Subject: [NGC4LIB] Symposium - The Changing Nature of Literacy in a Digital Age - presented by PLS/SMCO

From: "daRoza, Ida" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:48:48 -0800

Peninsula Library System and the San Mateo County Library present

The Fourteenth Annual Literacy Network Breakfast

LITERACY OFF THE PAGE

The Changing Nature of Literacy in a Digital Age

Thursday, March 18, 2010, 7:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. 

Poplar Creek Grill (formerly Dominic's), 1700 Coyote Point Drive San Mateo. CA.

Cost: $35 per person. Includes California Continental Breakfast.

Two professional growth hours are available. 

For information/directions: call 650-312-5312 or email [email-masked]. 

Registration form is below. 

There will be a drawing for eight "Playaway" preloaded digital audio players at the end of the program.

LITERACY OFF THE PAGE

Is print dying? Are books a thing of the past? Can newspapers compete with the internet?  If the answers to these questions are yes, is it good or bad for the future of literacy? The 14th Annual Literacy Breakfast, "Literacy Off the Page", is scheduled for Thursday, March 18 at 7:30 a.m. Speakers will address the changing nature of literacy in a digital age and will include William Crossman, philosopher, futurist and professor; Phil Bronstein, Executive Vice President and Editor-at-Large, Hearst Newspapers; J. Maarteen Troost, author and self-proclaimed "Luddite"; and Dr. Jean Holbrook, San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools. Join the provocative dialog at this year's fourteenth annual Literacy Breakfast on March 18. 

Registration and Breakfast - 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. 

Welcome 
JEANINE ASCHE - Manager, Community Engagement Library Services Manager, San Mateo County Library 
Opening Remarks and Introductions 
CAROLE GROOM -Vice President of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors

Presentations 

WILLIAM CROSSMAN - Philosopher, Professor and Futurist

2050, THE POST-LITERATE AGE

Libraries, books, and liberty have been interconnected for thousands of years, but the relationships among these are now getting radically redefined due to new and emerging information technologies (ITs) such as interactive video, voice-recognition technology, the internet, and internet-accessing mobile devices. We're moving rapidly into the Post-Literate Age of 2050--a positive step in the evolution of human society--in which all-sensory ITs will make text obsolete, replace all reading and writing with voice, video, and body movement, encourage the democratization of information flow worldwide, and recreate an oral culture by mid-century. William Crossman is a philosopher, futurist, professor, human-rights activist, pianist/composer, and founder/director of the CompSpeak 2050 Institute for the Study of Talking Computers and Oral Cultures.

PHIL BRONSTEIN, Executive Vice President and Editor-at-Large, Hearst Newspapers

ARE NEWSPAPERS DEAD?

Phil Bronstein began his media career with KQED-TV and later moved to the newspaper industry. He has won many awards for his investigative journalism and in 1986 was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. In 2008 Bronstein took his current position with Hearst Newspapers after many years as the well-known editor for the San Francisco Chronicle. On a recent blog post Bronstein stated, in reference to the internet's influence on newspapers", I really didn't know what was charging down that clichéd superhighway right at us like a huge, flaming truck bomb filled with a million electronic ball bearings." If anyone can speak to the issue of the decline of print in a digital age, it's Phil Bronstein.  

DR. JEAN HOLBROOK, San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools

TECHNOLOGY AND THE CHANGING NATURE OF EDUCATION 

Technology is providing exciting opportunities for student learning. Schools are beginning to offer text books online, laptops and a wide array of easily accessible and inexpensive information technology devices. Because of this, students with print disabilities or limited finances are now afforded enhanced prospects for education.  Dr. Holbrook, who will speak to this educational revolution, was appointed San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools in January 2006. Prior to that, she held a variety of positions in the San Mateo County Office of Education, including Associate Superintendent of the Instructional Services Division. Dr. Holbrook was elected to a four-year term as County Superintendent in 2007. 

J. MAARTEN TROOST - Author and Consultant

THE QUEST FOR THE PRINTED WORD

J. Maarten Troost was put in the position of living with the hypothetical question: If you were stuck on a deserted island, what ten books would you bring? He spent two years in Kiribati in the equatorial Pacific which had no bookstores, libraries or internet; therefore, he was always on the quest for the printed word. Troost was born in the Netherlands of Dutch-Czech descent. He grew up in Canada and currently lives in California. He is the author of three books about his experiences in the Pacific Islands and 3-month trip to China. His essays have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, and the Prague Post. Upon his return from Kiribati, he was hired as a consultant by the World Bank.

Major Funders: Peninsula Library System and San Mateo County Library

You are encouraged to invite other members of your community who are involved with issues concerning literacy. Please use the attached registration form. If registering for another person or for a community team, list the names and addresses on a separate sheet of paper.

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LITERACY OFF THE PAGE

(Please use this form if you wish to mail in your registration)

Name                                                         Organization            _________________________________

Address                                                     _______City/Zip       ________________________________

Tel (Day)                                                    Tel (Evening)______________________________________

Email _______________________________________________________________________________

Cost:  $35.00

Includes California Continental Breakfast

Enclosed is a check payable to "Peninsula Library System" for  $_______ for ______ registrations for the March 18, 2010 Literacy Breakfast Program. Tickets will be held at the door.

Mail to: Peninsula Library System

Literacy Breakfast 2010

2471 Flores Street, San Mateo, CA  94403

OR If you wish to purchase online: http://plsinfo.org/litbreakfast.html

If you wish to use a credit card by phone, call (650) 349-5538. 

Please respond by March 12, 2010.

Ida Z. daRoza

[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 

SMCO Collections & Cataloging 

San Mateo County Central Library

125 Lessingia Court

San Mateo, CA. 94402

650-312-5255