Stephen Gilfus, a former founder of Blackboard inc, and a well known figure in the eLearning industry announced today, that the Gilfus Education Group is sponsoring the “Social Technology and Education Conference”,
August 14th @ Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
“The use of social technology in education can be very promising towards student engagement”, said Stephen, “Facebook and LinkedIn have had a dramatic effect on our ability to engage both personally and professionally. Implementing similar technologies in the education industry presents a unique opportunity to improve student engagement, student retention, academic success and overall educational outcomes.”
The Social Technology and Education Conference at Harvard is a one-day event where educators (high school and college) can learn about how social technologies can be used to create and support communities of learning.
Areas of interest for the conference include:
- Social networking tools
- Blogging and Microblogging
- Chat and Instant Messaging
- Course/Learning management systems
- Virtual Worlds
The event is also sponsored by Elgg, an open-source social networking engine which powers all kinds of environments. Directly following the Social Technology and Education is Elgg “Base Camp” for those educators that are interested in the application of Elgg to education and have greater interest in its technology. Over two dozen academic institutions use Elgg to build community and extend their current educational environments.
“Over the next few months and through the end of the year we expect to hear about many new advances in educational software as they look to incorporate more and more social technologies by capitalizing on social networking capabilities the industry can shape a new educational technology paradigm with the promise of “Social Learning”.”
Through each one of its internal practices the Gilfus Education Group provides critical capabilities to its clients for effective decision making, strategic planning and successful implementations. Working with the Gilfus Education Group educational organizations can experience dramatic transformation across the entire organization. The group partners to help organizations become better positioned to achieve strategic goals, compete for scarce resources, and plan for the future.