ISTE 2016 keynote speaker Ruha Benjamin | Incubate a Better World in the Minds & Hearts of Students

“Teachers, if actually unified and empowered, can change the direction of history,” says Ruha Benjamin in this powerful keynote address at the ISTE 2016 Conference & Expo. Benjamin, a Princeton professor in the department of African American studies, specializes in the interdisciplinary studies of science, medicine, race, ethnicity gender, biotechnology, health and biopolitics. She envisions an education system that acts as an incubator for social change, and poses the question, “How do we make our schools laboratories of democratic participation, rather than sites where inequality is reproduced, where not only is the potential of each individual child realized, but where we’re experimenting with technologies of love, of reciprocity and of justice.” She makes important points about adopting technology in the classroom. We must wrestle, she insists, with the parallel realities that today’s children face if technology is to become a tool to close the gap in educational opportunity and life outcomes. The goal is not to simply empower our student to succeed in the world of today, says Professor Benjamin, but to give them the tools and opportunities that will allow them to imagine and create alternatives to the current system and culture. Ruha Benjamin is an engaging and animated speaker who eloquently and successfully brings in examples as far reaching as Star Trek, nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, code switching, Google searches, zero tolerance policies, and much more in order to build a momentum that will galvanize viewers. Watch the full keynote now and get inspired to transform society through the transformation of education. Want to get inspired and join a tribe of passionate, innovative educators like you? Don’t miss ISTE 2017. Sign up to receive email updates: http://bit.ly/2cEsT4T