Exploratorium Director is first winter quarter “Futures of Learning” speaker

SCIL’s monthly lecture series, "Futures of Learning," resumes this month on Jan. 18 with the visit of Rob Semper, Executive Associate Director of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The lectures are free and open to the public.

“Futures of Learning” is designed to inform members of the Stanford community as well as local citizens about developments of critical importance in education today. On a Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. each month distinguished speakers address the question, "What are the ideas that will transform education?"

Dr. Semper’s talk, "The Potential of Distributed Learning Environments: Lessons from the Center of Informal Learning and Schools," will be held in the Peter Wallenberg Learning Theater in Wallenberg Hall.

Since 2002, the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS), funded by NSF, has been working to create a program of research, scholarship and leadership in the arena of informal learning and the relationship of informal science institutions and schools. A partnership between the Exploratorium, U.C. Santa Cruz and Kings College, London, CILS is concerned with making K-12 science education more compelling and accessible to a diverse student population. It does this through studying science learning in out-of-school settings, including informal science institutions, and building programmatic bridges between out-of-school and in-school science learning.

Dr. Semper's presentation will cover the current work of CILS and future implications of the research for learning and learning systems.

On Feb. 22, “Futures of Learning” hosts Mitch Resnick, acting head of MIT’s Media Lab. Professor Resnick focuses on the exploration of how new technology can help children and adults learn in new ways. He is founder of Lifelong Kindergarten, a research group at MIT, and co-founder of the Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of after-school centers offering computer access to low-income children.

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