International Creativity & Academic Excellence Conference (Knox Grammar2013)

This conference started off great. Professor Yong Zhao @YongZhaoUO made the key note, education reform in the digital age. His sentiments on the need for every child to be developed in their specific talents and fostering them to have entrepreneurial qualities was moving. His site has links to his presentation slides http://zhaolearning.com and his latest book "World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students" is in transit for myself. We live in an age where standardised testing determines success on paper, but entrepreneurial qualities translate into success in the workplace. The fine balance between fostering creativity and achieving success in the current assessment benchmarks (NAPLAN, HSC, VCE, ATAR the acronyms continue) is a teachers holy grail. Some great inspiration for the full circle educational movement towards project learning (with assessment for learning across faculties) were highlighted in several sessions, as well as themes of game creating by students, gamification, app creation and eBook and iBook publishing by students and teachers alike. Sharing content for students to gain peer review, connectedness and foster creativity is essential in today's educational landscape.

A great conference for any teacher K-12. http://www.knoxcre8.com