Design. Innovate. Activate.

Teachers, innovators, edupreneurs, policy makers, and students with big ideas for transforming K-20 education converged at our third annual Big Ideas Fest, Dec. 4-7, in Half Moon Bay, CA.

From Danny Hillis, chairman and cofounder of Applied Minds and former VP of Disney Imagineering, to Martha Kanter, Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, our keynote presentations were provocative and encouraging. And our Rapid Fire Speakers amazed us with their tenacity, creativity, and leadership in changing education, as we know it.

Action Collabs kept participants on their toes as they moved in and out of sessions of identify opportunity, design, prototyping, and scale and spread. Ultimately, each Action Collab cohort presented their refined prototype and we were thrilled to announce that ISKME received a matching grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to incubate Big Ideas Fest prototypes in 2012. We’re serious about putting real action behind ideas.

Big Ideas Fest 2011

People Are Talking

What Does Your School Know About You?, MindShift, 1/27/12
In the information age, data will follow us from the time we first walk into kindergarten to well past retirement. As data is used to guide us in making all kinds of decisions [...] 

Big Ideas Fest, Exploring New Horizons, 1/17/12
This past December an opportunity came across my desk – The Big Ideas Fest 2011. I’ll be honest at first glance I wasn’t sure what it was about, but the ideas piqued my curiosity [...]

Reimagining Education at the Big Ideas Fest, Naita Saechao, 1/12/12
For three days in December, individuals from a range of industries gathered at the 3rd Annual Big Ideas Fest to explore the future of education. In a venue overlooking [...]

Winning Ideas from the Big Ideas Fest, Mitchell Levy, 1/1112
Both Jacky Hood and I along with 150 other leading educators and business executives focused on education convened in Half Moon Bay on December 4-7 for the Big Ideas Fest [...]

Design Thinking: Lessons for the Classroom, Betty Ray, Edutopia, 1/3/12
Much has been written about changing role of the teacher from "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side." Design thinking, which is a dynamic, creative and collaborative [...] 

Big Ideas, Canterbury School, 1/5/12
One of the things that educators have been talking about for some time is how creative thinking can change the way we teach and learn. Engaging the right side of the brain [...] 

Big Ideas Fest: A Student Perspective, Molly, Roadtrip Nation in Education, 12/21/11
Our team attended the Big Ideas Fest Half Moon Bay with a group of eight amazing Roadtrip Nation students from South San Francisco High School who interviewed [...]

Building a strong foundation for open practices, Emily Puckett Rodgers, open.michigan, 12/21/11
I was fortunate to attend this year’s Big Ideas Fest, held in Half Moon Bay, California. While I attended last year’s Big Ideas Fest (BIF), this year’s was particularly relevant [...]

Big-time educators think up big ideas, Lily Bixler, Half Moon Bay Review, 12/14/11
Danny Hillis is trying to create an online version of his fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Wilner, an educator who knew her students and could tailor materials and skill assessments [...]

Education Champions Work Together to Find Solutions for Open Education Design Challenge at Big Ideas Fest 2011, Carol Hedgspeth, College Open Textbooks Blog, 12/13/11
ISKME’s 3^rd annual Big Ideas Fest (www.bigideasfest.org) was held in early December in Half Moon Bay, CA, and as promised, creative doers and thinkers from diverse [...]

Big Ideas Fest Lived Up to Its Name, Sylvia Paull, Berkeley Blog, 12/8/11
I'm not a conference-going person. In fact, I'd rather spend three days in solitary confinement at a high-risk prison (which I've never done...yet) than three days [...] 

What Adults Can Learn From Kids, Tina Baryseghian, MindShift, 12/8/11
This week, a group of educators and entrepreneurs got together at the Big Ideas Fest to push forward smart, actionable innovations in education [...]

Event Excerpts: Big Ideas Fest, 2011 - Day 2, Greg Brown, raft, 12/8/11
The first full day of the Big Ideas Fest in Half Moon Bay included a "Rapid Fire" presentation by Barbara Chow (Education Program Director at Hewlett Foundation) [...] 

Educators + Entrepreneurs = 'Big Ideas' in Half Moon Bay, Kristine Wong, Half Moon Bay Patch, 12/7/11
For the past three days in Half Moon Bay, the startup spirit of Silicon Valley has combined with the steadfastness of lifelong educators at the Big Ideas Fest [...]

Action Collabs and Rapid Fire Presentations at Big Ideas Fest 2011, jackcwest, 12/6/11
It is almost six o’clock on Tuesday and I am sitting in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay at the Big Ideas Fest 2011 [...]