McKenzie Speeches A Taxonomy of Synthetic Thought and Production In this session, Jamie explains how his new Taxonomy can help teachers and their students determine the degree to which a particular production is original or is merely a knock-off, imitation or copy. For those placing a high priority on originality this is a Taxonomy that will inspire and guide student work in powerful ways. Index Flickring Heights - Using Digital Photography to Spark Student Invention Jamie shows how the taking and the editing of photographs with digital tools and software can help students clarify what it means to see, to capture and to report things with a fresh perspective. He suggests engaging students in taking a daily photograph similar to the 365 projects on Flickr and shows how such a daily challenge can transfer benefits into other domains such as writing, thinking and research. Index Designing Great, Quick, Demanding Lessons Mining Digital Riches In this session that can last an hour, half a day or a whole day depending upon the depth required, Jamie shows the group how to build wonderful lessons that require a blend of synthesis, evaluation and analysis but are quick and easy to construct. Index Guiding Extended Inquiry Units This is a hands-on, day-long workshop that gives participants a first hand taste of the kinds of thinking and planning that we hope to orchestrate for our students. A special emphasis will be placed on powerful questioning and mind-mapping as means to structure such extended inquiry experiences. Index Teaching the Art of Intuitive Thinking Intuitive thinking gets little recognition or respect from higher ed, yet countries like New Zealand have identified it as an important element in smart decision-making. How can we teach students to draw upon intuition without relying too heavily on "their gut?' In this session Jamie will show how students will " . . . reflect on their own learning, draw on personal knowledge and intuitions, ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions" in line with the NZ curriculum. Index Studying Complex Concepts such as Beauty, Truth and Courage in Depth Students are rarely challenged to dig down deep in order to create rich definitions of complex ideas. In this session Jamie shows how teachers can use a series of digital explorations to deepen students' understanding of such concepts. Students learn that dictionaries usually pay short shrift to complex ideas, and they even learn to improve the definitions they encounter. Index Comprehension, Inference and Making Meaning The toughest challenge facing students is comprehension and inference when confronted by complicated and mystifying content. Finding answers is relatively easy when they are directly stated, but building answers from clues, fragments and puzzle pieces is much more difficult. In this session Jamie shows how teachers can make such inference and puzzling central to the school experience so students find the challenge quite manageable. Index Creating New Ideas and Possibilities through Lateral Thinking and Wandering Purposefully Little attention is devoted in most schools to what Edward DeBono has called "lateral thinking" - the exploration of unusual possibilities, yet it is precisely this kind of thinking that fuels innovation, invention and activities like disaster planning. In this session, Jamie provides a rationale for developing this kind of thinking and shares strategies that teachers may employ to nurture both the attitudes and skills required so they are capable of "thinking outside the box." Index Reading the Fine Print Many consumers and citizens sign documents like mortgage agreements without reading the fine print and end up with soaring monthly payments. They are usually shocked to learn what they failed to read. In this session, Jamie gives examples of ways that fine print may lead to damage, identity theft and other calamities, urging that schools equip students with both the attitudes and the skills to read and understand what they are signing, stepping back to demand changes in those cases where the document is unfair. Index Challenging Assumptions Many positions, proposals and propositions are based on faulty assumptions and weak data, but many citizens fail to scratch below the surface to find out if there is sufficient logic or evidence to support what is being offered. The NZ Curriculum lists this proficiency as a major goal of its curriculum as all states, provinces and nations should. In this session, Jamie demonstrates the kind of thinking required and how teachers can equip students with the skills to challenge assumptions. Index Why We Still Need Libraries and Librarians Many school leaders around the globe who rarely do research themselves are busily disarming schools by laying off trained librarians and replacing them with aides or simply shutting down the school library. In an Age of Information, this kind of staffing amounts to intellectual disarmament, but many have been seduced by vendors to think that information literacy is a minor matter in what they call a "Digital Age." Quick to embrace the false claims of artificial intelligence, these leaders are doing the young a big disservice, as Jamie illustrates in this hard hitting presentation that will please some and anger others. Index Why We Still Need Art and Music Teachers Many schools have reacted to budget problems and No Child Left Behind by eliminating art and music teachers along with programs that would equip the young to think magically, creatively and artistically. In this session, Jamie points out the folly of such decisions and demonstrates how the economy and the society depend upon these artistic perspectives to fuel creative possibilities. Index The Exciting New Roles of the 21st Century Librarian Networks and digital resources have opened amazing but challenging doors to school librarians if they are willing to consider a robust and demanding new definition of their roles. In this session Jamie argues that professional development and network design are both critically important in this new environment. While the roles he lists are exhausting, they also offer a combination of job security and fulfillment. Index Connecting the Dots - Mindmapping that Seeks Connections, Links and Meaning The value of mindmapping, especially when thinking about solutions to problems, lies in the careful identification of linkages. The mere generation of dozens of questions does not, in itself, fuel understanding and innovative thinking. In this session which can be an hour demonstration or a half day hands-on session, Jamie illustrates how a program like Inspiration or Smart Ideas can be used to map out the important relationships and questions needed to come up with a plan to reduce the danger of floods, the press of traffic or the handling of serious disease. Index Media Literacy - Learning Advertising & Propaganda Techniques Taking advantage of excellent resources from groups such as the New Mexico Media Literacy Project, Jamie shows how students beginning in elementary school may be taught a list of advertising and propaganda techniques that should inoculate them against manipulation. Index Media Literacy - Learning Film & Video Devices Again asking advantage of excellent resources from groups such as the New Mexico Media Literacy Project, Jamie shows how students may be taught a list of film and video devices that should provide them with the vocabulary and the understanding of techniques so they can communicate effectively using such media but also understand when such strategies are being used to influence them. Index Beauty and the Beast: Using Digital Riches to Enhance Learning Long an advocate of using new technologies in smart ways to deepen and enhance student thinking, communicating, inventing and problem-solving, Jamie will provide examples of ways that digital resources can take students to the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy as well as a new Taxonomy Jamie has created to measure the level of originality and synthesis shown in student work. He will also touch briefly on the limitations of digital life, pointing to Thoreau's words, " in Wildness is the preservation of the world."  Index Focus on History, Literacies and ICT In Australia, a new national curriculum for history stakes out some ambitious goals. It states, "History is a disciplined inquiry into the past that develops students' curiosity and imagination. It develops understanding of cultural, social and political events, processes and issues that have shaped humanity from earliest times." This day long hands-on workshop is designed to illustrate strategies that emphasize ICT and various literacies while bringing these ambitious goals to life. There will be opportunities to wrestle with primary sources as well as historical mysteries and puzzles that require inference and comprehension skills.