More than 1,000 educators from all over California are expected at the 4th Annual Arcadia Innovation Summit on June 22. AltSchool founder and CEO Max Ventilla will kick off the full day of professional development and collaboration as the keynote speaker. The Yale University alum served as the Head of Personalization at Google and is now changing the future of education through AltSchool and its unique platform for student-centered learning.
Ventilla, who is regarded as a premier technologist, left his executive job at Google after being inspired to personalize education for his own children and children across the world. He will discuss AltSchool’s vision of enabling students to reach their full potential through personalized and student-driven learning and how schools can adopt a startup mindset to empower students and teachers.
In addition to Ventilla, there will be more than 100 breakout sessions for educators to choose from. Session topics will include virtual reality in the classroom, personalized learning, gaming, Google apps, coding, school public relations, augmented reality, 3D printing, social media networking, and several other innovative classroom strategies.
Keeping with its mission, the Arcadia Innovation Summit will be free of charge again this year thanks to the Arcadia Unified School District. Similar professional development opportunities and conferences would cost a minimum of $200-300.
“We believe that students, communities, and the education system as a whole benefit when educators come together and start talking and sharing best practices. This is essential in education today. We are offering this summit for free to set an example of collaboration without costs and to put into practice what we believe,” said Arcadia Unified School District Superintendent Dr. David Vannasdall.
Arcadia Unified is one of the first public school districts in the country to implement the AltSchool platform in its classrooms. In January, Arcadia launched an experimental lab school focused solely on personalized learning with 32 seventh grade students. First Avenue Middle School, one of three Arcadia Unified middle schools, is also seeing great success across its sixth grade classes using the AltSchool platform with nearly 300 students.
“We are excited to partner with Arcadia Unified and other innovative schools that share our commitment to personalize learning for all students,” Ventilla said. “By having teachers work hand-in-hand with our engineers and designers, AltSchool’s platform enables powerful personalized education for students.”
Registration is currently open and will be limited to the first 1,000 people on a first-come, first-served basis. Included in the free registration is a complimentary lunch, parking, and WiFi. For additional information and to register you can visit www.arcadiainnovationsummit.com.
The following week, June 28-30, the Arcadia Unified School District will be hosting another premier educational opportunity at the Arcadia Performing Arts Center. The Arcadia Music Symposium is a three-day music and arts conference for students and educators. You can visit www.ArcadiaSymposium.com for more information.