OEB 2017 Keynote Speakers and Chairpersons Included:

I’m a social scientist, but my experiments take the form of games, participatory performances, and software. So I don’t just do science—I design games and group activities, create performances, and publish code.

I study how social environments shape our agency and our relationships, and how our worldviews and values limit what we can design. I've created a little nonprofit that supports this work.

The fields I work in are the theory of reasons for action, the field of human computer interaction, and real world game design as a kind of experimental sociology. One of my abiding research questions: Why does the market fail to address people's deepest desires? How can we re-orient the economy towards what we really want?

My strongest influences are David Velleman, Ruth Chang, Amartya Sen, Augusto Boal, and Bret Victor. My closest collaborators include Albert Kong, Rob Ochshorn, and Tristan Harris.

Claire Fox is the director of the Institute of Ideas, which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint. She convenes the yearly Battle of Ideas festival and initiated The Institute of Ideas Debating Matters Competition for sixth-formers. She also co-founded the IoI’s residential summer school The Academy, with the aim to demonstrate ‘university as it should be’.

She is a panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze and is regularly invited to comment on developments in culture, education, media and free speech issues on TV and radio programmes in the UK such as Newsnight and Any Questions? Claire is a columnist for TES (Times Educational Supplement) and MJ (Municipal Journal). She is author of a recent book on free speech, I Find That Offensive (Biteback, 2016), and No Strings Attached! Why arts funding should say no to instrumentalism (Arts&Business, 2007).

Claire is a fellow of Wellington College, an executive board member of the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR), UCL and is involved at a board level in the international debate network, Time To Talk.

Links

http://instituteofideas.com/aboutus/per…

In 2016 Nik Gowing co-authored interim findings of the “Thinking the Unthinkable” study. The work is currently scaling up because of global anxieties about the new pressures on leaderships. It is based on hundreds of top level confidential interviews and conversations with corporate and public service leaders, plus hundreds more conversations with the new generation of millennials. Findings so far reveal candidly why so many leaders face new difficulties identifying what looms in the disruptions of the “new normal” that have emerged since 2014. New vulnerabilioties are confirmed. The findings are scary.

Nik Gowing was a main news presenter for the BBC’s international 24-hour news channel BBC World News 1996-2014. He presented The Hub with Nik Gowing, BBC World Debates, Dateline London , plus location coverage of major global stories.

For 18 years he worked at ITN where he was bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw, and Diplomatic Editor for Channel Four News (1988-1996). He has been a member of the councils of Chatham House (1998–2004), the Royal United Services Institute (2005–present), and the Overseas Development Institute (2007-2014), the board of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy including vice chair (1996-2005), and the advisory council at Wilton Park (1998-2012 ). In 1994 he was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center in the J. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.  He is a board member for the Hay Literature Festival.

His peer-reviewed study at Oxford University “Skyful of Lies and Black Swans” predicted and identified the new vulnerability, fragility and brittleness of institutional power in the new all-pervasive public information space. The work builds on his work initiated at Harvard.

In 2014 Nik was appointed a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London in the School of Social Science and Public Policy. Since 2016 he has been a Visiting Professor at Nanyang University (NTU), Singapore focussing on deepening and widening the “Thinking the Unthinkable” research. From 2014 he was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Geo-Economics.

He was awarded Honorary Doctorates by Exeter University in 2012 and Bristol University in 2015. They recognise his ongoing cutting edge analyses and distinguished career in international journalism. 

Lauren Herckis is an anthropologist at Carnegie Mellon University with appointments in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer science. She specializes in faculty culture and the use of technology in higher education, and her field research applies anthropological and archaeological methods and theory to analyze human engagement with the material world. Dr. Herckis is interested in learning science, human diversity (especially in urban contexts), the pedagogical training of future faculty, the politics of praxis in fieldwork, chaîne opératoire, and political economy in urban growth. Her research in Latin America interrogates assumptions about cultural heterogeneity in the context of long-term urban growth, and highlights the ways that social networks dynamically impact technical choices and the development of informal economies. Under the aegis of Carnegie Mellon's Simon Initiative, Dr. Herckis' current projects explore the intersection of campus culture, technological change, and effective teaching at the college level. Her research informs policymaking, shapes the development of learning technologies, and illuminates aspects of organizational culture and policy which affect teaching practice.

Dr. Herckis has spent her career working in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research design and execution, in public, private, and non-profit contexts, and across a variety of disciplinary domains. A former Fulbright fellow, Dr. Herckis worked with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education before joining the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.

http://www.laurenherckis.com/

https://www.cmu.edu/simon/news/stories/anthropologist-in-the-classroom.html

https://www.hcii.cmu.edu/people/lauren-herckis

Julia Hobsbawm founded the 'knowledge networking' business www.editorialintelligence.com and consults, writes, teaches, talks and blogs on a number of topics including entrepreneurship, the role of behavioural networks in politics and society, business productivity and the subject she has defined on modern knowledge networking - Social Health. She is the world's first professor of Networking, having been made Honorary Visiting Professor by London's Cass Business School and at the University of Suffolk. She is the author of several books and articles covering communication, business, the media and the future of the workplace. She has written and presented the 5 part BBC Radio 4 series "Networking Nation".

Hobsbawm's new book, 'Fully Connected' was published by Bloomsbury in Spring 2017 and was made Book of the Week by The Times Higher Education Supplement. It was praised by INSEAD and London Business School's Professor Herminia Ibarra as 'stella...a must-read for individuals and policymakers alike' and by Andrew Keen as 'the most profound book about connectivity published this century".

Professor Hobsbawm was awarded an OBE for Services to Business in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in June 2015. 

Photo by Andres Reynaga

Links

http://editorialintelligence.com/http://www.juliahobsbawm.com/

Andrew Keen is one of the world’s best known and controversial commentators on the digital revolution.He is the author of three books: Cult of the Amateur, Digital Vertigo and his current international hit The Internet Is Not The Answer which the London Sunday Times acclaimed as a "powerful, frightening read" and the Washington Post called "an enormously useful primer for those of us concerned that online life isn't as shiny as our digital avatars would like us to believe". He is executive director of the Silicon Valley innovation salonFutureCast and a much acclaimed public speaker around the world. In 2015, he was named by GQ magazine in their list of the "100 Most Connected Men”. His next book, How To Fix The Future, will be published worldwide in January 2018.

Links

http://ajkeen.com/

I have held a wide range of data-oriented roles in tech, media and finance. Most of this work has been focused on building data products for non-technical users (external and internal). Currently, I lead our insights team for Learning Solutions at LinkedIn, working across sales, marketing, engineering, product and analytics to understand how we can use LinkedIn's unique dataset to provide value to our customers in the e-learning space.

I am passionate about coaching and empowering analysts to use data to inform decision-making and measure impact to ensure the right problems are being addressed. In this role and my past, I have used a variety of technical tools including: distributed file systems (Hadoop), Relational Databases (SQL), Python, unix/bash, web development and whatever else was needed to get the job done. I pride myself on being able to not only think "big picture" but also my ability to "get in the weeds".

Dr Aleks Krotoski is an award-winning international broadcaster, author and academic.

For the BBC and Channel 4, she has topped the ratings, won Emmy, BAFTA, Radio Academy, and Royal Society awards, and written and presented the landmark technology and social-science series for both radio – with BBC Radio 4’s The Digital Human – and international television – with BBC World’s The Virtual Revolution.

For The Guardian, she has consistently led the iTunes charts with the Tech Weekly podcast (2007-2015), pioneered environmental and business reporting with The Biggest Story In The World (2015), and taken her hit weekly column from newspaper to acclaimed book (Guardian Faber, 2013). Her award-winning video series for The Guardian, “The Power of Privacy”, was produced in 2015 in 5 countries.

Aleks’ BBC Radio 4 series Codes That Changed The World is the most requested radio series on BBC iPlayer, while Hidden Histories of the Information Age, and Last Bus To Serendip were both critically acclaimed. That led to a prestigious Public Engagement Grant from the British Psychological Society, and thereby the production of The N of Us, the first from Aleks’ independent studio, Pillowfort Productions. Also from Pillowfort Productions: The Resilient, an intimate interview series that eavesdrops on people's toughest times (for Flower) and BlackHatWhiteHat, a cybersecurity series about crime and security in the digital age.

As host, writer, and producer, Aleks Krotoski’s broadcasting success, has mirrored her academic credentials. Dr Krotoski holds fellowships at University of Oxford, and the London School of Economics. Her PhD broke new ground, studying information flow and the spread of ideas across digital spaces. She enjoys an international speaking career, to both corporate and general audiences. She is based in London and Los Angeles.

Links

http://alekskrotoski.com

Heather McGowan works at the intersection of the future of work and the future of learning advising education and business leaders to most effectively prepare for rapid and disruptive changes in learning, work, and society.

Accelerating disruptive cycles in industry, with rising automation and rapid adoption and scaling of technology, are making traditional jobs frameworks obsolete and demanding new and adaptive skill sets of workers.

In higher education, McGowan advises presidents and senior leaders to develop students’ agile learning mindset in order to prepare graduates for jobs that do not yet exist. McGowan also guides corporate executives to re-think and re-frame their business models, and their understanding of team and organizational structures, to be resilient and successful in changing markets.

Her corporate clients range from start-ups like publicly traded, Fortune 500 companies, including Autodesk and BD Medical. She is the co-author of the book Disrupt Together: How Teams Consistently Innovate (Pearson) and is writing a book on the future of work due out in 2018.

McGowan speaks internationally on the future of work and the future of learning. For more information visit www.heathermcgowan.com.

Prof. Dr. Ada Pellert ist seit März 2016 Rektorin der FernUniversität. Die Wirtschaftswissenschaftlerin hat zuvor bereits in verschiedenen Positionen zu den Themen Fernstudium und E-Learning gearbeitet. Auch als Hochschulmanagerin konnte sie in verschiedenen Funktionen ihre Erfahrungen zugleich wissenschaftlich auswerten.

Ada Pellert (Jahrgang 1962) war von 2009 bis 2015 Gründungspräsidentin der Deutschen Universität für Weiterbildung in Berlin und gleichzeitig Professorin für Organisationsentwicklung und Bildungsmanagement. Zudem war sie von 2011 bis Februar 2016 Präsidentin der Carl Benz Academy in Peking. Zuvor war Ada Pellert von 2005 bis 2008 Universitätsprofessorin für Weiterbildungsforschung und Bildungsmanagement sowie Vizerektorin für Lehre, Weiterbildung und Strukturfragen an der Donau-Universität Krems. Als Außerordentliche Universitätsprofessorin arbeitete sie von 1998 bis 2005 an der Abteilung Hochschulforschung der Fakultät für Interdisziplinäre Forschung und Fortbildung der Universität Klagenfurt. Von 1999 bis 2003 war sie Vizerektorin der Universität Graz für Lehre, Personalentwicklung und Frauenförderung. Seit den 1990er Jahren ist sie in der international vergleichenden Bildungs- und Hochschulforschung, der Weiterbildung von Hochschullehrenden sowie der Beratung von Hochschuleinrichtungen national und international tätig. Promoviert zur Doktorin der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften hatte Ada Pellert 1987 an der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien.

Zu ihren Forschungsschwerpunkten gehören insbesondere Bildungs- und Hochschulmanagement, Personalentwicklung und Organisationsentwicklung. Die Wirtschaftswissenschaftlerin beschäftigt sich zudem mit Internationaler Hochschul- und Weiterbildungsforschung, dem Gender- und Diversity-Management sowie mit dem Lebenslangen Lernen.

Seit September 2016 ist Ada Pellert Vorsitzende der neu gegründeten Kooperationsplattform „Digitale Hochschule NRW“ (DH-NRW) für Projekte zur Digitalisierung an Hochschulen.

 https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/english/ 

Marc Prensky, coiner of the term “Digital Native,” is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, consultant and “practical visionary,” promoting civilization-level change in global education.  Marc has spoken in over 40 countries, authored seven books, and published over 100 essays; his writing has been translated into 11 languages. He is currently the founder and Executive Director of the Global Future Education Foundation and Institute. Marc’s latest book, Education to Better Their World: Unleashing the Power of 21^st Century Kids (Columbia TC Press, 2016), is a finalist for the 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in Education.

Links

http://global-future-education.org/http://www.marcprensky.com/

HEE’s Director of National Programmes is responsible for the delivery of a range of national programmes focusing on the education and training of the healthcare workforce in England, including Technology Enhanced Learning and e-Learning for Healthcare.

Alan is a trained nurse who practiced clinically for 18 years. Previous to this current role he has worked in senior management positions for the Department of Health including Project Director for the R-ITI programme, the award-winning e-learning project for radiology and HEE Technology Enhanced Learning Lead & National Programme Director for the e-Learning for Healthcare programme which drives high quality patient care by working in partnership with the NHS and UK professional bodies to develop nationally quality assured, curriculum based e-learning to support healthcare training across the UK. Other national roles include working with Modernising Medical Careers and the National Clinical Governance Support Team. Alan has been instrumental in driving e-learning and technology enhanced learning in the UK health sector.

Alan has a passion for using technology positively and his interest in education extends to Uganda where the Kiddies Support Scheme charity, for which he is a trustee, helps disadvantaged children escape poverty through education.

Links

http://www.e-lfh.org.uk

He has worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator, researcher, and policy advisor in Finland and has studied education systems and reforms around the world. He has published and spoken widely about these topics, his book “Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland” won the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for an idea that has potential to change the world. He is also a recipient of the 2012 Education Award in Finland, the 2014 Robert Owen Award in Scotland, the 2016 Lego Prize, and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Resident Fellowship in 2017. He is a former director general at the Finland’s Ministry of Education and a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. He chairs the Open Society Foundations’ Education Board and is a member of the Governing Board of the University of Oulu and the International Council of Education Advisors (ICEA) for the Scottish Government. His recent books are “Hard Questions on Global Educational Change”, “Empowered Educators in Finland” and “FinnishED Leadership: Four Big, Inexpensive Ideas to Transform Education”.

Links

http://pasisahlberg.com

Sanjay Sarma is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and Vice President for Open Learning at the Institute. He overseas OpenCourseWare, MITx, MicroMasters, the new MIT Integrated Learning Initiative and the World Education Lab at MIT. As a researcher, he founded the Auto-ID Center at MIT and developed many of the key technologies behind the EPC suite of RFID standards now used worldwide. He was also the the founder and CTO of OATSystems, which was acquired by Checkpoint Systems (NYSE: CKP) in 2008. He several on the boards of edX, GS1, EPCglobal, Hochschild Mining and several startup companies. Dr. Sarma received his Bachelors from the Indian Institute of Technology, his Masters from Carnegie Mellon University and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Sarma also worked at Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Aberdeen, UK, and at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in Berkeley, California. His current research interests are Internet of Things, street scanning, sensing, RFID, logistics and manufacturing.

Links

https://odl.mit.edu/about/our-team/sanj…

Abigail Trafford, an award-winning journalist and bestselling author, focusses on longevity and the impact of longer—healthier—lives on society and politics. A former columnist and health editor at The Washington Post, she was a journalism fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and the International Longevity Center in New York, and a visiting scholar at the Center on Longevity at Stanford University. The author of Crazy Time, My Time and As Time Goes By, she lives in Boston, MA.

Links

http://www.abigailtrafford.comhttp://www.mytimegeneration.com