Keynotes, presentations and services

Most requested presentations, speeches, keynotes

Passion, humor, intelligence
...and a quarter century of experience

Jason is well known for the passion, humor and intelligence he brings to his keynotes. Combining twenty-five years of experience in the educational technology field with an eye for the future, he connects with the audience where they are, and helps them see their importance in the future development of living, learning and working in the Digital Age. He clearly loves what he does, and loves sharing what he knows with others. For audience and client evaluations, see testimonials.

Described below are his most popular keynotes. Following the descriptions is a list of areas that he is often asked to address, each of which can become a keynote with that particular focus.

Beyond Essays: New kids, New Media and New Literacies

Transforming learning through digital creativity

Question: What kinds of literacies do students need to be able to work, innovate and communicate in the modern world?

Answer: Whatever literacies enable them to "write" the media they "read" so they can be active media creators rather than passive media consumers.

Literacy has always meant being able to consume and produce the media forms of the day, whatever they may be. For centuries this has meant writing essays and reports filled with words and paragraphs. Now it means blending words with images, sounds, music, video, and other media to create the new communication default: the multimedia collage, in the form of web pages, digital stories, YouTube creations and much more.

It is up to us to help digital kids migrate from text centrism to media collage literacy in creative, thoughtful, ways. We need to help them cultivate their new media talents, adopt art as the 4th R and use storytelling to convey their ideas in rich, compelling ways. We need to help them create media, stories and projects that are articulate and transformative. And we need to help them collaborate and share their work and talents within the collaborative community of the social web.

This keynote features an overview of the move to media collage literacy, and includes several examples of student produced digital stories and new media narrative.

Based on Jason's book: Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity (Corwin Press, 2007).

"This book illuminates the very heart and soul of learning and digital technology." (Walter Bender, President of MIT's One to One Laptop Program)

"Jason Ohler writes with clarity, wit, and passion about topics that are central to the enterprise of educating. He demonstrates how each student can become an active and more confident meaning-maker by using the tools that make stories powerful aids to understanding in all areas of the curriculum." (Dr. Kieran Egan, Professor of Education, Simon Fraser University)

Note: This is the most requested keynote and works best with 90 minutes.

Then What?
The past, present and future of education and technology

In an age of "No Child Left Behind," what is technology's role?

Should we go digital? Or go ditch it all?

After gobs of glizty digital gear, endless excruciating software upgrades, computers that teach us math and robots that clean house, Then What?

Listen to the story of William Tell, hero of Jason's novel about living and learning in the Digital Age. Then What? is a fun, serious, roller coaster of a story about a computer savant who tries to find a path with a heart in a plastic and silicon world gone crazy with innovation. It is the story of personal transformation as William goes from geeker, to seeker, to teacher, to innovative designer of new schools for new times. It is a story about how we absolutely must re-think our schools if we are going to prepare our kids for the lives they will live, rather than the lives we are used to.

Then What? is also a story about the importance of teachers throughout our lives-- school teachers, parents, friends, mentors at work, and everyone else who has enriched our lives by teaching us something important and new. It is about how life is a constant source of new experiences that will teach us as much as we will allow them to.

Above all, it is a story about you and your struggle to understand the rapidly changing times in which you live. It is about how to help you connect to life in the Digital Age with friends, co-workers, community and family. It is about how to become empowered by the technology that is now a part of your every day life, regardless of what you do. It is about how and why we should all use the tools of the Digital Age to tell our stories.

Based on Jason's novel: Then What? Everyone's Guide to Living, Learning and Having fun in the Digital Age, which "...creates a road map for education that is...profound, pragmatic…indispensable." (Bob Landauer, senior editor of the Oregonian)

New Media Narrative in the Classroom - Creativity, Curriculum and Assessment

This is an excellent breakout session following the Beyond Essays presentation above, showing a number of the practical aspects of helping students create thoughtful, effective media.

What is one of main reasons that teachers don't require movies, digital stories, Web 2.0, Web 2.1 and other new media narrative projects? Because they don't know how to assess them. In an era of No Child Left Behind, teachers are understandably reluctant to try new approaches to classwork, particularly when they are not comfortable evaluating what students produce using those new approaches.

Yet, the fact is that kids aren’t just consuming media, they're creating it, using images, music and more. They inhabit both sides of the literacy equation: production and consumption, and we need to find ways to let them use their own language in the classroom.

This keynote works for teachers from all points on the technology spectrum, from web-based techie to print-based teachie... to everyone in between. Learn how to listen to, deconstruct and evaluate new media narrative. Learn how to use "media grammar" as way to evaluate the new media narrative products that students produce. Learn how to evaluate "story" as well as how to use stories in content areas. And learn how to help student create better new media narrative, regardless of your technical know-how, by facilitating learning communities and the pursuit of quality.

Based on Jason's book: Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity. "This book illuminates the very heart and soul of learning and digital technology." (Walter Bender, President of MIT's One to One Laptop Program)

Digital Citizenship for kids, teachers, administrators - citizens

What happens when you give a bad guitar player a bigger amplifier? Ouch.

That's why being "technologically literate" means not just understanding how to use technology, but also when and why to use it. It means understanding not just technology's opportunities but also its impacts on ourselves and our communities.

This presentation focuses on ISTE standards that address digital citizenship and the human and ethical dimensions of technology in education. It helps teachers see the big picture while providing practical classroom exercises that help them and their students explore specific issues, such as appropriate online behavior, personal responsibility and copyright. Above all, it helps participants address the question: How do we use technology wisely, as well effectively and creatively, in order to strike a balance between the human and the technical? It features projects done with kids and teachers, and materials to take back to the classroom.

Based on Jason's book: Taming the Beast: Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle, which Neil Postman called "...the best of the books appearing about the (effects of) media in the education of our youth."

This presentation is also available for non-educators. See the description of "Turning Hindsight into Foresight" below.

Wisdom: Turning Hindsight into Foresight

Seeing technology's impacts, before they happen

What happens when you give a bad guitar player a bigger amplifier? Ouch.

That's why being "technologically literate" means not just understanding how to use technology, but also when and why to use it. Being technologically literate means understanding not just technology's opportunities but also its impacts on ourselves and our communities.

Technology amplifies our gifts and our gaffes. It connects us and disconnects us, enslaves us as it liberates us, makes us stronger and more fragile at the same time. How does technology change who we are; personally, socially and culturally? How do we respond to it ethically? What's the future of technology and who will we become because of it? How can we see technology clearly enough to help direct its evolution? How do we build solid belief systems while remaining open to changes that technology brings? How do we use technology effectively and creatively, as well as wisely, striking a balance between the human and the technical? Bonus: learn what kids think about all of this.

Based on Jason's book, Taming the Beast, which Neil Postman called "...the best of the books appearing about the (effects of) media in the education of our youth."

Teachies are from Venus, Techies are from Mars

Improving your organization's communication helps everyone

Teachie: Lend me your ears!

Techie: Boot up your aural input devices!

Houston, we have a problem. Teachies and techies need to work together but they speak different languages. This presentation addresses how to bridge the gap between the two planets and create a better working environment for everyone within your school or organization. Topics covered include the blending of soft skills and hard skills, EQ, the role of standards for technicians, teamwork and interpersonal dynamics, humanizing the communication environment and other issues of interplanetary importance.

Works as a keynote and/or a workshop.

Topic Areas

General keynote areas

Future Perspectives

• Then What!? – What’s Been, What’s Here, What’s Next (based on Jason’s novel “Then What? Everyone’s Guide to Living, Learning and Having Fun in the Digital Age”)
• Wisdom is Turning Hindsight Into Foresight – Planning for Technology’s Impacts Before They Happen (based on Jason’s book “Taming the Beast – Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle”)
• The Digital Age in a Sentence: Everyone Gets to Tell Their Own Story in Their Own Way on the Great Stage of the Internet
• Web 2.0, 3.0 and Beyond – Reshaping the Future of Being Here and Being Human

Storytelling, Digital and Traditional, for Education, Business and Personal Expression

• Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity (based on Jason’s book of the same name)
• Creating a Digital Storytelling Program on Little to No Budget
• Telling Your Story – Practical Steps for Giving Voice to the Storyteller Within, With or Without Technology
• Beyond the Slide Show – PowerPoint Presentations that Engage Through Story
• Teachies are from Venus, Techies Are From Mars - Getting Teachers and Techies to Build a Common Story
• We Forget Lectures, We Remember Stories – Using Storytelling to Promote Literacy, Meet Standards, Engage Learners, as Well as Market Yourself and Your Ideas

New Times, New Literacies

• Digital storytelling and the DAOW of literacy – Combining Traditional and Emerging Literacies in an Integrated Approach to Learning
• Getting in Touch with the Digital Age Teacher Within
• Art the 4th R and New Media in and Beyond the Classroom
• Media Literacy 101 – Helping Kids, Teachers and Concerned Citizens Understand How Media Engages, Influences and Persuades
• Assessing New Media – Helping Teachers Assess the Amazing Digital Projects Our Kids Create
• GarageBand - Musical Literacy for Everyone

Web 2.0 and eLearning

• Online Community – the Key to eLearning success
• How to Create eLearning Programs that Work
• Life in the tEcosystem – Web 2.0, 3.0 and Beyond

For fun

• Teachies are from Venus, Techies Are From Mars - Getting Teachers and Techies to Communicate
• Finding the Musician Within Using GarageBand