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1999-2002 LogMan & ThinkQuest.org Partnership

ThinkQuest Idea

The ThinkQuest Internet Challenge is an international program for students ages 12 through 19 that encourages them to use the Internet to create information-rich Web-based educational tools and materials. Students form teams with their colleagues from around the world and are mentored by teachers or other adult coaches.

ThinkQuest Live: Exploring the Future of Learning

July 19-22, 2002

University of Washington

On July 19-22, 2002, six hundred of the world’s leaders in education and technology will gather in Seattle at the University of Washington for three and a half days of exploration into the future of learning and the role that computer and networking technologies will play in that future. They will be participating in an extraordinary event called ThinkQuest Live.  Co-hosted by Advanced Network & Services and the University of Washington, this event will bring together educators and students, technology leaders and researchers, school leaders and policy experts who are advancing the practice of learning via today’s digital and Internet technologies and exploring the possibilities of new learning applications over high bandwidth networks and other emerging technologies.

Participants at ThinkQuest Live will explore three major themes pertinent to the best of current and emerging practices in technology and learning: Digital Explorations in Science and Mathematics; Students and Teachers as Content Creators; and Advanced Technologies and Learning Applications over Broadband Networks. They will have opportunities to experience and explore technologies being deployed in each of these areas and to discuss with advanced practitioners the educational strategies now being used by students and teachers to expand the scope and depth of learning around the world. 

For each of the three major themes, participants will consider how current and emerging technologies and practices are extending or changing our conventional concepts of education and learning.  What are the research issues about pedagogy, learning outcomes and knowledge acquisition that are raised by these innovations in digital and Internet technologies?  In what ways do these advanced and emerging practices raise policy issues pertinent to professional development, student assessment, access to technology and information, use of digital content, and allocation of public funds?  Advancement of educational practice, and education and technology research and policy are the three broad goals of ThinkQuest Live and the framework used to shape the content of the major themes.

ThinkQuest Live also will give special attention to two additional topics that cut across each of the three major themes in advanced educational technology.  How do these emerging areas of technology and practice promote or challenge our principals of global communication, access and equity across geographies, economies and cultures, including gender, race, ethnicity and age?  What are the visions for the future of learning from students who are at the forefront of using these technologies in their everyday lives, and who are the primary constituents of education, and increasingly the creators of educational content and learning processes?  To ensure that these issues are given full voice at TQLive, educational leaders from outside the United States and students from around the globe will be involved in shaping the TQ live experience and will constitute one-third of the participants.

In addition to the important diversity of its participants, several features set ThinkQuest Live apart from traditional education and technology conferences. It integrates the features of (1) an advanced technology learning laboratory, where participants experience, first hand, advanced technologies and learning applications; (2) an intimate symposium in which experts and participants discuss important innovations, insights and perspectives that help advance their thought and practice; and (3)a forum for articulating research questions and policy issues that should be pursued in the future.

  ThinkQuest Live will limit its onsite participation to six hundred in order to create the environment necessary for intensive involvement and discussion.  To accommodate a much larger, global audience, ThinkQuest Live will use web-casting, broadband video conferencing, and other appropriate distribution technologies to make the conference experience and outcomes available to the tens of thousands of interested educators, learners and experts who will not be able to participate in Seattle .  Formal proceedings and reports of the conference also will be distributed through the Web sites of the host institutions and other sponsoring organizations around the world.

As co-hosts of ThinkQuest Live, the University of Washington and Advanced Network & Services will bring a depth of resources in learning, educational technology and broadband networks as a foundation for this extraordinary event.  The University of Washington is a national leader in education and computer science, with a particular strength advanced digital communication including Internet2.  Advanced Network & Services/ThinkQuest will tap its worldwide network of more than one hundred partner organizations that have engaged over one hundred thousand students and educators in the internationally recognized ThinkQuest Internet Challenge programs since 1996, as well as it’s expertise and visibility in advanced networking.  Together, they will invite other public, private, non-profit and philanthropic organizations that are taking leadership roles in educational technology practice, research and policy to join them as sponsors of this unique opportunity to explore the future of learning.