UTHSC, in partnership with other organizations, is sponsoring a conference aimed at demystifying technologies available for technical, educational and community health support to persons with disabilities.
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, in partnership with several other organizations, is sponsoring a conference aimed at demystifying the technologies available for technical, educational and community health support to persons with disabilities. The event will be held on Thursday, April 1 through Friday, April 2 at the Memphis Marriott Downtown and Cook Convention Center.
The conference, titled, “Catch the Technology Wave: Education, Community Health and Supports for Persons with Disabilities,” is targeted toward educators, community health providers, rural hospital personnel, individuals working in the field of mental health, and those preparing personnel to serve people with disabilities, as well as people with disabilities and their families.
Conference objectives are to: identify technology barriers in education for individuals with disabilities and to recommend solutions; describe applications of distance learning in training and services for children with special healthcare needs; assess research results and application, and to address educational technology workforce needs for healthcare and community-based settings; and discuss how technology can be used in community-based educational settings.
The keynote speaker will be Henry Bernstein, D.O., Harvard Medical School associate professor and associate chief of the General Pediatrics Division at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Bernstein has a strong clinical background as a primary care pediatrician in a variety of settings.
Keynote speaker for the distance learning segment will be Curtis J. Bonk, Ph.D., CPA, Indiana University (IU) professor of educational psychology and instructional systems technology. Also, Dr. Bonk is a core member of the IU Center for Research on Learning and Technology and Senior Research Fellow with the Defense Department’s advanced distributed learning lab. Last year he was recognized by the State of Indiana for innovative teaching in a distance education program.
The cost for conference registration before Wednesday, February 18 is $150, and $175 after February 18. Scholarships are available for family members and consumers. Educational credit for healthcare providers in medicine, nursing, speech-language pathology and rehabilitation counseling is available to interested individuals. More information may be obtained by calling (901) 448-3127 or e-mailing ebishop@uthsc.edu. Registration forms may also be downloaded at www.uthsc.edu/bcdd.
In addition to UT’s Boling Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and the Colleges of Medicine and Nursing, sponsoring organizations include: Mid-Tennessee Interdisciplinary Instruction in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (MIND) Training Project at Vanderbilt Center for Child Development, Partners for Inclusive Communities at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD).