2010 Annual Conference Strands

Conference Theme & Strands
The CoSN Conference 2010 theme is Innovation, Ingenuity & Insight. The conference program consists of over 50 education sessions that will address this theme and focus on the following Strands:
Leadership and Vision
Leadership and Vision involves working closely with the executive team and stakeholders to develop a shared vision and big-picture perspective on a district’s goals to plan for meaningful and effective uses of technology. It involves providing leadership into creating a vision of how technology can help meet district goals.

Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning involves a high-level view across the school system of things needed to be successful. It involves working with the instructional and technical teams to identify the steps needed to transform the technology vision into a long-range plan, complete with specific goals, objectives and action plans.

Stakeholder Focus
The Stakeholder Focus functional area refers to using the knowledge you have about all of your stakeholders and building relationships with all of them. It involves taking a close look at how the district determines requirements, expectations and preferences of stakeholders as well as the key factors that lead to stakeholder satisfaction. It addresses how the district seeks knowledge, satisfaction and loyalty of students and other stakeholders.

Business Management
Business Management involves managing the budget and serving as a strong business leader who guides purchasing decisions, assists in determining the return on investment for all technology implementations and fosters good relationships with vendors, potential funders and other key groups.

Team Building and Staffing
Team Building and Staffing involves the creation and support of cross-functional teams for decision-making, technology support, professional development and other aspects of the district’s technology program as an integral part of strategic planning.

Instructional Focus and Professional Development
Instructional Focus and Professional Development includes the budgeting for, planning for and coordinating of ongoing, purposeful professional development for all staff using new technologies, including ensuring a sufficient budget through the implementation and assessment process.

Systems Management
Typically, the majority of a CTO's time is spent overseeing the day-to-day operation of the district's IT systems. All of the project management and personal leadership skills described earlier come into play in the effective running of this large-scale enterprise, as does the need to be a perpetual learner.

Communication Management
The focus here is on how to use technology to improve communication. Communication Management involves directing and coordinating the use of e-mail, district websites, Web tool, voice mail systems and other forms of communication to facilitate decision making and enhance effective communication with key stakeholders.

Information Technology Management
The functional area of Information Technology Management includes skills of directing, coordinating and ensuring the implementation of all tasks related to technical, infrastructure, standards and the integration of technology into ever facet of district operations. Among the many things to be considered are systems administration, backup and storage, data security, disaster recovery, network infrastructure, network management, network security, Internet bandwidth, federal and state compliance, desktop support and others.

Data Management
The functional area of Data Management includes skills related to overseeing the establishment and maintenance of systems and tools for gathering, mining, integrating and reporting data in usable and meaningful ways to produce an information culture in which data management is critical to strategic planning.

Ethics and Policies
Ethics and Policies refers to overseeing the creation, implementation ad enforcement of policies and educational programs relates to the social, legal and ethical issues involved in technology use throughout the district and modeling of responsible decision-making.