Keynote Address 1 Preparing Students for the Digital Age Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) RAdm (NS) Ronnie Tay Day 1 - 21 November 2007 9.15am - 10.00am

To be updated...


With the advent of the Digital Age, the easy access to technology and information are shaping the learning experience of our youth, the digital natives.  Emerging technologies and the development of Interactive Digital Media (IDM) have presented many exciting opportunities for teaching and learning.  Tapping on emerging technologies and IDM, IDA together with MOE and industry partners are preparing our students for the Digital Age through programmes like EdVantage and FutureSchools@Singapore.

Keynote Address 2 Immersive, Collaborative Simulations and Neomillennial Learning Styles: Implications for Education Professor Christopher Dede Harvard University, USA Day 1 - 21 November 2007 11.00am - 12.00pm

Christopher Dede is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Learning Technologies at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. His work with schools includes service on the National Technology Advisory Boards for the Milwaukee and Cleveland districts. He was the Editor of the 1998 Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Yearbook, Learning with Technology. His research includes a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop shared virtual environments with digitized museum artifacts to aid middle school students learning science.


Emerging interactive media are shaping users' motivations, attributes, and social patterns into types of learning styles quite different than those based on sensory, personality, or intelligence factors. "Neomillennial" learners seek educational situations that interweave face-to-face interactions with shared virtual experiences across distance and time (distributed-learning). This session will demonstrate examples of game-like, immersive, collaborative simulations and will discuss implications of neomillennial learning styles for education.


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Keynote Address 3 2020 Vision of Future Learning Bruce Dixon Chairman Microsoft Worldwide Education International Advisory Board Microsoft Corporation Day 1 - 21 November 2007 12.00pm - 12.45pm

From a background as a teacher, Principal, educational software developer, college lecturer, Bruce has developed a unique niche in developing education strategy for educational leaders and policy makers around the effective use of emerging technologies.

His works throughout the 90’s lead the development of 1-to-1 initiatives across Australia, and New Zealand. In 1996 he took the concept to North America, Canada and the UK, before co-founding the not-for-profit Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, which provides thought leadership to policy makers and educational leaders in the effective implementation of 1-to-1 initiatives world-wide.

In 1997 Bruce received a award from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC for his work world-wide pioneering the idea that every child should, and could have their own laptop for learning, and in 2006 was named as one of “Twenty People to Watch”” by the National School Boards Association of America.

He consults to schools, School Districts, Education Departments, Ministries of Education and corporations in the US, Australia, Canada, Europe, Asia and New Zealand, and regularly speaks at national and international conferences around the world.; throughout 2006/7 he has spoken at numerous events in over 18 countries, reaching educational leaders from around the world. Bruce continues to work on a diverse range of exciting projects that aim to making learning a more compelling experience for kids through their immersion in a technology-rich learning environment and continues to challenge traditional notions of what school should be.


Information communications technology (ICT) has enriched and enhanced people’s lives in countless ways. Microsoft understands the positive effect that ICT can bring to teaching and learning, and is dedicated to discovering innovative ways to bring greater value to teaching and learning worldwide.

By giving learners unlimited access to a new world of information via the internet; sparking creativity, and facilitating rich communication and collaboration across vast distances through a host of technology tools such as emails, mobile computing and web services, ICT is only an engine of learning. All the computers and technology in the world won’t make a difference without enthusiastic students, skilled and committed teachers, involved and informed parents, and a society like Singapore that underscores the value of lifelong learning.

Microsoft’s 2020 Vision of Future Learning will look into the next phase of technology in learning and its continued long-term partnerships with its Singapore Partners in Learning (Singapore Government, schools, teachers, students and developers community) to explore 1-on-1 Anytime Anywhere Computing, social computing and cyber-wellness in learning with technology. Together, Microsoft and Singapore will produce a global, diverse, educated Singapore workforce that delivers dependable innovation, shared vision, and collaborative creativity.

From preschoolers to lifelong learners—Microsoft is committed in realising everyone’s full potential.

Keynote Address 4 Emerging Trends in Interactive Digital Media and their Impact on Education Adjunct Associate Professor Leong Mun Kew Divisional Director of Services and Applications, Institute of Infocomm Research, Singapore Day 2 - 22 November 2007 9.15am - 10.15am

Leong Mun Kew is Programme Director for Services Research at the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore, where he’s responsible for starting a core research programme in services and helping existing research groups adopt a services oriented mentality. Mun Kew received his PhD in Philosophy and Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. He has more than 20 years of R&D and commercial experience in IT.

Prior to his current position, Mun Kew was Division Director, Computing Division. Before that, he was manager of the Media Semantics Department where he headed a group of researchers in exploring, understanding, and using semantics in text and multimedia.

The speaker will survey emerging trends in interactive digital media technologies to show the recent evolution from traditional ideas of games and interaction, and attempt to motivate some questions on how these changes may impact our thinking on ICT in education. In particular, he will look at themes such as personalization, virtual and mixed reality, and social communities which have become part of the emerging digital lifestyles.