Greg Gunn, entrepreneur-in-residence, City Light Capital, and co-founder, Wireless Generation, in conversation with Virginia B. Edwards, editor-in-chief, Education Week, and president, Editorial Projects in Education

• Professional-development approaches that work best
• Strategies for building cost-effective teacher-training programs
• Using ed tech to implement core curriculum and “deeper learning” skills

• Smart approaches for building online course-taking into district programs for low, middle, and high achievers
• E-learning solutions that work based on the latest research
• How to evaluate the quality of e-learning providers

Panelists include:
Mark Edwards, Superintendent, Mooresville Graded School District

Cindy Hamblin, Director, Illinois Virtual School

Leroy D. Nunery II, Acting Superintendent/Chief Executive, School District of Philadelphia

• Methods for deploying e-textbooks in cost-effective ways to engage students in more interactive, multimedia-rich learning
• The best approaches for embedding assessments into digital curricula to raise student achievement
• Replicating successful district initiatives to create digital curricula and avoid pitfalls

Panelists include:
Monica Beglau, Executive Director, Enhancing Missouri’s Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies, University of Missouri

Jay McPhail, Director, K-12 Instructional Technology and Career Technical Education, Riverside Unified School District

Darlene Rankin, Director of Instructional Technology, Katy Independent School District

Rob Mancabelli and Will Richardson, co-authors of Personal Learning Networks:  Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education, lead an energetic conversation about how to ensure successful technology innovation. Focusing on the top objections to change (the “yeah, buts”), they discuss what’s really at the root of these concerns and how you can turn pushback into engagement.

• How to overcome the top objections that are raised against change
• How to structure the change process to engage everyone, not just the early-adopters
• How to determine if your District is ready for change using the 21^st Century Learning Readiness Assessment

• Maintaining a strong technology infrastructure amid increased student use on a tight budget
• Creative approaches, such as cloud computing, for using technology to cut costs
• Making difficult decisions about what ed-tech programs to cut and when to start new ones

Panelists include:
Bailey Mitchell, Chief Technology and Information Officer, Forsyth County School District ♦ Chair, Consortium for School Networking, Board of Directors

Kim A. Rice, Deputy Superintendent and Assistant Chief Operating Officer, Boston Public Schools

Lenny Schad, Chief Information Officer,  Katy Independent School District

• Creating a culture that embraces the value of trying new approaches
• How to make the case for innovation districtwide
• What the business of innovation means for ed tech