolution. It then offers ideas on new approaches that could lead to deeper and faster global problem-solving. Finally, it reflects on the role of education in all this.

Biography:
Jean-François Rischard is a national from Luxembourg, with a US green card, and is married, with three children. He is 57 years old. He has graduate and post-graduate degrees in Economics (University of Aix-Marseille, licence and DES, 1971 and 1973), a Law Doctorate (Luxembourg, 1971), and a Masters in Business Administration (Harvard Business School, 1975, with first and second year honors). He speaks and writes fluent English, French and German. From 1975 to 2005, he worked at the World Bank, and became Vice-President of the institution from 1992 on.

He lives in Paris, after having spent more than 20 years in the United States and especially Washington D.C., where he maintains a home and many links. He has straddled the Atlantic for much of his student and working life, and is well versed in both U.S. and European ways of doing business and corporate governance bents.

He has worked in some 60 developed and developing countries, and maintains – beyond Europe – an extensive network of relationships with government and business leaders throughout North America, Latin America, the Middle-East, Asia, and parts of Africa. He is an avid reader with a broad range of interests in finance, business and markets, world events and trends. He likes skiing and golf.



Mechai Viravaidya
Dynamic solutions to seemingly intractable problems concerning education, youth development and gender equality.


Description:
Why is it that
despite increasing access to education around the world - most innovation still comes from only a small cluster of the world's population? Mechai Viravaidya (otherwise known as "Mr. Condom") will take us on a "barefoot walk" through the history of his organization, The Population and Community Development Association (PDA) of Thailand, and will detail how "out of the box" thinking leads to innovation and, ultimately, to systemic change in a society. Over the past 32 years, PDA has pioneered highly successful community-based solutions to tackle such issues as rampant population growth and an HIV epidemic which threatened to bring Thailand's economic progress to a grinding halt - and PDA has continued to stay ahead of the curve with its dynamic solutions to seemingly intractable problems concerning education, youth development and gender equality.

Biography:
Mr. Mechai Viravaidya
is the Founder/Chairman of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), one of Thailand's largest and most successful private, non-profit development organizations. Since 1974, PDA has initiated community-based family planning services, poverty reduction, rural development and environmental programs, as well as HIV / AIDS prevention activities throughout Thailand. Mr. Mechai played a large role in the success of Thailand's national family planning program, which resulted in one of the most rapid fertility declines in the modern era as the rate of annual population growth declined from over 3% in 1974 to 0.8% in 2002, and the average number of children per family fell from seven to under two.

Mr. Mechai was appointed to the Thai Senate in 1987 and again in 1997; each term for three years. Then in 2000, under Thailand’s new constitution, he was elected to serve a six year term. He was appointed as a Minister to the Office of the Prime Minister in 1991 and 1992, when he assisted Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun as the chief architect in establishing a comprehensive national HIV I AIDS prevention policy and program. This initiative is regarded as the most outstanding national effort by any country, and by 2004 Thailand had experienced a 90% reduction in new infections of HIV.
He has also served as Government Spokesman, Deputy Minister of Industry, CEO of the Provincial Waterworks Authority, Chairman of Krung Thai Bank and the Telephone Organization of Thailand. He was appointed as the Ambassador for UNAIDS in 1999.

Mr. Mechai has received numerous awards including 1997 the United Nations Population Award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 1994, the Paul Hoffman Award and the United Nations Gold Peace Medal in 1981. He has been granted decorations from the Governments of Thailand, Australia and the Federal Republic of Germany. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Institute of International Development in 1988-89, and holds several honorary doctorate degrees from Universities in Thailand and abroad. Mr. Mechai Viravaidya was born on January 17, 1941.




Teresa Arpin
TBA

Biography:
Teresa Arpin has been employed for 27 years by the Grand Rapids Public Schools, an urban district in the West Michigan. She has assumed a number of instructional and administrative roles in the areas of assessment, program evaluation, accountability and system-wide planning. Since 1995, she has been an associate of Transformation Systems, Ltd. (TSL). TSL is committed to helping system leaders achieve those things about which they care deeply. Teresa has worked extensively in the U.S. and internationally, assisting schools and other organizations in their strategic planning efforts. Most recently, Teresa facilitated the EARCOS Board’s strategic planning process.




Clayton Lewis


J.F. Rischard’s High Noon and the implications for education
(Part 1 – One Hour)

Description:
What is the relationship between J.F. Rischard’s twenty issues and what is being taught in our schools? International schools profess to be focused upon global citizenship and responsibility. However, their curricula are often narrow and culturally biased at the expense of a global perspective, particularly in the secondary years. Young people have difficulty making a connection between what they study and what they encounter daily in the media.

A new paradigm must bridge the past with the present in order that students are better prepared for the future. The OECD states clearly through its PISA study that students must focus upon social problem-solving and develop core competencies for the 21st Century.

J.F. Rischard’s High Noon and the Implications for Education
(This can be either Part 2 or Part 3 – One Hour)

Description:
J.F. Rischard's message is clear: we need to develop new methodologies when it comes to fixing the world’s problems. He emphasises that “tomorrow’s generations must develop a networking-oriented mindset if they are going to solve the burning global problems that stare us in the face.”

International schools already form a tight global network that is the perfect foundation for linking students and teachers. The Global Issues Network has as its mission: to help students realize they can make a difference by empowering them to work with their peers internationally to develop solutions for global issues.

GIN conferences have brought hundreds of students together to meet with experts, to engage in common projects and to exchange ideas. Students and teachers collaborate year-round through the GIN Town Meeting, a Moodle-based platform based upon Mr. Rischard's ideas for solving global problems.

J.F. Rischard’s High Noon and the Implications for Education
(This can be either Part 2 or Part 3 – either for One Hour or Two Hours)

Description:
What does it mean for a school to be globally-responsible? For students to address global issues in a meaningful way, their engagement must be in the classroom, not just with extracurricular activities like MUN. Curricula should support new models that emphasise a multi-disciplined, problem-solving approach consistent with the outcomes described in the OECD’s PISA study.

Consistent with this approach, Cambridge International Examinations is designing a new syllabus entitled “Global Thinking” whereby students will develop the sorts of skills and dispositions that active citizens of the future will need. The College Board now places greater emphasis upon its globally-oriented AP courses, Human Geography and World History. NAIS has launched its Global Education Initiative to assist independent schools in their efforts to nurture the skills and perspectives that help students become global citizens and global leaders. Several international schools have developed their own syllabi that link the traditional social disciplines – history, geography, sociology and economics – with contemporary issues and future-thinking.

Biography:
Clayton Lewis
has administered international schools for 26 years, currently as director of the International School of Luxembourg, and formerly as high school principal at the American School in London and the American School of The Hague. He is a member of the ECIS Board of Trustees. Through published articles and conference presentations, Mr. Lewis has challenged international schools to live up to their stated mission to promote global citizenship. His school and others in Europe and Asia are linked by a Global Issues Network based upon the ideas of JF Rischard, designed to promote communication and cooperation among students around the world.


Richard Van de LAGEMAAT

Biography:
Richard van de Lagemaat is the founder and director of an educational consultancy service called InThinking. A graduate of Oxford University with a PhD in Philosophy, he has more than twenty years experience in international education and he has been actively involved in teacher training and curriculum development since 1988. Richard has given lectures and workshops in more than forty countries and is a regularly speaker at educational conferences. He has written extensively on critical thinking and international education and his book Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma is published by Cambridge University Press.