KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Immersive Technologies and the Future of Education

Dr. David Wortley
The Serious Games Institute, United Kingdom

Abstract

Digital Communications Technologies have transformed our global society’s ability to publish, communicate and access information on demand from anywhere in the globe. This ability to access and contribute to global knowledge instantly is placing many demands on the education system and knowledge professionals in ways that are unprecedented in mankind’s history. This exponentially growing and evolving wealth of information:-
• makes it difficult for knowledge professionals to keep themselves up to date
• means that student’s knowledge can be obsolete by the end of a course
• ordinary people can become subject matter experts without formal teaching
• the next generation of learners have different attitudes to and expectations of education
In responding to these challenges the use of immersive technologies which include video games, virtual worlds and social networks to engage the attention of next generation learners has significant relevance and potential for the future of education.
This keynote presentation explores the development of immersive technologies for education and offers a view of their impact on teachers and where and how learning will take place in the future.

Biography of the Keynote Speaker

David Wortley is a freelance consultant on the strategic use of immersive and emerging technologies such as serious games, virtual worlds and social networks. His mission is to help organisations and individuals, leverage the power of these technologies for competitive advantage and business/personal development.
David is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) with a career which has embraced the converging and emerging technologies of telecommunications (Post Office Telecommunications), computing (IBM), digital media and community informatics (Mass Mitec, a rural SME) and the creative industries (De Montfort University Leicester, UK). He is a serial entrepreneur and innovator with a passion for applying technology to social and economic development. Most recently, David was Founding Director of the Serious Games Institute (SGI) www.seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk at Coventry University and was responsible for the development of the Institute as a global thought leader on the application of immersive technologies (which include video games; virtual worlds and social networking) to serious social and economic issues such as education; simulation; health; commerce and climate change. Working with academics; regional development agencies and leading computer games companies, David made the SGI a focal point for games based learning, simulation and immersive 3D virtual environments and an engine for innovation and social and economic regeneration.
David is a respected (see http://davidwortley.com/testimonials.html) and sought-after international conference speaker and writer for global publications on Learning Technologies, Defence and Health applications. He has written numerous papers on technology and society (see http://www.davidwortley.com/articles.html) and is a regular conference presenter (see http://www.davidwortley.com/conferences.html)