TED Talk Educator Keynotes Magic Hour Users Conference

March 11, 2011 - PRLog -- BALA CYNWD, PA -- Philadelphia social studies teacher Diana Laufenberg, whose TED.com video called "How to learn? From mistakes" went viral earlier this year, will be the keynote speaker at the 2011 Magic Hour Communications Users Conference, April 3-5.

Taking risks is a theme of the Magic Hour user conference, which is open to all academic clients of Magic Hour Communications (www.magic-hour.com), a division of Global Internet Management.

A longtime educator, Laufenberg has taught all grade levels from 7-12 in Social Studies and now teaches at the Science Leadership Academy, an inquiry-driven, project-based high school that is a collaborative project of The Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia School District. She participated in November's Mid-Atlantic region educational conference organized by TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design), a 27-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to "ideas worth spreading." It shares videos of its annual conferences for free on http://www.ted.com and you can watch Laufenberg's TED talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/diana_laufenberg_3_ways_to_teach...

In her TED talk, Laufenberg addressed the national obsession with "being right" in this way: "…Here's the thing that you need to get comfortable with when you've given the tool to acquire information to students … you have to be comfortable with this idea of allowing kids to fail as part of the learning process. We deal right now in the educational landscape with an infatuation with the culture of one right answer that can be properly bubbled on the average multiple choice test, and I am here to share with you, it is not learning. That is the absolute wrong thing to ask, to tell kids to never be wrong. To ask them to always have the right answer doesn't allow them to learn."

Before finding her way to Philadelphia, she was an active member of the teaching community in Flagstaff, AZ where she was named Technology Teacher of the Year for Arizona and a member of the Governor's Master Teacher Corps. She recently earned National Board Certification.

An avid blogger about education (http://laufenberg.wordpress.com/), her publications include a featured piece on the New York Times Learning blog, co-authoring a chapter in an educational leadership book, an upcoming article in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy and regular contributions to teachinghistory.org. She also posts regular updates on Twitter under the handle, @dlaufenberg.

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Magic Hour Communications helps schools and colleges dramatically improve the effectiveness of their communications through the design and development of advanced Web sites that are integrated in real-time with the school's other databases and systems. Magic Hour goes beyond the narrow focus of “design” firms or “technology” firms to provide an award-winning communication solution that includes Web site strategy, design and technology. Magic Hour is a division of Global Internet Management, located in Bala Cynwyd, PA. More at www.magic-hour.com.