August 8, 2013

Learning in the Digital Age: Executive STEM Summit

Leaders from academia, public policy, and the private sector gathered to discuss the future of learning at the Scientific American and Macmillan Science and Education Executive STEM Summit: Learning in the Digital Age.

By Rachel Scheer

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Leaders from academia, public policy, and the private sector gathered to discuss the future of learning at the Scientific American and Macmillan Science and Education Executive STEM Summit: Learning in the Digital Age. The goal of the summit, held
August 7 at the Google offices in New York City, was to go beyond the usual conversations on the need to reinvent the ways we teach and learn, and instead focus on the emerging technologies, groundbreaking initiatives and leading programs that have the best chance of revolutionizing education. "Until recently, classrooms have shared a familiar format for hundreds of years," said Scientific American editor in chief Mariette DiChristina. "Now that's all starting to change as the digital revolution that has swept through so many other industries makes its presence more and more felt in education." The half-day summit featured luminaries such as Harvard University director of life sciences education Robert Lue, Science Friday host Ira Flatow, Change the Equation CEO Linda Rosen, Google global education evangelist Jaime Casap, Knewton CEO Jose Ferreira, Lawrence Hall of Science director Elizabeth Stage, Google director of research Peter Norvig, and others. [caption id="attachment_1683" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Michael Voss, Alan Alda and Mariette DiChristina"]
[/caption] At the close of the summit, DiChristina granted seven-time Emmy-winning actor, writer and director Alan Alda a lifetime achievement award for his dedication to supporting STEM. In 2006 Alda received the National Science Board's Public Service Award for helping to broaden the public's understanding of science. He is a visiting professor and advisory board member of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University and the former host of the television series Scientific AmericanFrontiers. The summit was inspired by the August 2013 issue of Scientific American, which features a 26-page special report, "Learning in the Digital Age." The report looks at the technologies, methods and policies that are being cultivated to help students around the world receive the best possible education. Scientific American's report, as well as coverage from SA's sister publicationNature, can be found here. Anna Kuchment, a contributing editor at Scientific American, also reported on the event and highlighted some of the discussions on her blog, Budding Scientist.

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