Illinois State University Media Relations
 

Illinois State Co-Hosts 1st Pacific-Rim Conference on Education

Date: 10/9/06
Contact: Kathy Beal


Illinois State University will co-host the first Pacific-Rim Conference on Education, which will address Emergent Issues and Challenges in Education, on Oct. 21-22 in Sapporo, Japan.

Phil Parette, professor and Kara Peters Endowed chair director of the Special Education Assistive Technology (SEAT) Center at Illinois State, will deliver the keynote address, "Technology and Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: Digital Age Challenges of Preparing Future Educators" at the conference. Other co-hosts include Simon Fraser University in Canada and Hokkaido University of Education in Japan.

The international conference will address issues and challenges that the developing and developed countries face in the age of globalization. It is essential that educators throughout the world share ideas for improving learning conditions, instructional strategies and teacher education. The conference will interest researchers, administrators, policy makers and practitioners.

The conference will focus on teacher professional development, quality of academic achievement, special education and inclusion and English education as a foreign language for children.

Parette earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Arkansas and his Ed.D. in special education from the University of Alabama.
He has served as the Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator for the Arkansas Easter Seal Society and taught special education at several institutions of higher learning. In 2003, Parette was appointed the Kara Peters Endowed Chair in Assistive Technology and professor at Illinois State University. He has published more than 200 scholarly works, mostly in the field of assistive technology (AT), with recent work focusing on cross-cultural AT applications. He was a primary co-author of the Arkansas Technology Access Program and has developed an innovative CD-ROM, "Families, Cultures and AAC," that has received six major film and media competition awards.