5 MAR 2019 · Jim Cash is currently a Modern Learning Resource Teacher in the Peel District School Board. He holds a master’s degree in educational technology and undergraduate degrees in cognitive psychology and education. In his career, he has taught grades 1-8 in Canada and Australia, and has also held headship and administrative roles. He is a regular presenter at various conferences and has written articles published by various organizations such as ISTE, Ontario Library Association, and TVOntario. He has presented at MIT at the 2018 Scratch Conference. He was one of the eight authors of Peel’s Empowering Modern Learners vision which has become a key component of the board’s Plan for Student Success 2016-2021. Jim is an active blogger ( http://makelearn.org ) and podcaster. @CashJim

25 FEB 2019 · Sylvia Libow Martinez was an aerospace engineer before becoming an educational software producer and vice president of a video game company. She spent a decade as the President of Generation YES, the groundbreaking non-profit that provides educators with the tools necessary to place students in leadership roles in their schools and communities. In addition to leading workshops, Sylvia delights and challenges audiences as a keynote speaker at major conferences around the world. She brings her real-world experience in highly innovative work environments to learning organizations that wish to change STEM education to be more inclusive, effective, and engaging. Gary S. Stager is one of the world’s leading experts and advocates for computer programming, robotics and learning-by-doing in classrooms. In 1990, Dr. Stager led professional development in the world’s first laptop schools and played a major role in the early days of online education. In addition to being a popular keynote speaker at some of the world’s most prestigious education conferences, Gary is a journalist, teacher educator, consultant, professor, software developer, and school STEM. Director. An elementary teacher by training, he has taught students from preschool through doctoral studies. Gary is the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute for educators and maintains a wonderful website in honour of the life’s work and legacy of Seymour Papert called The Daily Papert. http://dailypapert.com

18 FEB 2019 · Brian Silverman has been, since the late 1970s, involved in the invention of learning environments for children. He participated in the design and development of dozens of Logo versions (including LogoWriter, MicroWorlds & The Phantom Fish Tank), Scratch, LEGO robotics, TurtleArt and the PicoCricket. Brian has been a Visiting Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, enjoys recreational math, and is a computer scientist and master tinkerer. He once even built a tic-tac-toe playing machine out of TinkerToys. Artemis Papert is an artist creating art in both traditional — mainly acrylic and pastel — and digital media. After a first career as a research biologist, Artemis is now working in the healing arts as a shiatsu therapist. Artemis has led TurtleArt workshops for a wide variety of groups in many countries. She maintains, with Brian Silverman, the http://turtleart.org and http://tortugarte.org websites.

11 FEB 2019 · Carol Sperry has a fascinating—and inspirational—story to share with us about her encounter with Mindstorms, Logo, and the work and thinking of Seymour Papert. She wrote the foreword for the second edition of Mindstorms. It is for these reasons that we start this book club series with Dr. Sperry! Carol was part of the former Epistemology and Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab and and was a member of the “Harvard Educational Review” while in graduate school.