CoSN: CTO Clinics - Georgia, June 2007

CoSN School District Technology Leader/CTO Clinic - Georgia

Presented with the Georgia CIO Council
Wednesday, June 27, during the National Educational Computing Conference
Atlanta Marriott Downtown, 160 Spring Street

Speaker Biographies
Last Updated: July 6, 2007

General Session Speakers
Steve Hargadon Project Director, Open Technologies Initiative, CoSN	Steve Hargadon is the new director of the Open Technologies project at CoSN. While he graduated with a degree in history from Stanford University, Steve instead has spent the last twenty years in the technology arena, and currently runs the Open Source pavilions and speaker tracks for the the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) and Computer Using Educators (CUE) shows. He is the host of EdTechLive, a podcast interview series on educational technology, free and open source software, and the use of Web 2.0 in education; he actively blogs on the same topics at www.SteveHargadon.com. Steve has also initiated a number of Web 2.0 projects for educators, including SupportBlogging.com (a resource site on educational blogging) and Classroom 2.0 (a social network for educators). He is a passionate advocate for making a difference with technology, and is currently working on several projects to bring computers to low-income and transient housing facilities.
David Jakes	Instructional Technology Coordinator, Community High School District 99 (IL) David Jakes serves as the instructional technology coordinator for Community High School District 99 in Downers Grove, IL. His interest in technology developed from his 15 years as a classroom science teacher, and from his observations about the difference technology can make in student learning. In addition to speaking at many technology conferences, he conducts technology staff development projects in his school district and throughout the United States. Jakes currently manages three technology-related Web sites — Jakesonline.org, Biopoint.com and myprojectpages.com — that seek to help teachers use technology, and particularly the World Wide Web, to increase student achievement and performance. He is also a blogger, producing The Strength of Weak Ties, as well as contributing regularly to the Techlearning.com blog. His other interests include digital storytelling, information literacy, effective professional development, and the creation of online learning communities.
Cheryl Lemke President and CEO, Metiri Group	Ms. Lemke’s strength lies in systems thinking—seeing the big picture, forming the right team and taking actions that get results. With more than 20 years experience in public education, she has held positions as the state technology director in Washington State, the Associate Superintendent for Learning Technology for the Illinois State Board of Education and the executive director for the Milken Exchange on Education Technology. Metiri Group, a learning technology consulting firm based in Los Angeles, provides services ranging from public policy consultation to school technology audits and online assessment designs. Metiri Group clientele includes US Congressional Committees, state education agencies, high tech industry, foundations, professional organizations and school districts. Currently the Metiri Group is working with the State Education Technology Directors’ Association (SETDA) to develop a suite of assessment tools for states to gauge their progress in using technology to meet and advance the goals of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal legislation. A national report Ms. Lemke authored for SETDA profiling year one of the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology is currently the focus of Congressional briefings. This year she also facilitated two national summits for the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future and is currently working with three large urban schools districts on learning technology initiatives. Ms. Lemke has been honored by professional organizations throughout the country. In 2000, she was identified as one of the twenty most influential educators nationally in the field of learning and technology. She has authored several journal articles and is a regular presenter at national, regional and state technology conferences.
Katie Lovett Chief Information Officer, Fulton County Schools (GA), CoSN Chair	Katie Lovett has been the Information Technology leader for two of the largest school systems in Georgia. As Chief Information Officer in Fulton County Schools, Ms. Lovett is currently responsible for leading the development and implementation of an enterprise strategic plan enabling positive student learning through the use of information and communication technologies. Under her leadership, Fulton County Schools has implemented enterprise decision support systems, assessment systems, and instructional management systems aligned to the District’s Balanced Score Card. To sustain the district’s mission and goals, Ms. Lovett dramatically redirected IT staff and resources to enable a strategic infrastructure scalable to a new generation of “digital natives” for anytime anywhere learning. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Lovett served as the Executive Director for Information Management in Gwinnett County Public Schools where she led the development of an Enterprise Information Management System. Ms. Lovett also has experience in assessing the impact of technology on student learning, where she led the development of a technology assessment model that was awarded first place in the Category of Advances in Methodology by the American Education Research Association (AERA). Ms. Lovett is currently serving as Chair of the Board of Directors for Consortium of School Networking (CoSN), and has served as 2006 and 2007 conference co-chair, and served on CoSN’s CTO Council. Ms. Lovett facilitated the development of the Metro-Atlanta Chief Information Officers Council as well as the Georgia CoSN Chapter.
Will Richardson	Founding Partner, the Connective Learning Group Will Richardson is an internationally known “evangelist” for the use of Weblogs, RSS and related Internet technologies in classrooms and schools. He is the author of An Educator’s Guide to Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Cool Web Tools that are Transforming the Classroom (Corwin Press), and over the past three years has spoken to thousands of educators on the merits of “The Read/Write Web.” A classroom teacher for over 20 years, he has integrated these technologies into his curricula for over four years. In various Weblog projects, his students have collaborated with best-selling authors, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and with students in classrooms from around the world. One of the first educator bloggers, his own Weblog at http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Times, Syllabus and others, and it is a primary resource for the creation and implementation of Weblog technologies on the K-12 level. His articles have appeared in Educational Leadership, English Journal and Principal Leadership, among others, and he has presented and given workshops about Weblogs and RSS and other technologies at national conventions such as the NECC, ASCD, Journalism Education Association and many others. He is also a featured blogger at Ed Tech Insider (http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti) and is a regular on the bi-weekly “Ed Tech Coast to Coast Podcast” (http://www.edtechcoasttocoast.com). Will is the author of the best-selling “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms” from Corwin Press.
Clinic Session Speakers
Alan Amrod Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Xirrus	Alan Amrod joined Xirrus July 2006 as Vice President of Marketing and was promoted to run both Sales and Marketing December 2006. He brings over 20 years of experience in engineering, sales, service, marketing, and most recently served as Vice President of Marketing for Ixia where he was instrumental in driving Ixia to a global leadership position in IP Performance Testing. Prior to Ixia, Mr. Amrod was the Vice President of Enterprise Marketing at Alcatel. Before becoming Vice President at Alcatel, Alan worked at Alcatel as Director of Field Marketing; and before the acquisition of Xylan Networks by Alcatel, he was Sales Director for Healthcare, Education, and State Government sectors. Earlier in his career, Mr. Amrod worked at General Electric Medical Systems, where he was involved in the early development of Picture Archive Communications Systems (PACS), and was instrumental in the creation of the networking products and services business unit. Before his tenure with General Electric, he was a Criminal Intelligence Specialist with the U.S. Coast Guard, and also served a tour with the U.S. Navy assigned to Special Operations for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Mr. Amrod has a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany.
Jon Bernstein President, Bernstein Strategy Group	Mr. Bernstein has been working on education, education technology and telecommunications issues since 1995. Currently, Mr. Bernstein advises and represents the Consortium for School Networking and the International Society for Technology in Education on issues related to the E-Rate program, education technology and federal education appropriations. He also counsels established corporations, such as IBM, Intel and Cox Communications on a wide-range of public policy issues. Prior to launching the Bernstein Strategy Group, Mr. Bernstein served as Vice President at Leslie Harris & Associates, where he worked with all of his current clients and the National Education Association, the State Educational Technology Directors Association, Time Warner, Verizon and WGBH in Boston. Before assuming his position at Leslie Harris & Associates, Mr. Bernstein served as an Attorney Advisor with the Federal Communications Commission, lobbied for the National Education Association, served as legislative counsel for The Lightspan Partnership and worked as a Legal Fellow for Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Amy Floyd AT&T Director of Education Advocacy
Rich Kaestner Project Director, Total Cost of Ownership and Value of Investment	Project Director, Total Cost of Ownership and Value of Investment, CoSN Mr. Kaestner developed the CoSN-Gartner K-12 TCO tool and provides support and training for this web-based tool. He is also focusing on CoSN ubiquitous student computing and Value of Investment initiatives. Prior to CoSN, Mr. Kaestner developed a strong technology background in sales, support and management for various vendors, most recently as a consultant with Gartner.
Max Kolstad Project Manager, State of Arkansas Department of Information Systems
Bailey Mitchell Chief Technology and Information Officer, Forsyth County Schools (GA)	Chief Technology and Information Officer, Forsyth County Schools (GA) Bailey Mitchell brings 21 years of experience as an educator and has worked for the past ten years as the Chief Technology and Information Officer for Forsyth County Schools. He is responsible for both the educational and administrative technology enterprise with a focus on online learning, collaborative classrooms, parent communication and teacher support. Forsyth’s technology enterprise is nationally recognized as a leader in educational technology. Bailey is a regular presenter for the Georgia School Boards Association on school board automation and technology planning and is a member of CoSN’s (Consortium for School Networking) Chief Technology Officers’ Council and is chair of the Georgia CIO Council, the Georgia CoSN chapter. Prior to working for Forsyth County Schools, Bailey served as the Director of Instructional Technology at the Georgia Department of Education. At the Department, Bailey directed the state’s education technology initiatives and was instrumental in building a network of fifteen Technology Training Centers that are located in universities and regional education sites across the state. Bailey has a B.S. degree in Career and Technology Education and a Masters and Specialist Degree from The University of Georgia in Educational Administration and Curriculum and Supervision.
Linda Sharp Project Director, CyberSecurity for the Digital District, and Accessible Technologies for All Students, CoSN	Linda Sharp is an education and learning professional with over 30 years experience. She is currently Project Manager for CoSN’s CyberSecurity and Accessible Technology for All Students Initiatives. Prior to her work with CoSN, Linda worked with AlphaSmart, Inc. as Vice President of Professional Services and Vice President of Sales. Linda was responsible for customer and internal professional development, curriculum integration support, and overall revenue growth. Linda was responsible for training materials, developed and implemented the AlphaSmart Certified Trainer and AlphaGrant programs, and served as liaison to education community. Linda also worked with Educational Resources as Director of Staff Development and Western Regional Sales Manager. Prior to her work in the education industry, Linda was a teacher, coach and District Technology Advisor for Cherry Creek Schools in Englewood, CO where she provided leadership and coordination for schools in the area of technology integration, long-range planning and staff development. She served as Project Manager of the Middle School Technology Bond Project and coordinated 2.5 million dollar technology bond for district middle schools where she was responsible for network design, technology purchasing and training. Linda has a BA in Education from University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO and a MA in Education Technology from Lesley College, Boston, MA.
Irene Spero Chief Operating Officer, CoSN	In addition to her positions with CoSN, Ms. Spero is also the Director, External Relations, at NetDay (www.netday.org), an organization dedicated to expanding the technology opportunities of students. Prior to joining CoSN in 2003, Ms. Spero was the first executive director of SchoolTone Alliance, a global consortium of education technology and service provider companies. Ms. Spero served as Director of External Relations at the Web-based Education Commission where she was responsible for directing its outreach efforts, organizing its public hearings and managing its public relations and communications efforts. The Commission submitted its report, The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice, to Congress and the President in December 2000. Ms Spero worked for 16 years as Executive Director for Federal and State Relations at the College Board. Based in Washington DC, her primary responsibility was to represent the interests of the association by conducting and directing a comprehensive government relations program at the federal and state level. As the College Board’s representative, Ms. Spero was frequently asked to advise policymakers and comment on issues relating to the transition from secondary to higher education, access and equity issues. In that capacity, she testified before congressional committees and state legislative bodies and appeared at national education association meetings. Ms. Spero received a BA degree cum laude with honors in political science from Bryn Mawr College and an MA in Public Law from Columbia University.
Ed Zaiontz Executive Director, Information Services, Round Rock ISD (TX)	Mr. Zaiontz has spent 31 years in K-12 education including teaching middle school math, serving as RRISD’s Director of Instructional Technology, and for the last 14 years, serving as the Executive Director of Round Rock ISD’s Information Services Department. Mr. Zaiontz also serves as the chair of CoSN’s CTO Council and is currently the chair of the newly created Texas K-12 CTO Council, CoSN’s first state chapter.

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