About the Conference (2010)

This is a FREE conference open to ANYONE organized by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. A goal of the conference (among several) is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape. Please see the “For Participants: Getting Started” page on our conference wiki to get started with the K-12 Online Conference. If you are a vendor or affiliated with a vendor, please see our Goals and Values page for clarification about vendor participation.

In past years we have use three primary websites for our conference. This year (2011) we’ll be using primarily our blog, which is this website.

1. Our conference Ning is our conversation hub.
2. Our conference blog (this site) is used to share announcements and news.
3. Our conference wiki provides information to help participants and presenters get the most out of our conference.

During the conference each year, presentations are cross-posted to both our conference blog and conference Ning. Archived conference presentations and live events are also available. In addition to scheduled live events, asynchronous discussions surrounding conference presentations and activities can be posted on individual conference presentation blog posts and in the Ning discussion forum. In addition, participants are encouraged to post about, cross-link to, and embed conference presentations and content. The official 2010 “tag” for blog posts, Flickr images is k12online10. The official twitter hash tag for this year’s conference is #k12online10.

Our WONDERFUL keynote speakers and strand presenters make our conference an outstanding and ongoing learning experience for educators worldwide. More information is available about our 2010 keynote speakers and 2010 strand presenters.

The K-12 Online Conference is a total volunteer effort and is envisioned, planned and implemented by 4 co-conveners, several volunteers who also serve as organizers, and a small group of subcommittees.

2011 Conference Organizers

• Peggy George
• Susan van Gelder
• Kim Caise
• Jose Rodriguez (convening “Sandbox Play”)
• Ginger Lumen (convening “Level Up”)
• Darren Kuropatwa (convening “Story Time”)
• Wesley Fryer (convening “Team Captains”)

2010 Co-Conveners

• Amanda Marrinan is a primary years teacher in Brisbane, Australia. She tweets as @marragem and blogs with her students at 2mgems.blogspot.com. Amanda convenes our 2010 “Week in the Classroom” strand.
• Jose Rodriguez: is a third grade teacher in Los Angeles, California, actively promoting tech use in the elementary classroom, webcasting on the worldbridges network, exploring language learning on the web, and reaching out to educators in the Spanish speaking community. He tweets as @coordinatortwo. Jose convenes the 2010 “Leading the Change” strand.
• Maria Knee is an experienced educator and sees herself as both a teacher and a learner. She teaches kindergarten in Deerfield, New Hampshire. She connects her students to the world through a classroom blog and skype chats, and she webcasts on the worldbridges network. Maria is @mariak on Twitter. She is the recipient of the 2008 Kay L. Bitter Vision Award for Excellence in Technology-based PK-2 Education sponsored by ISTE. Maria convenes the 2010 “Kicking It Up a Notch” strand.
• Wesley Fryer is an educator, author, digital storyteller and educational change agent. He is a university instructor and the director of the non-profit “Story Chasers Inc.” Wes blogs at www.speedofcreativity.org and tweets as @wfryer. Wesley convenes the 2010 “Student Voices” strand.

In addition to our co-conveners, our 2010 conference is led by three organizers who also put MANY hours into the planning and coordination of our conference. Our 2010 organizer team includes our four conference conveners and:

• Kim Caise has been in education for over twenty years as a teacher and technology specialist. She is a national board certified teacher in the area of technology education and recently received a Master of Education in Technology and Learning. She is a co-host for the weekly Classroom 2.0 LIVE webinars, and a co-editor for the EdTechTalk newsletters. Kim blogs at http://kcaise.wordpress.com and serves as a Fable Vision Ambassador, on the Texas DEN Leadership Council and Community Facilitator for LearnCentral. Kim is currently the Flat Classroom™ Project Administrator, tweets (and Plurks) as @kcaise and is co-chairing the 2010 Conference Live Events Committee.
• Peggy George is a retired elementary school principal and university pre-service instructor in Phoenix, AZ. Her passion is to explore technology innovations and social networking opportunities for engaging students/teachers in powerful interactive learning experiences, and to share these resources with other educators. She is a co-host for the weekly Classroom 2.0 LIVE webinars, the monthly AzTEA Mini-Geekfests, and a co-editor for the EdTechTalk newsletters. She tweets as @pgeorge and is co-chairing the 2010 Conference Archivist Committee.
• Susan van Gelder worked for many years as a technology teacher in an elementary school. Now she gives workshops for teachers and supports educational projects across Quebec through face to face and online mentoring. She has been interested in online collaboration and has involved students in projects starting in the late 1980s. She has a photo blog and tweets as @susanvg. Susan is the host of the K12 Online Echo at EdTechTalk.

The live events for the 2010 Conference have been organized by the following Live Events Committee members:

• Kim Caise
• Susan van Gelder
• Peggy George
• Connie Swiderski
• Andrew Ziobro
• Drew Buddie
• Nan Williams

Archived versions of our conference “about” page from 2009 and 2008 are available. All our conference organizers, past and present, wish to express appreciation and thanks to the MANY people who have  contributed and continue to contribute to make our conference a successful learning experience for everyone!