Keynote speakers 2007
The keynote presentations at the Scottish Learning Festival are of universal interest to everyone attending and are a central focus of the event. This year we are delighted to welcome internationally respected keynote speakers:
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning - Fiona Hyslop, MSP
Fiona Hyslop was born in Ayrshire in 1964 and was brought up in her early years in England before returning to Scotland and graduating from Glasgow University with an MA (Hons) in Economic History and sociology.
She completed a post graduate Diploma in Industrial Administration at the Scottish College of Textiles.
She then moved to Edinburgh and joined the financial services company Standard Life where she held various positions in sales and marketing latterly as Brand Development Manager.
She was elected a Lothians MSP in 1999 and was latterly the Shadow Minister for Children, Education and Lifelong Learning and a member of the Parliament's Education Committee.
In her keynote address, she will outline the central role of learning in supporting the Scottish Government’s strategic objectives.
Further information and booking for keynote: Cabinet Secretary's Address on Wednesday at 14:30 am.
Video of an interview with Fiona Hyslop recorded at the Festival and Fiona's keynote speech are now available.
Michael Fullan
Michael Fullan is the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Recognised as an international authority on educational reform, Michael is engaged in training, consulting, and evaluating change projects around the world. His ideas for managing change are used in many countries, and his books have been published in many languages.
Michael Fullan led the evaluation team which conducted the four-year assessment of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in England from 1998-2003. In April 2004 he was appointed Special Adviser to the Premier and Minister of Education in Ontario.
His widely acclaimed books include:
- What’s Worth Fighting For trilogy (with Andy Hargreaves)
- Change Forces trilogy
- The New Meaning of Educational Change, 3rd Edition
- Leading in a Culture of Change, which was awarded the 2002 Book of the Year Award by the National Staff Development Council
- The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, March 2003
- Leadership and Sustainability: System Thinkers in Action, 2005
- Breakthrough (with Peter Hill and Carmel Crévola), 2006
- Learning Places (with Clif St Germain), 2006
- Turnaround Leadership, 2006
Further information and booking for keynote: Turnaround Schools, Turnaround Systems on Wednesday at 10:45 am.
Video of an interview with Michael Fullan recorded at the Festival and Michael's keynote speech are now available.
Professor Stephen Heppell
I was formerly director of ULTRALAB which had (and indeed still has) an enviable global reputation for creativity, innovation and common sense. After 22 years I left there to consolidate my policy and learning consultancy heppell.net, and am having the time of my life with some remarkable work there.
My inaugural lecture as a (young!) new professor back in 1987 was 'Eyes on the horizon, feet on the ground!' and I have taken that philosophy and 'slogan' with me, of course, along with the common sense!
Past and present projects
Together with many other collaborators in public and private sectors, I'm involved in many, many key projects around the world:
Architecture design projects include three 'World Classrooms' in Richmond with Future Systems, a prison design with Learning Works; a substantial research project looking at designing for new pedagogy; and a host more including a heap of involvement with Building Schools for the Future - advising LEAs, schools, architects, Ministers ... everyone. I'm drawn all over the world currently to help with school and other learning building designs, from Japan to the Middle East. Excitingly, I'm involved in the whole rethink of the museum concept with scoping a whole new museum to house William Blake's work in time for his 250th anniversary in 2007, and also helping a bit with work on the Tate Modern's proposed TM2 extension.
Software development included a long history of developing new learning community tools from 'Campus 2000' with BT in the 80s, though Schools OnLine with the DTI to Think.com with Oracle today. That development work continues but with an even bigger emphasis on mobile phones, 'new' TVs and learning community tools. I'm engaged in some learning community interface design work for Microsoft. Watch this space - it will be good.
The Learnometer project, also with sponsorship from Microsoft, but helpful for governments, OECD World Bank, etc is a project to do two things: (1) publish a biennial survey of world learning trends and (2) explore a metric of learning outcomes that helps us to see what improves when we invest in education.
New media partnerships include past and present work on user-created content and policy for the BBC and Channel 4; and working on some radical visions of 'new' symmetrical TV; I'm proud to be a governor of the new Teachers' TV and an adviser to the BBC on their Digital Curriculum project. I'm a non-executive director of The Knowledge Zone, who do some really innovative work, but (crucially) also look after Cowes OnLine. In 2006 I received the Royal Television Society Judges Award for a lifetime contribution to educational broadcasting.
Innovative approaches to learning inclusion starts with the extraordinarily successful virtual school Notschool.net, funded by the UK's DfES and includes the mobile-phone-based, EU-funded 'm-learning' project for under-employed youths; the QCA funded eVIVA assessment futures project (which is definitely worth a look if you are depressed by where assessment seems to be going and you need cheering up).
Community-based learning includes the vast Tesco SchoolNet 2000 (now SchoolNet Global) with Intuitive Media (the project became the Guinness Book of Records' largest internet learning project in the world); Talking Heads, now novated to the NCSL.
Higher education projects include the extraordinary Ultraversity project: 'It could just be the most radical take on higher education since the creation of the Open University (OU) in the 1960s.' (The Guardian, 2003)
There is a ton more, but this will do for now ... When I ran Ultralab it had a staff, including the NZ team, of 98 exceptional folk, with some hundreds more involved with Notschool. I'm really enjoying the creative freedom of not having to worry about paying all those mortgages, and not eating up so much time on university admin, although I remain an emeritus professor at Anglia Ruskin and a visiting professor elsewhere too.
Further information and booking for keynote: Twenty-first Century Learning: New Ambition, New Pedagogy, New Buildings, New Opportunities on Wednesday at 17:00.
Videos of an interview with Stephen Heppell recorded at the Festival and Stephen's keynote speech are now available.
Mick Waters
Mick’s role at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is ‘to develop a modern, world-class curriculum that will inspire and challenge all learners and prepare them for the future’. He finds it fascinating.
Mick believes the curriculum should be treasured and valued and that it needs to fit with children’s lives. To make the curriculum work, people in schools need to set understandings of their children alongside the learning they should meet to create learning that is irresistible.
Previously, Mick was Chief Education Officer for the City of Manchester. In a challenging education environment schools worked hard to break the cycle of urban deprivation, promoting a wide and rich curriculum and encouraging all learners to achieve as much as possible. Key agendas included the development of joint children’s services, the 14–19 strategy, the employment and skills dimension and configuring all this around Building Schools for the Future.
Before moving to Manchester Mick worked in Birmingham Local Education Authority. He drove forward a school improvement agenda which saw increasing achievements and increasingly successful schools seeking new horizons in educational development.
Further information and booking for keynote: Making Learning Irresistible: The Challenge in England on Thursday at 11:30 am.
Video of an interview with Mick Waters recorded at the Festival and Mick's keynote speech are now available.
Pasi Sahlberg
Pasi Sahlberg is a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank in Washington, DC. He received his PhD in 1996 from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He is a former staff member of the National Board of Education (Ministry of Education) in Finland and the Director of the Centre for School Development at the University of Helsinki. He has worldwide experience in training teachers, coaching schools and advising education policymakers in educational change in over 35 countries.
He has published writings on school development, educational change and improving classroom learning, most recently:
- Education Policies for Raising Student Learning: The Finnish Approach (forthcoming)
- Policy Development and Reform Principles of Basic and Secondary Education in Finland since 1968 (2006)
- Raising the Bar: How Finland Responds to the Twin Challenge of Secondary Education (2006)
- Education Reform for Raising Economic Competitiveness (2006)
- Teaching and Globalization (2004).
His research interests include educational change, school improvement, international education policies, co-operative learning and mathematics education.
Further information and booking for keynote: Common Futures, Different Pasts – Global Solutions to Curriculum Challenge on Thursday at 15:00.
Videos of an interview with Pasi Sahlberg recorded at the Festival and Pasi's keynote speech are now available.
Related links
Get on board
Stephen Heppell interviewed on his boat for Connected magazine.
Stephen Heppell video
Closing the gap
Michael Fullan discusses the challenge of raising educational attainment on Curriculum for Excellence website.