Thursday, May 30, 2019 at 11:15 am
Mike McDonald
Mike McDonald is the founder/Executive Director of
Recess Guardians, which has helped reintegrate play and physical activity back on the playground for over 150,000 youth. He was born and raised in Saskatoon, and graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. Mike has been recognized with numerous accolades over the last few years which include:
CBC Saskatchewan's Future 40 award,
Child and Youth Friendly Saskatoon's Children Champion award and
Red Cross Saskatchewan's Young Humanitarian of the Year award. In the past, Mike has had the opportunity to speak at numerous conferences which include Canada 2067's Youth Summit in Toronto, as well as the 2017 International Physical Literacy Conference in Toronto. He believes strongly that youth have the power to lead their peers and that getting youth to be more physically active is incredibly important.
9 Lessons Learned on the Playground
When people are asked what they learned in elementary school, they tend to immediately think of math, science, english or social studies. Rarely do you hear someone talk about the lessons they learned at recess time and on the playground, yet this is where the most pivotal lessons may have been taught. As an adult who has helped teach youth how to play and be physically active in over 600 schools across Canada, Mike has been able to observe and see the value of recess and how certain environments can lead to a positive experience for everyone. We, as adults, have the chance and ability to shape the next generation, and these 9 lessons will help us do that.
Learning Objectives
- How to design a perfect recess experience.
- What lessons can be learned on the playground.
- How simplicity can lead to the most success.
- Youth are far more capable than we give them credit for.
Friday, May 31, 2019 at 10:15 am
Cole Webber
Cole Webber, 19, is a
comprehensivist and inventor. He
is the author of 2 books and
recently filed for his first patent.
He has co-designed 23 schools,
spoken at over 30 events in 4
countries including a TEDx talk, cowritten
policy for the government,
acted as an advisor to 15+
government officials and agencies,
and sat on numerous international
boards regarding education and
development. His work relating to
anthropology, design, education,
film studies, and construction, as
well has his short fiction, has also
been published.
Read full bio »
OMNINET is a charting of EDUCATION as humans have always known and needed it, beyond schools, beyond teachers, beyond grades and beyond books. The deep-bellied ship, the printing press, the Catholic Church, the typewriter, the Suez Canal, and Morse code are all education instruments and technologies – the very ones which resulted in our schools and universities of today, which we have only known for a comparatively brief time. Examining Earth’s schools alongside its mobile phones, its libraries with its naval trade routes, OMNINET deals with all of humanity’s information as one whole system, which we see is rapidly changing. We are now experiencing a change as significant as the advent of writing, as we transition to a new kind of record beyond the internet, a coalescing of technologies and social structures five thousand years in the making: the OMNINET. What changes will this new technology cause to information, in turn cause to work, and in turn cause to the very idea of ‘education’?