Keith Krueger CEO
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)
Keith R. Krueger is CEO of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a U.S. nonprofit organization that serves as the voice of K-12 technology leaders, especially school district CTO's, who use technology strategically to improve teaching and learning. In 2008 he was selected by eSchool News as one of ten people who have had a profound impact on educational technology over the last decade.
He serves on many Advisory Boards including eSchool News, the Education Committee of the National Park System, the American Productivity Quality Council, the Virtual High School Global Consortium, the Friday Institute at NC State University and the Wireless Reach Advisory Board. He is a past Board Member/Treasurer of the National Coalition on Technology in Education & Training (NCTET).
Keith has a global reputation as a key thought leader. He has represented the National Science Foundation on a joint EU/US committee planning a joint research agenda for eLearning, and served as an NGO delegate to various United Nations and G8 international ICT in education meetings. He has organized senior level U.S. delegations to visit Australia, Asia and Europe to examine best practice in educational technology.
As a Certified Association Executive, he has extensive background in nonprofit management and has a Masters from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
Gary S. Stager, Ph.D. Executive Director
The Constructivist Consortium
Gary Stager, an internationally recognized educator, speaker and consultant, is the Executive Director of The Constructivist Consortium. Since 1982, Gary has helped learners of all ages on six continents embrace the power of computers as intellectual laboratories and vehicles for self-expression. He led professional development in the world's first laptop schools (1990), has designed online graduate school programs since the mid-90s, was a collaborator in the MIT Media Lab's Future of Learning Group and a member of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's Learning Team.
When Jean Piaget wanted to better understand how children learn mathematics, he hired Seymour Papert. When Dr. Papert wanted to create a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens, he hired Gary Stager. This work was the basis for Gary's doctoral dissertation and documented Papert's most-recent institutional research project.
Gary's recent work has included teaching and mentoring some of Australia's "most troubled" public schools, launching 1:1 computing in a Korean International School beginning in the first grade, media appearances in Peru and serving as a school S.T.E.M. Director. He was a Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University and Senior Editor of District Administration Magazine. His advocacy on behalf of creativity, computing and children led to the creation of the Constructivist Consortium and the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute.
In 1999, Converge Magazine named Gary a "shaper of our future and inventor of our destiny." The National School Boards Association recognized Dr. Stager with the distinction of "20 Leaders to Watch" in 2007. The June 2010 issue of Tech & Learning Magazine named Gary Stager as "one of today's leaders who are changing the landscape of edtech through innovation and leadership." A popular speaker, Dr. Stager was a keynote speaker at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference and at major conferences around the world. He has twice been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Melbourne's Trinity College.
Stephen Heppell, Europe's leading online education expert
CEO, Heppell.net,
Professor. Chair in New Media Environments
Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, Bournemouth University,
Emeritus Professor,
Anglia Ruskin University
Visiting Professor,
University of Wales, Newport
Executive chairman, Learning Possibilities
Stephen's "eyes on the horizon, feet on the ground" approach, coupled with a vast portfolio of effective large scale projects over three decades, have established him internationally as a widely and fondly recognized leader in the fields of learning, new media and technology.
Stephen has worked, and is working, with governments around the world, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies, with schools and communities, with his PhD students and with many influential trusts and organizations.
Stephen's ICT career (he is credited with being the person who put the C into ICT), began with the UK government's Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP) in the early 80s, after he had been teaching in secondary schools for some years - which he enjoyed enormously.
Stephen founded and ran Ultralab for almost a quarter of a century, building it into one of the most respected research centres in e-learning in the world - at one time Ultralab was the largest producer of educational CD-ROMs in Europe - before leaving it in 2004 to found his own global and flourishing policy and learning consultancy heppell.net which now has an enviable portfolio of international projects all round the world.
Complementing the work designing on-line communities, Stephen is at the heart of a global revolution in physical learning space design, with a string of major new building projects worldwide including a 0-21+ academy in the UK and a complete makeover of a national education system in the Caribbean. His research project in 2003 exploring for CABE and RIBA in the UK on the impact of new pedagogies on the design of learning spaces kickstarted a new rhetoric of school design in the UK and beyond. Stephen is designing, with his daughter Juliette, a signature suite of school furniture with Isis.
Stephen's work is worldwide; Stephen is retained by a number of organisations and governments to help with future policy and direction.
Greg Whitby, Executive Director of Schools,
Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Parramatta
Greg Whitby is the Executive Director of Schools and leads a system of approximately 80 Catholic schools serving the Catholic community of greater Western Sydney which includes over 4,500 staff and around 45,000 students.
He has 30 years combined experience in K-12 schooling and senior system leadership. He is overseeing system initiatives to build the capacity of school leaders and teachers through a whole-of system approach to professional learning in order to improve student learning outcomes.
As a regular speaker at national and international conferences and forums, Greg talks about the key drivers for 21st century schooling: learning, diversity and the cloud. These drivers reflect a new view of learners and learning underpinned by quality teaching.
In 2007, he was named the most innovative educator in Australia by the Bulletin Magazine in its annual SMART 100 awards, awarded the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) Presidential Citation and AW Jones Oration Medal. Greg has also been named an Apple Distinguished Educator, a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and the Australian Institute of Management for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of education.
Greg has served in many areas of educational leadership including commissioner of the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations and the Catholic Education Commission, chair of the Conference of Diocesan Directors Information and Communicative Technology Committee and Catholic sector representative on the Access Asia Management Committee. Greg is also the chairman of CEnet (Catholic Education Network), which links Catholic schools and provides them with a virtual learning environment.
Greg is also a member of the Digital Education Advisory Group, which provides the Australian Government with advice on transforming schooling through technology.
In addition to writing his blog bluyonder, he tweets (@GregWhitby) regularly on a broad range of current educational and leadership issues.
Currently employed at The Armidale School as Director of Information Technology and Coordinator of Technological and Applied Studies, Martin’s experience goes beyond the classroom to include consultancy in office technologies, publishing, advertising and journalism. His education experience runs the full gamut from primary to tertiary and includes significant involvement in the identification of education and training needs, and the development, promotion and delivery of education and training courses.
An Education Columnist for Australian Macworld and regular presenter at domestic and international conferences, Martin has a wealth of experience in opportunities analysis and assessment, and the ability to bring good ideas to fruition.
His particular interest is the enhancement in learning that can happen with appropriate infusion of Information Communications Technologies. As such he is a keen student of technology, educational philosophies and change management.
Kathryn Priol
IT Director John Paul College
Kathryn became the Director of ICT at John Paul College in early 2009, overseeing a notebook program and network infrastructure catering to over 3000 computing end devices. The John Paul College infrastructure provides wireless connectivity across the 35 hectare campus and includes Childcare, after hours school care, kindergarten to year 12 and an international college. The College one-to-one notebook program provides notebooks to all students from Year 4 through Year 12 and incorporates the International College students along with computers in every classroom from Kindergarten to Year 3.
Prior to joining John Paul College, Kathryn worked in senior IT roles across a number of industries including telecommunications, banking and retail. Kathryn also has experience from her time working for IT vendors and resellers providing services to medium to large corporate and government clients.
Jason MacDonald
IT Director Kristin School
Jason MacDonald is Director of ICT Services at Kristin School, a leading co-educational school with a reputation of ICT leadership and innovation.
Jason has focused his professional career for the last 10 years on his passion for ICT leadership.Jason has special interests in the areas of ICT governance and sustainable innovation.
Experiences gained from being an innovator at an agile organization has lead to working with many organizations across New Zealand. Outside of Kristin School, recent work has been related to Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) projects - New Zealand's version of the NBN - including consultancy for the NZ Ministry of Education and establishment of the NEAL Education Trust which supports schools delivering educational benefit from Ultra Fast Broadband.
Daniel Ingvarson Program Lead - Projects and Architecture The National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP)
Daniel grew up in a family where education was the central theme with his grandparents, parents and extended family working as either teachers, School Principals or in Tertiary Education Departments. Daniel started working in IT and education in 1987 and built the first Education Internet Service Provider in Australia in 1993. He designed and built the first school specific Internet gateway in 1995, and in 1998 the first Internet portal to link logins with Internet based learning activities in a centralised infrastructure. This development changed the way Internet was managed in Australia. Daniel’s software was used by over 50% of Australian students and was built on Open Source - before it was fashionable.
In 2000, Daniel went on to conceive, design, and develop an e-learning platform that included a Personal Portal, Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Learning Content Management System, Federated search, and an e-portfolio for students with WYSIWYG publishing. This software, called myclasses, won the National Australian Internet Association Innovation award, a major software award. Myclasses was arguably one of the top k-12 e-learning platforms in the world, with over a million users in five countries, including the UK where it is part of the BECTA Learning Platform.
Daniel is currently Program Lead, Projects and Architecture for the National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP). NSIP is an initiative of the State, Territory and Commonwealth Ministers of Education that commenced in July 2010, incorporating the “Towards SIF AU Program,” to provide leadership and support in the delivery of e-learning projects and manage the Systems Interoperability Framework (SIF) specification in Australia. Under Daniel’s leadership, NSIP has completed 12 pilot projects across Australia, demonstrating the value of SIF to solve interoperability issues in the Australian education sector.
Asanga Wanigatunga Senior Systems Engineer, End User Computing Specialist VMware
Asanga Wanigatunga is an experienced Senior Systems Engineer, with over ten years experience advising clients on End User Computing, Virtualization, CRM and IT Service Management solutions. In his current role as a Senior Technology Specialist for End User Computing (EUC) at VMware, Asanga advises and consults with customers to address their challenges related to mobility, desktop virtualization, identity and end-user device management. In addition to this, Asanga is responsible for evangelising VMware’s vision for End User Computing and training and enabling VMware’s Partner network across Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to VMware, Asanga experience includes Pre-Sales Consulting for Symantec’s Endpoint Management solutions, Technical Services Manager for a Solution Provider specialising in CRM and IT Service Management, and for a start-up specialising in Web development solutions for the Australian SMB market.
Asanga hold a degree in Bachelor of Computer Science majoring in System Design.
Steven Crockett Chief Technology Officer Anittel
Steven has been an entrepreneur, innovator and leader in the IT industry for over 16 years. After founding Crox Development in 2001, he built the company to be a leading provider of Education Managed IT and Internet Services in Western Australia.
In 2008 Crox merged with Accord. Steven’s role as Director of Technical Services helped the company to achieve growth in excess of 90% per annum. After Accord was acquired by Anittel in 2010, Steven took on the role of CTO where he has led the development of new markets and products across key technologies including server infrastructure, connectivity and hosted/cloud services.
Simon Jones Senior Manager Civica Education
Simon has worked in with Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Jurisdictions and Systemic clients for over 12 years. As one of three Senior Managers within Civica Education, Simon manages the Sales, Marketing and Product Strategy teams, and leads the Civica response teams for all large transformational ICT procurements.
Specialising in enterprise software solutions to deliver School and Learning Management solutions since 2005, Simon provides Civica Education with the customer requirements for product functionality.
Jarrod Johnson Coordinator of eLearning Pulteney Grammar School
As Coordinator of eLearning at Pulteney Grammar School, Jarrod is responsible for managing the Civica/RM Learning Platform, and the introduction of effective ICT Integration across the E-12 learning environment. In 2010, Pulteney Grammar undertook a school wide technology review to identify the technology needs of teachers and students in the college which led to the implementation of 1:1 devices, iPads in Year 9/10 and MacBooks in 11/12 and the implementation of the Learning Platform. The school is looking towards a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model to be instigated in 2013.
Jarrod has been teaching for seven years and has been involved in implementation of a range of school wide learning tools including Moodle, LAMS, Edmodo, RM Learning Platforms, as well as IWB and iPads. His use of technology in the classroom and engagement of students, teachers and the community led to the Secondary Teacher of the Year in the AISSA sector for South Australia in 2011.
Jarrod also works with the University of Adelaide as the Teaching Teachers for the Future ICT Project Officer, and runs the ICT Integration class with 240 student teachers, delivered online through video podcasts and asynchronous learning. Jarrod's work with AITSL and the 39 universities across Australia has led to his research into the use of ICT in Education and he is looking forward to completing his PhD along this line of inquiry.
