PHOTOS: Scott McNealy Speaks to Educators at ShiftED Conference

Scott McNealy was the keynote speaker at ShiftED, a conference held this week at Foothill College, on better integrating technology in  education.

McNealy, known for his candor and plain talk, was among the speakers chosen to spark discussion about how to take full advantage of technology. Educators came from around the Bay Area, including those from the Los Altos School District.

The Silicon Valley Educational Foundation (SVEF) and the Krause Center for Innovation, organized the Aug. 3-4 conference, which included several speakers. McNealy, since selling Sun Microsystems to Oracle, has focused on his interest in education, by developing a non-profit, open-source curriculum wiki for educators, Curriki.

On the second day, Bernie Trilling, former global director of the Oracle Education Foundation, talked about bringing 21st century learning methods to students and teachers around the world.

Conference-goers were assembled into teams that were assigned to develop action plans to address various educational challenges through technology.

As expected, McNealy provided some provocative remarks, such as eliminating the federal Department of Education. Four other speakers with other areas of expertise spoke, but few may have contemplated suggesting, as McNealy did, under ways of improving education: "Two Biological Parents."