Gerontology Conference's Highlights To Include Talks On Student Social Networking

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Also Included In: Conferences;  Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 11 Feb 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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The Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) will hold its 34th Annual Meeting and Educational Leadership Conference February 21-24, 2008, at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore, MD. Media representatives are invited to attend free of charge.

This year's Distinguished Teacher Lecture Series will focus on the roles that modern social networking can play in furthering education about aging.

GEROTOOBE: Discovering the Aging Human Within
Presentation by Dana Burr Bradley, PhD, of Western Kentucky University
Friday, February 22 at 10:00 a.m.

Political campaign managers honed their skills with social networking way before the 2008 election began to heat up. What do they know that we don't? Consider that social networking websites like Myspace and Facebook help people connect with others to share their interests. How can web networking be used to help college students explore and shape their knowledge about aging? Bradley, co-editor of the Journal of Aging, Humanities, and the Arts, will share her experiences with student social networking. Her students create short video clips based on historical context and structured interviews and post them in the networking space GEROTOOBE. Through responsive blogging, the students teach each other about contemporary issues in aging.

Improving Eldercare One New Gerontologist at a Time: What's in Your Toolkit?
Presentation by E. Ayn Welleford, PhD, of Virginia Commonwealth University
Saturday, February 23 at 10:30 a.m.

Welleford's lecture will describe "toolkit development techniques" to assist students from recruitment to employment through social networking, elevator talks, and "gerontology speed dating." She has taught extensively in the areas of lifespan development and adult development and aging.

The conference provides a forum for professionals in the field of aging to present their work and share ideas about gerontological and geriatric education and training. For the opening session (Thursday, February 21 at 7:00 p.m.), AGHE President Marie A. Bernard, MD, will welcome Robert Butler, MD, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and President and CEO of the International Longevity Center-USA. He is a pioneer in Alzheimer's Disease research and advisor to numerous national and international health organizations, including the World Health Organization.

Complete details are available at http://www.aghemeeting.com.

AGHE, the educational unit of The Gerontological Society of America , seeks to advance gerontology as a field of study at institutions of higher education through conferences, publications, technical assistance, research studies and consultation with policy makers. AGHE's membership includes more than 275 organizations and institutions of higher education.

The Gerontological Society of America