Costa Mesa, Calif., May 6, 2013 — Today, Computer-Using Educators (CUE) Inc. and the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) announced that Governor Bob Wise and Dr. Eric Mazur will provide opening keynotes for the second annual eLearning Strategies Symposium, a conference dedicated to highlighting and exploring effective strategies for online and blended education.

Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise is president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a nonprofit organization that has become a national leader and a respected advocate for the Common Core State Standards, deeper learning, digital learning, adolescent literacy, and other key education policy issues.

 After serving a combined twenty-four years as governor, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and state legislator, Gov. Wise has become a popular speaker and advisor on education issues as well as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Education, White House, and key policymakers in the U.S. Congress. In 2011, Gov. Wise was named to the NonProfit Times’s “Power & Influence Top 50,” an annual listing of the fifty most influential executives in the nonprofit sector.

Dr. Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University and Area Dean of Applied Physics. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University.

Dr. Mazur is also a renowned educational innovator. He believes that better science education for all — not just science majors — is vital for continued scientific progress. An early adopter of educational technology and e-learning, Professor Mazur is a founder of Learning Catalytics, a cloud-based technology that enables instructors to engage students with authentic formative assessments in real time, and rich data analytics to drive student interactions.

In his keynote, Confessions of a Converted Lecturer, Dr. Mazur will share how his teaching approach evolved after he discovered that his students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material.

“We’re excited to hear from both Governor Wise and Eric Mazur,” said CUE’s Executive Director, Mike Lawrence, “Both are innovative speakers with a passion for online and blended learning, who bring important perspectives to our symposium.”

Early Bird Symposium registration is now open until October 1st. Just $159, registration includes Friday and Saturday sessions and a keynote/lunch on Friday and a closing keynote on Saturday. Groups of two or more who are from the same school, district, or organization may register for $149. Hilton rooms for the symposium are just $129 per night.

Governor Wise will present the opening keynote on Friday morning, December 6th, while Eric Mazur will provide the lunch keynote after the 2013 eLearning awards are announced. The 2nd annual eLearning Strategies Symposium Awards is being held on December 6-7, 2013 at the Hilton Costa Mesa. More information can be found at www.elearns.org.

New Directions: Online Learning and the University of California’s A-G Subject Area Requirements – Monica Lin

Keeping Pace with K12 Online Learning with John Watson and Kelly Schwirzke

Jenny Thomas – Creating a Community in the Online Classroom

Jenny Thomas – Creating Community in the Classroom

Hall Davidson – Plenary Session – When the Inside Becomes the Outside: The Old Book as the New Backpack

Captured on December 8, 2012 at the eLearning Strategies Symposium, Hall Davidson of Discovery Education engages and enlightens attendees.

eLearning Strategies Symposium

Call for Speakers

Share your online learning expertise with California educators and policy makers at the second annual eLearning Strategies Symposium on December 6th and 7th, 2013. Having exceeded our expectations last year, we’re looking for a variety of sessions, geared towards educators and administrators, about online and blended learning.

Two session proposal windows are offered. During this Early Bird window, which closes May 2nd, we’ll be filling two-thirds of the concurrent sessions. A shorter, Just in Time, proposal window opens mid-August and closes in mid-September for the final third. Speaker acceptances for the first round will be emailed the week of May 13th. All speakers will receive a complementary registration to the symposium. Industry-sponsored sessions must include a Corporate Partnership Application.

Symposium presentations should focus on one of eSS’ five strands:

• Big Picture, which includes administration, management, evaluation, research, policy or advocacy;
• Content (curriculum and online course development, best practices, accessibility, or instructional design);
• Capacity Building (professional development);
• Gear (tools, technologies, learning management systems, or application development); or
• Pedagogy (engaging students, teaching and learning pedagogies, blended learning models, learning communities, or assessment).

Symposium presentations are one-hour in duration with one session each hour being live-streamed and recorded for future distribution. Speakers may opt-out of live-streaming.

With online and blended learning growing 20-25% each year and with more than 200,000 California students participating in virtual or blended learning, now is the time for a California conference focused on teaching and learning online. Please join us in Costa Mesa next December.

eLearning Strategies Symposium Call for Speakers

ESS Online Teacher of the Year recipient, Renee Citlau, was named yesterday as the SREB/iNACOL National Teacher of the Year.

Congratulations Renee! We’re looking forward to hearing from you at ESS 13.

Nominations for the 2013 ESS Online Teacher of the Year and the eLearning Advocate award are now open.

The eLearning Strategies Symposium is now accepting nominations for two eLearning awards which will be presented during the December 7th keynote.  Full information, links to the online submission form, and the timeline are listed below. Recognize your local online teacher and eLearning advocate by submitting a nomination by September 9, 2013.

Online Teacher of the Year

The Online Teacher of the Year Award recognizes an online teacher who has made a noteworthy contribution to eLearning in an online or blended setting. Supporting and engaging all students online** is the key element in this award. Nominees must be currently teaching online with K-12 students.

Nominations may be submitted by the individual nominee or by another person who is able to support the nomination through personal involvement with the nominee.

**”Supporting and engaging students online” based on iNacol National Standards for Quality Online Courses means: “Learning activities and other learning opportunities are developed to foster instructor-student and student-student interaction. The technology and course content encourage exchanges amongst the instructor and students through email, discussions, synchronous chats, simulations, lab activities, online collaborations and other group projects. Within the grading policy, guidelines defining student participation and expectations are provided.

Threaded and/or synchronous discussions are available for developing community, asking and finding answers to questions about the course, and around the content. Access is available to groups or individual students based on the purpose of the activity. Rules, roles, and expectations for the discussion are clear and posted within the discussion forum.” (iNacol, 2011, Standard 10, p. 13)

Nominations for this category are submitted through the eLearning Special Interest Group (eLSIG). Unless ineligible, the eSS Online Teacher of the Year recipient will become the CUE/CLRN nominee for the National Online Teacher of the Year Award through SREB/iNACOL.

Required Nomination Materials:

• Two-page overview of the nominee’s contributions to educational technology in a classroom setting and how the nominee uses technology to support standards-based curriculum on an ongoing basis.
• A current curriculum vitae or resume.

Timeline

Submit an Award Nomination

Symposium Registration Now Open

Early Bird Symposium registration is now open until October 1st. Just $159, registration includes Friday and Saturday sessions and a keynote/lunch on Friday. Groups of two or more who are from the same school, district, or organization may register for $149 until October 1st.

Regular registration rates from October 2nd through November 30^thare $199. Regular Group registration from October 2nd through November 30th is $169.

Pay by credit card, Pay By Check, or Pay by Purchase Order:

If your district can not pay by credit card, you may issue a Purchase Order and either submit a check for registration or you may mail the purchase order to us. Download check / purchase order form.

• Please make checks payable to: Stanislaus County School Service Fund (SCSSF).
• Purchase orders should be made out to: Stanislaus County Office of Education

1. First, register your participant(s) on our site by clicking the registration link below.
2. Below the ORDER NOW button, select SHOW OTHER PAYMENT OPTIONS
3. Indicate the number of registrations and click PAY OFFLINE
4. Enter ticket buyer information, registrant name, school information, and lunch preference.
5. Click PAY BY CHECK
6. Send payment or purchase order, along with information on all registrants, to:

eSS Registration, ℅ CLRN
Stanislaus County Office of Education
1100 H Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Register for the Symposium

Captured on December 7, 2012 at the eLearning Strategies Symposium, awards chair, Chris Bell introduces the recipients of two eLearning Strategies Symposium awards.

Renee Citlau was honored as the 2012 Online Teacher of the Year. This award is given to an online teacher who has made a significant or noteworthy contribution to eLearning in an online or blended setting. Ms. Citlau is working currently in the Anaheim Union High School District and was responsible for creating the district’s first online class in 2007. Following the symposium, Renee’s application was forwarded to iNACOL for their national teacher of the year award. We’re pleased that she was chosen as one of three finalists. The SREB/iNACOL National Online Teacher of the Year will be announced March 7^th.

Dr. Theresa Rouse was honored as the 2012 eLearning Advocate. This award is presented to an individual or organization that has contributed significantly to promoting, advocating or implementing eLearning at the school, district, county or state level. Dr. Rouse is superintendent of the King City Union School District and formerly was Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. She worked on creating a framework for districts that addresses the online learning landscape, making sure that online courses are rigorous, that online course standards are in place, and that work in this area is supported.

Symposium registration opens on Monday, March 4th. Nominations for the 2013 ESS awards opens May 13th.

Captured on December 7, 2012 at the eLearning Strategies Symposium, Evergreen Education Group Founder John Watson moderates a lively panel of educational leaders: Dr. Rick Miller, Superintendent at the Riverside Unified School District; Dr. Randy Ward, San Diego County Superintendent of Schools; and Dr. Kelly Schwirzke, Director of Online Learning at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. These three educational leaders and online learning innovators address the catalysts that moved their districts into online and blended learning, how they prepared their teachers for online and blended instruction, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them, the key components of setting up an online or blended program, the valuable lessons they learned, and what they would do differently in the future.

For more from the 2012 eLearning Strategies Symposium, visit www.elearns.org