Lifelong learning is a powerful tool for making your life better. I will talk about; what does the term really means, what is personal and professional development, how lifelong learning has affected in my life and tips on how to become a lifelong learner.
10:00am
Cleo Credo
According to the Code Stars short film by Code.org, over the next ten years, there will be 1.4 million jobs in computer science, and only about 400,000 grads are qualified for those jobs. This is a shortage of a million people. Sure enough, the tech industry is encouraging more people to get into tech by having vibrant communities such as women techmakers, google developers group, moms can code etc.
But what about the next generation? And the generation after that? Today’s generation of young people are very immersed with technology, it surely had become an essential part of their daily lives But, we must keep in mind that, it is an equally important skill not only to use technology, but how to create them. And so with this, we could encourage kids to harness the full potential of today’s technology by creating them: how to spark curiosity and interest for technology making to kids and the youth, and introduce them to skills like problem solving and critical thinking which are vital life skills.
11:00am
Kesha Williams
Technology changes at a rapid rate and being successful requires one to be a lifelong learner. How can you use learning to become more confident and visible in tech? Hear how one mom's love of learning and desire to conquer her fear of public speaking led to the TED stage and beyond.
1:00pm
Amie Croteau
As moms, we usually consider ourselves last, now is never the right time for us. The kids are too young, we don’t have enough time, the house is too messy. Find out how to push all of that aside and realize your potential to embrace learning no matter your age, experience or education. Join Amie as she shares why now is the best time to go after a new future through lifelong learning. Her story will include how a mom of 2 with no experience in tech, a huge gap of work experience and a lot of persistence was able to overcome the fears (imposter syndrome anyone?) and struggles of learning how to code in both an online and classroom environment. She will walk through her roadmap of resources online to start learning immediately. Learn from her path to higher education as she shares steps unique to non-traditional students including scholarships and grants. Amie will share her scheduling maneuvers and methods on how she tailored her learning to her unique learning style. Discover that no matter what stage you are in life, you can make a career pivot and learn something new. Why not you? Why not now?
2:00pm
Cecil Phillip
Every day of our lives we’re constantly being challenged. We have families to support, projects to complete, and somewhere along the way we have to take care of ourselves as well. Sometimes that can be so overwhelming and we don’t know what to do or how to adapt. In this state, the fear of failure sets in and we need to figure out how to move forward. Whether it’s figuring out a software issue or resolving a personal one, how can navigate these issues and push forward to success?
In this session, Cecil with share some personal stories that will help guide you to adapt to challenges. You’ll learn to channel your fears into confidence despite elevated odds.
3:00pm
Shannon Crabill
Have you ever stopped to think about the emails that come to your inbox? Not the spammy ones, but the beautifully designed, well crafted, mobile-friendly and relevant ones that you find yourself opening and reading? Of the many people involved in getting that message to your inbox, one of them may be an email developer. An email developer, is someone who designs, edits and codes emails for a company or organization. More than knowing HTML and CSS, email development takes knowledge of email best practices, testing, browser and email client support, user experience and recipient behaviors.
4:00pm
Meral Arik
I’m a 24-year-old tech startup co-founder, and I’ve been starting businesses since I was a little girl. I’ll speak to the exact techniques & mindsets I’ve used to help drive fast, extraordinary learning throughout my professional career (and explain how I “know” what to do with limited experience).
Tuesday
9:00am
Renee Lahoff
If you’re interested in programming games, where do you get started? Renee will share the process involved in creating games and how software packages known as game engines provide us with a framework to build on. We’ll look at the steps you can take to make your first game.
10:00am
Melissa Guerrero
As a complete career-changer from a classroom teacher to a creative digital developer, I have been on an incredible journey and I know that the best is yet to be. If you're considering a career change into tech, or are in the midst of navigating one, please join me for helpful and practical strategies that you can incorporate into your approach. I will share coding and learning resources, networking tips, and advice for managing impostor syndrome. It is my sincere hope that you will take heart from my story and get inspired for making your own career transformation a reality!
11:00am
Kristen Kehrer
Continuous learning is born out of a natural curiosity. I urge you to think of your professional development holistically. How you present, how you manage, and how you collaborate cross-functionally are all core competencies that will help propel your career when combined with continuous learning in your technical capabilities. Although we strive to learn every day, the truth is that life has ups and downs, there may be periods where our learning trajectory isn’t as steep. Learning is a journey, not a destination. You’ve worked hard to earn you place, do not let imposter syndrome or lack of recent career growth stop you. You can set goals today to learn skills for an even better tomorrow.
1:00pm
Sian Fairley
The internet is one of the most empowering tools for creating a personalised, flexible learning experience, and is especially true when learning to code. However, starting out on a more DIY route can be an overwhelming and lonely prospect. Aimed at those new to coding, this presentation will explore four strategies we can focus on to curate our online learning journeys: developing realistic learning goals, engaging in 'active' learning, collaborating in a community and reflecting on our learning. Together we will consider how these strategies can help us create a positive online learning experience, develop our self-awareness as learners and ultimately reach our goals.
3:00pm
Sue Jenkins
In this session I will share a simple formula for writing tutorial blog posts that are informative, thorough, and easy to follow from start to finish. I’ll start by sharing an outlining method that can organize and structure your thoughts. From there I’ll talk about the writing process itself and some tips on how to stay focused as you write. Following that, I’ll tell viewers about some useful tools to create screen captures, graphics, and other images along with linking to code snippets that can enhance your tutorial for your readers. The session will end with some ideas about the importance of having a technical editor review the work before publishing.
By following this suggested workflow, attendees will discover how to straightforwardly author and rapidly deploy authentic and easy to follow coding tutorials.
4:00pm
Frauke Lüppken
Staying long in the same job is comfortable, but at some point you stop learning and growing on the job. Than it’s time to move on and make a change. Learn how to grow constantly by switching jobs/projects.
Wednesday
9:00am
Francesca Vonk
Often, the field of User Experience Design is perceived as being vague. What is it, that UX designers do and how does their role fit in an agile development environment? Join me to find out want UX entails, how I bridge the gap between users and developers in IT projects and how lifelong learning applies to the field of UX.
11:00am
Maayan Bobylev
One of the main imposter syndrome invoking fears which deters people from pursuing careers in tech and STEM degrees is the fear of numbers and logic. However, it turns out that you don’t have to be a math genius to learn to code! With a few learning hacks, you can actually sculpt your brain, develop a mind for computational thinking and numbers, and unlock your potential — even if you failed algebra!
1:00pm
Arjita Sethi
As emergent tech is reaching new advances, how do parents understand what is good tech and what is bad tech? What is good screen time and what is bad screen time? How do you support your child’s learning in the new era of AI? With the plethora of ed-tech put there, how to make decisions? And what about holistic development i.e. beyond tech for your kids? These are just few of the questions that we would be covering as part of this session.
2:00pm
Jenn Edge
Development is failing over and over again at each step until you succeed, and learning how to do something just in time for everything to change. Continuous learning and growth is necessary to learn how to code, keep up with changes in technology, and step into new roles in leadership. Join me to look at the parallels between processes you may be learning or already familiar with in development and approaches to self-improvement proven to be successful in behavioral psychology. Attendees will learn how to improve goal focus with a sustainable pace and automate self-improvement using habits and environmental nudges.
How Hosting a Podcast Transformed Me into a LifeLong Learner
3:00pm
Nicole Archambault
4:00pm
Charley Silva
Imagine a road trip to your favorite destination. Maybe it’s a beach, or the mountains, or maybe it’s your mama’s house. You head off on your journey and run into a road block, so you take the detour. Along this detour, a sign for a neat little pit stop catches your eye and it’s just a few miles out of the way so you add that to your adventure and reroute your trip. You still make it to your destination, but the trip didn’t look quite like you imagined it when you first excitedly set out on your originally chosen path. I believe this is very similar to what lifelong learning looks like. We have an idea of what we want to achieve or where we want to go, but along the way we may be frustrated by a roadblock that reroutes us. We may even run across something that we find so much interest in we completely change our destination. Growth changes us and adaptability is crucial so that the roadblocks in our journey don’t leave us stranded on the side of the road. There is no right or wrong path to take on your quest of life-long learning, the important thing is just that you travel it.
Thursday
9:00pm
Laura McCaffrey
As a mom, I'm sure that you wonder how you can manage being a parent and being a successful as a student simultaneously. Out-of-school learning is the perfect opportunity for us moms to get the skills that we need to move our careers forward, while still taking into account our family life. This talk will cover how to be successful as an adult learner who is learning outside of the traditional classroom environment. We'll discuss how to set your learning goal, scheduling strategy, discipline, success mindset, support systems, and self-care so that you can be both the mom and the student that you want to be.
10:00am
Ashley Peters
As a recovering perfectionist, one of the best lessons I hope to share is that it's good to fail. Failure means trying things outside of your abilities and comfort zone, it also means an opportunity to learn and grow.
As a young mom, I worry about comparing myself with other mothers who have it together better than I do. At the same time, I worry about the keeping up with my peers in the technology sector. I won't be able to do a good job at either without stretching myself.
As a parent and as a professional, giving yourself the freedom to fail is the best way to succeed.
11:00am
Ashley Kirkwood
Ashley Kirkwood will speak about how to coach students into a growth mindset following a perceived failure or setback. This talk will be geared, specifically, towards how to encourage students to dream big and follow lofty goals after facing past academic struggles. Ashley will share her personal story of graduating with a mere 2.1 GPA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Business to graduating with a 3.86 GPA from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and how she used a growth mindset to do so. She will also explain some of the lesser discussed strategies parents can use to encourage students when they are exhibiting academic struggles. This talk will discuss what Ashley has coined the "show first, then tell" model of encouraging students to reach academic success.
1:00pm
Rashim Mogha
There is a world beyond coding. If you have technical acumen, there is a world of opportunities in the technical arena waiting for you. In this talk, Rashim will walk you through some of the potential job roles and industries that you can target for your career. She will provide actionable steps how to build your brand and network and invest in yourself through continuous learning to prepare yourself for these roles. She will also share how you can strategically network to find that next role to fast track your career.