Patrick Duignan President Australian Council for Educational Leaders

I extend a welcome to all of you who are participating in this online conference. This conference provides you with the opportunity to put on your future’s hat and your visionary glasses.

Many educational colleagues I meet and dialogue with talk about the fact that we find ourselves in 2006 in a period of ‘great transition’. There seems to be a widespread belief that we are at a crossroads in education in this country and that current decisions and plans must be sensitive and responsive to the rapidly changing environments within which we operate.

Of course, we are unsure as to what type of future we are transitioning towards. In this online conference, you have the opportunity to imagine a future full of possibilities and hope for our students and educational institutions.

Throw off the restrictions often imposed by perceived current obstacles and constraints and ‘dream the impossible dream.’ We need dreamers and people who are not paralysed by tradition and deeply entrenched paradigms that inhibit creativity and beyond-the-horizon thinking. What we need are frameworks for creative thinking and doing and not blueprints for conformity and the perpetuation of the status quo.

I urge each of you to actively engage in the development of  these creative frameworks so that dreams can become realities. We do not want to inherit a future that is not of our own making. Remember, no one so-called expert, be they a futurist or strategic planner, has a monopoly on the wisdom required to create a desired future for the children in our schools. Your perspective is a good as anyone else’s.

Get stuck in and have your say. Share your wisdom. Don’t just complain about the way things are and how the world is rapidly going down hill. Get involved and make your opinion count.

Thank you in advance for participating in this online ‘think tank’ and thank you  for contributing your valuable time and opinions.

Patrick Duignan
President
Australian Council for Educational Leaders

Felicia Brown National Academic Programs Manager Microsoft Pty Limited

Welcome to the second ACEL – Microsoft Online Conference.  This conference coincides with Microsoft’s School of the Future Summit in Philadelphia, US.  The school has been purpose built to deliver 21st Century learning in a live setting.  The school has embraced change and a spirit of innovation.  This practice has been integrated into the teaching and learning process.  The challenges which led the Philadelphia school district to build this school are faced by teachers and schools around the world.  We hope that you will take this opportunity during this online conference, to discuss and debate what you think the school of the future or the future of school should be through this online conference.

This conference has once again gathered the most outstanding papers, website presentations, and MP3 files from eleven countries and, as a result, Microsoft is proud to support this conference and provide prizes for the:

• Best website or MP3 presentation
• Best contribution to the online conference by a young teacher
• The most innovative vision of future schooling.

Winners will be announced on the last day of conference.

This online conference also heralds the development of the ACEL – Microsoft Innovative Teachers’ Portal which will be launched early 2007 and will see Microsoft partnering with ACEL to provide a number of avenues and resources for teachers to connect and collaborate virtually. This opportunity is part of the Innovative Teachers’ Network’s suite of events and is part of a long-term commitment from Microsoft to partner with governments, education organisations and teachers to establish a foundation for continued advances in teaching and learning and educational leadership. 

Once again, Microsoft is proud to be partnering with ACEL to host this conference and hope that, over the next seven days, the discussion, debate and sharing that occurs will help to stimulate many innovative ideas for envisioning future schools.

Felicia Brown
National Academic Programs Manager
Microsoft Pty Limited

Debra J. Brydon Online Conference Manager

Welcome to the second ACEL-Microsoft online conference for 2006. It is clear that the topic of future schooling has excited the imagination of many educators. This is reflected in the amazing range - and outstanding quality - of the papers and presentations submitted.

What does the future hold for education? How will schools, as we now know them, change? To what extent can, and should, we shape the learning of our young people?  After you have read, and listened to, this diverse collection of papers and presentations, you will probably have some sharpened up ideas of your own. We strongly urge you to join in the online discussions and tell us about your views, suggestions and predictions.

Please set aside some dedicated time in your week to join us in our daily (24 hours a day) online discussion. Interacting with colleagues from all around the world, on such a global topic, is a central feature of this professional development opportunity. Professional sharing is vital to getting the most you can out of these online conferences.

Some of you may not have taken part in an online conference before, so a few guidelines are provided here.

Remember that all the papers and comments on the online discussions have been provided by well-meaning colleagues, who have taken the time to share their views and information. When you are online, be friendly, polite and helpful. We welcome both positive and negative views on a paper, or in response to a colleague's comments.

Always enter your name, school and country, so that others know who they are ‘conversing’ with. It is very important that you do not share the website address of the online conference with those who have not registered. If you do know of someone who might like to participate, please ask them to formally register online.

Comments entered in the online discussions by persons known by the conference organisers to be unregistered will be removed, without notice. Please help to keep the online discussions as private as we can make them, and restricted as much as possible to this registered group of interested professionals. Please do not publicise the website address to unregistered persons under any circumstances.

I warmly welcome you to the second of this year’s ACEL-Microsoft online conference and look forward to our time together as an international online community. If you have any difficulties, comments or suggestions for future conferences, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Debra J. Brydon
Online Conference Manager
Email: brydon@cybertext.net.au