SqueakFest '05 - Chicago, Il August 10 - 13

Greetings!

To help us continue to plan the program for SqueakFest, we'd appreciate your taking a few minutes to complete this on-line form.

SqueakFest expands this year to include an additional day. Wednesday will be devoted entirely to hands-on workshops, while Thursday through mid-day Saturday will be dedicated to panels, presentations, and additional workshops. Participants will be able to register for all four days (including the Wednesday workshops) or for the main two and a half-day conference.

Dr. Alan Kay will kick off the main conference with a keynote address on Thursday morning, August 11. Kay will previously receive an honorary Doctorate of Letters at the Columbia College Chicago School of Media Arts Commencement on June 5, 2005.

In addition to the hands-on workshops, and panels and presentations about Squeak, Etoys, Tweak, Croquet, classroom experiences, and project-based curriculum development, there will be plenty of time to socialize, share, and engage in small-group discussions.

Details will follow soon about accommodations, fees, on-line registration, and the conference schedule. The home for SqueakFest '05 will be the University Center, the site of last year's conference, in Chicago's South Loop on State Street across from Grant Park and Lake Michigan.

Please feel free to circulate this announcement to interested parties, such as public and private school teachers, college teacher educators, community center leaders, and researchers. Professional development credits will again be available for K-12 educators.

SqueakFest 05 will be sponsored in part by the Interactive Multimedia and Early Childhood Education Programs and Schools of Media Arts and Liberal Arts and Sciences at Columbia College Chicago, and Viewpoints Research Institute. We seek additional partners to help underwrite conference costs. If you, your school, or organization are interested in helping to fund this Conference, please let us know. Be assured any sponsor will be duly acknowledged in all printed conference materials and via other media exposure. Columbia and VRI are 501(c)(3) organizations.

Last year's second SqueakFest brought together about 90 teachers, college teacher educators, researchers, and developers from around the world. We look forward to an even larger gathering in 2005. Again, we are hoping to assemble a critical mass of folks for three-and-a-half days of discussing the effective teaching, and learning of, powerful ideas.

Please join us at SqueakFest '05!

Wade Roberts
Director, Interactive Multimedia Program
Columbia College Chicago
wroberts@colum.edu

Kim Rose
Viewpoints Research Institute and the Hewlett Packard Company
kim.rose@squeakland.org