ACM SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH is a week long conference, Aug. 11th - Aug.15th, for a diverse group of researchers, artists, developers, filmmakers, scientists, EDUCATORS and other professionals who share an interest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Below is a list of main educator events for this year. http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/

Educators Plenary Café – Aug. 11th 10:30 AM -12:15 PM Room 411
The Educators' Plenary Café will serve as a form of "fast forward" for the Teach/Learn conference program, noting key offerings throughout the week. The plenary will also serve as a report to the educator’s community about the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee and its activities. In addition, it will serve as a Q&A and feedback session about SIGGRAPH education, as well as a call for volunteer participation

Education Booth - Monday - Aug. 11-15th 9AM - 5PM ACM SIGGRAPH Village
Members of the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee will be available to chat with you and answer your education-related questions. They will also direct you to the SpaceTime Student Exhibition, and to other education-related offerings.

SpaceTime Student Exhibition - Aug. 11-15, 9AM -5PM ACM SIGGRAPH Village

Roundtable on Educational Resources - Aug. 14th 3:45 PM - 5:30 PM - Location: 506
The Educators Roundtable will be devoted to the subject of available teaching tools for CG and digital arts educators. It will be partly a presentation about Education Committee resources (CGEMS, cgSource, Education Index, noted above), and partly a give-and-take about other resources, as well as a CFP for the submission of additional resources to our current offerings.

Excerpt from: The Flight of the Creative Class by Richard Florida

I just finished reading The Flight of the Creative Class by Richard Florida and think he has a realistic perspective of the direction of the US economy. I thought it was very interesting, but its not for everyone - a lot of statistics. It basically brakes down where we fit in to the global economy as a nation and what factors contribute to success - the three T's Talent, Tolerance, and Technology. This book is a sequel to he last book the Rise of the Creative Class.

Also in terms of education, I know we say everyday that we are too focused on the "test", standardized testing, but nothing is changing. We need to change the way we teach and the system we teach in. The "test" is necessary I feel, but it should have less priority.

The problems with education do not by any stretch of the imagination start when our children turn eighteen. For decades, many in k-12 circles and elsewhere have called for education reform. What is needed, in fact, a full-scale overhaul in the way we go about teaching our children. We can no longer succeed – or even tread water – with an education system handed down to us from the industrial age, since what we no longer need is an assembly-line workers. We need one that instead reflects and reinforces the values, priorities, and requirements of the creative age. Education reform must, at its core, make schools places when human creativity is cultivated and can flourish.

. . . Schools need to be vehicles for enhancing and mobilizing the creative capacities of all our children so that the tinkering of today can be translated into the creative advancement of tomorrow.