Valente, Carr-Chellman Speak at TEDxPSU
by Joe Savrock (November 2011)
College of Education faculty members Joseph Valente and Alison Carr-Chellman were selected to speak at the 2011 TEDxPSU conference, which was held Nov. 13 on Penn State’s University Park campus.
TEDxPSU is an independently organized event that brings a TED-like experience to Penn State. TED (technology, entertainment, and design) is a major global media platform for indexing online video content.
The local TEDxPSU event brings together individuals from the Penn State community and the world to share ideas worth spreading through live talks and pre-recorded videos. Speakers are chosen based on their areas of expertise and their ability to trigger conversation and inspire action.
Valente, assistant professor of early childhood education, presented a talk titled “Hearing the Unheard.” His research interests include childhood studies, comparative and international education, educational anthropology, deaf studies, and disability studies. He is author of the 2011 autobiographical novel and autoethnography, d/Deaf and d/Dumb: A Portrait of a Deaf Kid as a Young Superhero, published by Peter Lang. Valente is co-principal investigator of an ongoing video ethnography project, “Kindergartens for the Deaf in Three Countries: Japan, France, and the United States,” funded by the Spencer Foundation.
Carr-Chellman, professor of instructional systems, delivered a talk titled “Education's Wild West: Cybercharters as Public Good or Private Commodity?” Her research includes an examination of cybercharter funding models. She recently was editor of a special issue of Educational Technology Magazine, the focus of which is cybercharters. Carr-Chellman contributed two articles to the issue—one on choosing cybercharters and one on funding.
Carr-Chellman also presented a paper at last year’s TEDxPSU event. That talk, “Bringing Back the Boys: Gaming to Re-engage Boys in Learning,” went on to become the first TEDxPSU talk to be posted to TED’s global Web site. Distinguished lecturers on the global site have included Bill Clinton, Steve Jobs, Jane Goodall, and Stephen Hawking.
