Seizing Our Destiny: Imagining New Models for Educating Our Communities

North Canton, Ohio –– Imagine an all-digital school where learning is accelerated by online resources that replace textbooks. Imagine a classroom in which students work collaboratively online and in global communities. Imagine every learner, in or outside of traditional classrooms, being inspired by world’s greatest scientists, artists, philosophers and entrepreneurs. In this rapidly evolving global economy, imagine what would happen if we changed nothing to leverage these technologies.

This describes the conversation that will be discussed when Walsh University and the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) Institute host a special workshop Seizing Our Destiny: Imagining New Models for Educating Our Communities, on Thursday, October 25, from 8 to 11 am, in the Barrette Business and Community Center on the campus of Walsh University. This interactive workshop is free and open to the public as a part of the Walsh inaugural ICF Symposium, October 24-25. Registration is available at http://walshicfsymposium.eventbrite.com.

The workshop will officially kick-off the ICF Symposium events with a dynamic solutions-driven exploration of “A World without Schools” for international symposium guests, educators, business leaders and community activists from Northeast Ohio. Workshop participants will be inspired by the game-changing ideas of renowned workshop facilitators Christian Long, Vice President of Cannon Design and educational strategist; Logan Smalley, Founder and Director of TED-Ed; and Superintendent Dr. Richard Miller from Riverside, California’s Ramona High School.

“It is our hope that the interactive format of the workshop will aid in the development of new models and promote the advantages of global partnerships for everyone in attendance,” said Jackie DeGarmo, Director of the Walsh University ICF Institute for the Study of the Intelligent Community. “Our goal is to promote continued collaboration and dialogue between educators in the creation of new ‘hybrid’ teaching models and a progressive redesign of educator training for the knowledge economy. The whole community needs to be a part of this critical conversation.”

According to DeGarmo, the workshop’s theme falls directly in line with the Walsh University ICF Institute overall vision to be a regional resource as well as a venue for thought leaders around the world who are inspired by the Intelligent Community movement. “The training of educators aligned to the mission of servant leadership has been a signature program for Walsh University."

For over 18 months, Walsh has been working with key members of the community and architecture firms Cannon Design and Richard L. Bowen & Associates in the design of a new facility, the Center for Transformative Learning, that will provide an anchor for the ICF Institute while inspiring and modeling new ways of engaging our community in the generation of solutions and ideas.

About the Presenters:
Logan Smalley, Founder and Director of TED-Ed: TED-Ed is the newest initiative of the wildly popular TED video series and conferences that is evolving collaboratively to assist educators in the delivery of the world’s most awesome ideas and lessons.

Dr. Richard Miller, Superintendent, Riverside Unified School District: The 2012 Intelligent Community of the Year Riverside, CA, boasts the first comprehensive public high school in California, and the third in the nation, to go all digital, replacing several hundred dollars worth of textbooks for each student with a single android tablet computer and transforming learner relationships.

Christian Long, Vice President of Cannon Design and Educational Strategist: Cannon Design and The Third Teacher Vice President, Long is an educational strategist assisting communities around the world in the visioning and design process.

The ICF Inaugural Symposium is supported by a generous grant from the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation.
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The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) is a nonprofit think tank that focuses in job creation and economic development in the broadband economy, for the local economy, both large and small, in the developing and developed economies of the world.

The Walsh University Institute for the study of the Intelligent Community is a resource for local and regional communities interested in this movement to connect to over 100 international partner communities. It is also designed to provide a venue for thought leaders from around the world to share ideas and solutions, and a laboratory to explore new models for the preparation of educators for the knowledge economy.

Walsh University is an independent, co-educational Catholic liberal arts and sciences institution that promotes academic excellence and diversity and provides close faculty-student interaction. It is dedicated to teaching its more than 3,000 students from 15 states and 24 countries to become leaders in service to others through a values-based education with an international perspective in the Judeo-Christian tradition.