Bellarmine College Preparatory Partners With High Schools for Education Technology Conference.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- School leadership teams are set to explore how their schools might best achieve their missions using the tools of the digital age at the Educational Technology Leadership Conference taking place in the Bay Area on October 27. The unique conference is sponsored by an association of technology leaders from Archbishop Mitty, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Bishop O'Dowd, Carondelet, Mercy (Burlingame), Sacred Heart Prep (Atherton), St. Francis, St. Ignatius and Valley Christian (San Jose) high schools. Leadership teams from dozens of public, private and independent schools are expected to participate in the conference.

"What we are trying to do as a group of schools is to provide the best professional development experience possible by combining our resources," said Bishop O'Dowd President Steve Phelps. "This type of cooperation is unique nationally as is the quality of the program."

Keynote speaker for the conference is Mark Prensky, an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning. Prensky will talk about leading and teaching "digital natives", students who have grown up with the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.

"Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach," Prensky said.

The purpose of the conference is threefold: explore how children continue to change in the digital age; investigate ideal ways to enhance knowledge creation through collaboration; and begin to plan a response as a school team to the challenges of this age.

Conference attendees will choose from a variety of different workshops, including modern classroom design, podcasting, digital storytelling and video in teaching, using the TI Navigator in math education, focused learning with computer games and simulations, computer security on campus, and Wi-Fi on a shoestring.

Interviews with conference sponsors, as well as the keynote speaker, can be arranged. For more information contact Estelle Hayes, Communications Director at Bellarmine College Preparatory, [phone], or [e-mail], or Lisa Coffey Mahoney, Director of Communications at Bishop O'Dowd High School, [phone], ext. 302, or [e-mail].