Keynote Speakers
More than Gadgets Conference
29 and 30 August 2011
The conference committee is pleased to announce our fantastic keynote speakers for this year’s conference.
Keynote speakers are:
Dr Chris Abbott (Reader in e-Inclusion in the Department of Education and Professional Studies at King’s College London). Before joining KCL, he taught in special and mainstream schools for many years, was an Advisory Teacher for ICT and SEN and was then appointed Director of the Inner London Educational Computing Centre. At King’s College London he is the Director of the MA e-Inclusion (Learning, Disability and Technology) and the Foundation Degree in Education Studies programmes. He is the author of ICT: Changing Education (2000 RoutledgeFalmer), Special Educational Needs and the Internet: Issues fot the Inclusive Classroom (2002 RoutledgeFalmer) and e-Inclusion: Learning Difficulties & Digital Technologies (2007 Futurelab), as well as many academic journal papers and other publications. He is the Editor of the Journal of Assistive Technologies. His current PhD students are investigating a range of topics related to assistive technologies use in education including word prediction, podcasting, boys and writing, the use of graphic symbols, inclusion policy and digital literacy.
Ann and John Crick are both former teachers with extensive experience of teaching children with a wide range of special needs. Professionally they complement each other with their strong interests in technology and literacy, to head Crick Software in its provision of reading and writing tools, assistive technology and curriculum content.
In 1993 John established Crick Software, releasing the first version of Clicker the following year, while Ann worked in the classroom incorporating early versions of the software into her teaching. Since then, they have worked together to develop high quality software that is both innovative and practical and makes a real difference to teaching and learning in schools all over the world.
Ann and John maintain a strong commitment to the principles of Universal Design for Learning, demonstrated by the widespread use of their software not only in special needs environments, but also in mainstream settings. The company’s products have won many awards, and recently John and Ann were honoured with the Outstanding Achievement Award at the UK’s annual Education Awards.
Dr Genevieve McArthur (ARC Australian Research Fellow) is from the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science. Genevieve completed her PhD in the Department of Psychology at the University of Western Australia (1999) under the supervision of Dr John Hogben. She then took up a 5-year post-doctoral research position at Oxford University with Professor Dorothy Bishop (1999-2003). In late 2003, she moved to MACCS on an NHMRC Howard Florey Centenary Research Fellowship (2003-2005) and an NHMRC Project Grant (2003-2006) to work with Professor Max Coltheart. Genevieve is now an ARC Australian Research Fellow (2008-2012). She directs the MACCS event-related potential (ERP) and fixation-related potential (FRP) laboratory. Dr McArthur’s research examines the causes of dyslexia and specific language impairment (SLI) and how these conditions should be treated.
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