Global Learn Day X

John Southworth, A man of many hats. Here, in “The Okinawa Group” as moderator and leader of the parade.

John has been a foundation piece for Global Learn Day from the very first event. (and the reason he has three blogs. Check out this one, plus the one above.) At this moment he is being called upon to wear many hats, thus the purpose of this blog post. The first role that John will play is to be Keynoter for the Central Pacific Region. (start time 22:00 GMT) This puts him in very good company with all the other GLDTEN keynoters.

But John’s first appearance will be about 04:30 GMT in the East Asian Segment. (He and his group will follow our keynoter Vishen Lakhiani.) During this stop, in Okinawa — also known as “the Rock” by the millions of GI’s who used to garrison there)

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The hardest role that John plays is to gather a wide variety of friends and associates other speakers and participants. That list is a long one, loaded with gems who are doing extraordinary work in that part of the world. Some of these will appear in our stop in East Asia; some will appear in the last segment. Confused? (Well, sometimes, so are we!)

Here’s a wee background about John:
John role in Phi Delta Kappa has been being Technology Advisor for the PDK/Hawaii Chapter as well as Chapter/Member Liaison for Area Ab in the Pacific. He has organized several CyberPlace telecommunications events to highlight how technology and telecommunications can help remote PDK chapters and members such as those in Hawaii be connected and able to collaborate and communicate. With the help of PEACESAT at the University of Hawaii he organized the CyberPlace I Teleconference 14 Aug 2003, a streaming video report of the first CyberPlace international teleconference and discussion. To view this narrated presentations requires the downloading and installation of the RealOne video player. The Player is free and easy to install. To download it follow the instructions found here Click on the Link that reads: “Free RealOne Player” in the upper right-hand corner.

The PDK Pacific Leadership Conference is taking place in Okinawa from October 6-9, 2006. The presenters in Okinawa will be associated with that meeting.

Here is a short list of those John is “rounding up”

Kathy Andreson who has been with us in the past and “knows educators from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hawaii”. She is the Phi Delta Kappa Region A Representative and has been a leader in supporting the CyberPlace techniques and was a GLD IX participant, where she learned about Talking Communities and worked toward the development of a PDK International Talking Communities room to encourage teleconferencing by PDK members and groups.

Andre Elliott, Past-President of the Tokyo Chapter founded the first PDK CyberSpace Walden PDK Chapter.

John Thatcher, Principal of the Connections New Century Charter School in Hilo as well as this year’s PDK/Hawaii Chapter President.

John Cohen, Chapter/Member Liaison for Area Ac is located in Australia.

Dean Wiles, Chapter/Member Liaison for Area Aa is located in Okinawa and is helping coordinate the PDK Pacific Leadership Conference October 6-9, 2006.

Tony Harris, PDK/Okinawa president is principal of the Lester Middle School, where the conference is taking place.

Rohani Mohamad, PDK member living in Malaysia who hopes to launch the first PDK chapter in Malaysia with the help of other PDK Pacific leaders.

Manit Boonprasert, PDK/Bangkok Chapter is representing Thailand at the meeting.

Soleiman Dias, PDK/Seoul Chapter is representing Korea at the meeting and is a PhD candidate in International Studies/Korean Studies from Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea and works at the Hanguk University of Foreign Studies and Seoul Academy International School.

Lynn Somers , PDK/Taipei Chapter will represent Taiwan at the meeting.

Barbara Gilman and Esther Yanger will represent Guam and are members of PDK/Guam.