The popular Birds-of-a-Feather Roundtables, sponsored by Moodlerooms, will be held Monday, September 15th from 4:30-5:30 pm. The roundtables are an opportunity for you to meet and dialogue with other attendees on topics of mutual interest in a small group setting. Attendance at each Roundtable is limited so be sure to pre-register now for the topic you most want to attend.

The session topics and moderators are listed below. To register simply send an email to conferences@QEDdata.com indicating the topic you would like to register for along with your name and company. You may also call 800.525.5811 ext. 9391.

21st Century Skills in Action: State Perspectives from Massachusetts and Maine
Moderated by: Ken Kay, CEO & Co-founder, e-Luminate Group

Come join us for an exciting informal Q/A session focusing on how Maine and Massachusetts are successfully integrating 21st century skills into their education systems, curriculum and instruction and why this is a top priority within their states. Bring your questions and your own perspectives regarding implementing these initiatives on a state-wide basis, how to define and measure success and identify best practice examples.

Available for questions and discussion will be Susan Gendron, Commissioner, State of Maine; Mitchell Chester, Ed.D., Commissioner, Elementary and Secondary Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Michele Norman, Director of Strategic Planning and Collaboration, Executive Office of Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and Gerald Chertavian, Chairman, Task Force on 21st Century Skills, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Ken Kay, President of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, will facilitate discussion.

A Beginner’s Mind … An Inquiry on High School Tests
Moderated by: Michael Patterson, Senior Vice President, Curriculum Advantage

During the popular “Birds of a Feather Roundtable” discussions on Monday September 15, 2008 at the annual EdNET conference, Michael Patterson will lead an interactive discussion on formative assessments relative to high school students. Entitled, “A Beginner’s Mind … An Inquiry on High School Tests,” the hour-long discussion will explore the methods and means of informative assessments related to high schools. What is needed in the high school? What is needed prior to high school? What are unique and common assessment solution elements for high school? What are the action requirements from testing? What are the barriers to successful use of formative assessments related to high school? How do we cross those barriers? After nine years as a senior executive at Northwest Evaluation Association, Michael joined Curriculum Advantage in July as a Senior Vice President.

A Standard for Learning Standards
Moderated by: Matt Doherty, Vice President, Business Development & Marketing, Academic Benchmarks

The current climate in K-12 education is regulated by the district accountability to state learning and performance standards.

In order to be successful businesses, K-12 content and platform providers must demonstrate to their client school districts that their products and services directly address, facilitate the delivery of, or enable reporting on the established content standards.

More than 50 standard publishing entities inform the actions of hundreds of companies to develop unique, but related solutions to capture the attention of thousands of school districts to help millions of students learn. Each state, each company and each district approach the classroom in a different way.  How can these groups better communicate with each other so that the ultimate goal - demonstrable student achievement - is obtained?

Join us for a discussion of how the model for the development, adoption, and application of a single identification system, successfully applied in so many industries, can help K-12 education maximize the competencies, creativity, and opportunities for all its stakeholders.

After NCLB: What Educators Think
Moderated by: Scott Knickelbine, Partner, Lownik Communication Services, Inc.

No Child Left Behind produced dramatic changes in the K-12 Education Market. With a new administration coming into office, what's next for Federal education policy? How do the educators you sell to view NCLB in retrospect, and what changes do they want to see? This presentation will share exclusive research data on educator attitudes toward NCLB and how this will effect your marketing in 2009 and beyond.

Benchmarking: What It Is and How It Works?
Moderated by: Travis Colton, Project Manager, American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC)

APQC, a non-profit organization founded in 1977, helps schools and businesses with benchmarking and process improvement. After 30 years of identifying, researching, and facilitating improvement efforts we have learned that the best way to accelerate the rate of improvement in any organization is through widespread benchmarking of best practices. APQC will share some of the key learnings it has identified through work with over 100 districts in the past two years on our projects such as Assessing Student Achievement, Managing Information Technology, Finding and Hiring Highly Qualified Staff, Professional Development, Math and Science Programs, Supporting English Language Learners, Data-Driven Decision Making and Collaborative Cultures. Come discuss, share and explore benchmarking as a tool for process improvement in schools.

Digital Content in America’s Classrooms Today
Moderated by: Deirdre Martel, Director, Marketing Research and Anne Wujcik, Education Market Analyst, Quality Education Data

What do we know now?

This interactive session will examine today’s technology-rich classrooms-- exploring how technology shapes instructors’ lesson planning and delivery, along with students’ assignments, activities, and assessments.  After a brief review of QED’s new syndicated study on digital content, participants will share their perspectives on 21st century classrooms from the context of their own products and services.

What do we need to learn next?

Participants will brainstorm what they’d most like to learn from school district decision-makers—their curriculum and assessment implementation strategies, views on technology-supported learning, what tools they’re looking for, and more.  QED will use this “need-to-know wish list” to design our next syndicated study with district administrators.

Educational MMOGs-A golden opportunity for Educational Publishers
Moderated By: Alberto Giordanelli, Director of Publishing Technology and Training, Victory Productions

MMOGs are Massively Multiplayer Online Games are becoming incredibly popular worldwide, attracting millions of players and generating billions of dollars of revenue. MMOGs function as naturally occurring online learning environments, recruiting complex and sophisticated forms of cognition in the course of successful play.

Educational Publishers are ideally situated to take advantage of this powerful environments, that leverage the power of communities to create engaging learning experiences.

This round table will be an opportunity to share ideas and experiences developing educational MMOGs.

Equity Capital Markets Update: Current Environment for Equity Financing and Acquisitions
Moderated by: Chad Johnson, Principal, Cherry Tree, LLC

Despite the headlines, forward looking companies are still making acquisitions, and both private equity and venture capital firms are still investing - especially in education companies. Come hear the real story on what has changed in today's environment, and what hasn't.  You'll learn what to expect in valuations, terms, and market trends. This panel will be lead by Chad Johnson and Chuck Gorman of Cherry Tree & Associates. Chad and Chuck will be joined by Dan Meyer of Atomic Learning who completed a highly successful recapitalization earlier this year.

Everything You Need to Know When Working With Superintendents
Moderated by: Dana Truby, Editorial Director, Scholastic Administrator and Instructor, and Superintendent

Do your meetings with Superintendents exceed your expectations or do they fall flat? Are the meetings super scary or super successful?

Bring both your Oscar winning and “D-List” performance stories to this session and share them with your industry colleagues.

The Superintendents at the session will also share what they want to hear (and not hear!) from you. This session will examine the best strategies and explore the dynamics of creating Super collaborations that create win-wins for all!

Increasing Collaboration Locally (U.S.) and Globally
Moderated by: Don Knezek, CEO, and Lynn Nolan, Senior Strategic Initiatives Officer, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®)

Educators and policy-makers around the world turn to education providers in the U.S. as they attempt to foster creativity and innovation within schools and among students. Becoming a partner in that endeavor often provides access to education systems and education markets that are more centralized and more difficult to penetrate than we experience in North America. This birds-of-a-feather roundtable will allow participants to learn about and share strategies for "getting in the door" by building collaborative relationships and is based on ISTE's experience and the experience of its corporate (ISTE 100) members working in countries such as Bermuda, China, Costa Rica, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UAE.

Discussion will revolve around the "natural history" of a smaller (under $10MM) firm--how it differs from that of larger firms in areas such as functional roles, resources, quality of life, security, and compensation.

Managing Content
Moderated by: Michael Rogers, Director of Educational Technology, Six Red Marbles

Managing content for educational products has become increasingly complex. The demands have increased for greater levels of customization as well as simultaneous publishing in both print and digital formats. The authoring, tagging, and correlating of content to evolving state standards is demanding, and the overall management of a project's assets can be challenging. 

Come meet with your publishing industry colleagues to discuss your experiences with authoring and production tools, publishing processes, and workflows, and to share tips for managing content development.

Maximize Growth in a Competition World
Moderated by: Phyllis H. Hillwig, Ed.D., Chief Operating Officer, Words & Numbers
John Stuppy, Ph.D., TutorVista.com

We must collaborate or perish across borders, cultures, disciplines, and firms, and increasingly with masses of people at one time.

Wikinomics

Back by popular demand, this dynamic roundtable discussion will give you an opportunity to learn and share key business and strategy ideas taken from popular books such as the Blue Ocean Strategy, The World is Flat, Innovators Solution, How, Wikinomics, Black Swan, and many others. Join Dr. Phyllis Hillwig, Chief Operating Officer from Words & Numbers, and John Stuppy, President of TutorVista.com, as they distill information ready for immediate use for our educational publishing industry. Find out why:

1. The best place to be is alone.
2. Transparency sells.
3. Your biggest competitor is in your company.
4. What serendipity and the butterfly effect have in common.

Roundtable participants will be encouraged to discuss these and other strategies, share ideas, talk about what works (and what doesn't!) and develop an awareness of areas that last year's roundtable participants hailed as Awesome, Insightful, and Revolutionary. Why should you care about these discussion items? Using these strategies, Words & Numbers has become one of the most respected and trusted brands in content development in less than nine years, and in less than three years TutorVista.com has grown to become the world's leading online tutoring company helping over 300,000 students in 27 countries. Share and test your business savvy as you decide on the best practices to supercharge your organization.

Mobile Computing Trends in Education
Moderated by:Tom Greaves, CEO, The Greaves Group

We are in the very early stages of a massive revolution in educational technology as students go mobile.  This session will provide a forum for author-led discussion of the recent SIIA 2008 Trends Watch Mobile Computing Report.  

With a focus on the education business implications of each topic, we’ll cover:

• Mobile Devices of All Flavors
• Mobile Operating Systems, SDK’s, etc
• Connectivity – WiFi, WiMAX, 3G, 4G, Ultra-wideband and Near Field Effect networks.

The session will wrap up with six out-on-the-limb projections for the next five years.

Participants are guaranteed to learn something new and valuable at this session.

The Moodle Evolution, Open Source In Education
Moderated by: Martin Knott, CEO, Moodlerooms, Inc.

Come join us to discuss how Moodle has accomplished:

1. How it got to 22 million registered users in less than 6 years
2. How the Moodle Partners create sustainability
3. Using SaaS with open source
4. Moodle's growth trajectory.

Navigations through Negotiations: The Hiring Process for Companies and Career Seekers
Moderated by: John Meeker, Founder and President, Meeker and Associates

Based on his 12 years as an expert working with companies and individuals on the hiring process, John Meeker will lead a discussion on keys to successful interviewing and hiring. The insights and tips offered in this discussion will be valuable for both those who may be seeking jobs and those who seek to interview and hire strong candidates to their firm. Learn more about ROI-based hiring decisions, professional development assessment, executive coaching services and outplacement opportunities. What's new in the hiring process in the current market? Come prepared with your contributions or questions to benefit your colleagues who are looking to hire and those who are exploring new opportunities.

Pardigm Shift: From Book Publishers to Content Creators
Moderated By: Randal Merriman, Director of Business Development, Follett Digital Resources

One sure way to succeed in the 21st century education marketplace is to develop processes and strategies to effectively reuse content. Publishers need to think of their products not as one-off textbooks, but as sets of educational content that can be customized, arranged, repurposed and reused in a variety of formats. We’ll talk about how publishers can effectively utilize content to maximize their investment, whether it’s to customize a textbook for specific state requirements, or to repurpose the content into a CD, an eBook, or a format that’s accessible through an iPod, cell phone or other digital device.

PowerPlay in the Classroom: Can Online Games in the Classroom Reach the Students We're Leaving Behind?
Moderated by: Paul Reynolds, President, and Gary Goldberger, Vice President, FableVision

Join FableVision's President, Paul Reynolds, and Gary Goldberger, Vice President, as they talk about: PowerPlay in the Classroom: Can Online Games in the Classroom Reach the Students We're Leaving Behind?

Why are we still leaving so many students behind; especially in areas such as science and math? Could web games be a key to engaging students before they tune out and get turned off? Paul and Gary will share behind the scenes stories of the educational game production process, revealing how fundamental research; inspiration, creativity and storytelling come together to reach kids in unconventional ways.

At FableVision, Paul provides creative strategy and branding development for the our award-winning products and projects, which include web, CD-ROM, kiosk, broadcast, film, books, and classroom products.

Gary is a strong believer in the possibility and potential of interactive media and digital games to help solve the worlds' most pressing problems. He is currently directing several major projects including an on-line game created in partnership with MIT and Maryland Public TV, that teaches math and literacy to grade school children, and on-line math games for Learning.Com, a provider of web-based K-8 curriculum.

RELOCATION: the New "R" Word
Moderated by: John Weiss, President, Weiss & Associates Executive Recruiting

Relocation is an issue we face daily in the recruiting business, and it is of great concern to both employers and candidates. The problem is this: historically, employers have wanted all executives to relocate to the home office, and increasingly, few candidates want to pull up stakes and move the family to a new location. Are employers' attitudes about this changing at all? How successful can a candidate be in a search if refusing to relocate? Join this roundtable to share and discuss some of the critical drivers here as well as to examine and talk about situations where some of the so-called norms of relocation may be revisited and relaxed in a world where virtual offices and relationships are becoming more prevalent. Case studies will be presented and examined to illustrate how relocation is being handled today.

Response to Intervention: Increasing Capacity Through Partnerships
Moderated by: Sue Koch, Vice-president, Marketing, AutoSkill International

Many states are now mandating the use of the Response to Intervention (RtI) process to close the achievement gap and reduce referrals to special education. The model requires the systematic use of scientifically based interventions, frequent benchmark assessment, ongoing progress monitoring, documentation and parent communication. Employing commercial tools can help schools to effectively manage the process and increase local capacity to meet the requirements of RtI.

How can industry partners support RtI adoption? Interoperability is one option, but is it achievable? Where should education suppliers place their focus?

Revitalizing the Math and Science (STEM) Curriculum with New Technologies
Moderated by: Maryka Baraka, Author and Publishing Programs Specialist, Wolfram Research, Inc.

Technology has become an integral part of the classroom environment, but how do you navigate the ever-growing array of products and services for math and science instruction to determine which ones will deliver the best outcomes and the highest return on your investment? Do you need a complete curriculum solution or would enhancements to key areas of your existing programs improve learning and student performance? Drawing on our experience as a leading technical software provider, we will discuss approaches of interest to educators and industry partners alike.

Join us in this lively session to share your perspective on critical issues such as where and why to invest in STEM resources for long-term success; how to make the most of computers, whiteboards, and other devices that are already in place; when to leverage open-code curriculum materials or other freely available resources, and finding affordable alternatives for creating them. We will also talk about preparing teachers to better utilize the tools available to them and perhaps most importantly--how to more fully engage students in their own learning experience with interactive, dynamic content that relates to their life beyond the classroom.

Show Me the Money
Moderated by: Jennifer House, President, RedRock Reports

This session will review the latest federal and state funding trends that will impact your business in the coming year. Find out what windfalls to look for, what states have the most opportunities, and what pitfalls to avoid.

Social Networking and PR
Moderated by: Charlene Blohm, President, C. Blohm & Associates, Inc.

Twitter. RSS feeds. Second Life. LinkedIn. Blogs. Facebook. Podcasts. With social media here to stay, education executives are faced with the challenge of integrating Web 2.0 technologies into their marketing and public relations strategies. According to a recent survey, more than 90 percent of marketing departments are planning to incorporate a social media campaign of some type next year. However, over one-third have yet to use social media tools in their organization. Overwhelmed? Not sure where to start? In this session, we'll discuss how to seize the opportunities social media provides.

The Standards Roundup: Trends in Curriculum and Technical Standards
Moderated by: Michael Jay, President, Educational Systemics

Your customers want you to support standards and you can't wait until after development has ended to address that requirement. Employing these standards when conceiving and developing your product can be the difference between closing a sale and even being able to respond to an RFP. In this BOF we will review the state of the art around technical and curriculum standards implementation and what that means to your business both now and in the next three years. Both existing and emerging standards will be discussed and we will remain available to discuss your specific questions and needs. Michael will be joined in this session by Marci Goldberg, also of Educational Systemics.

STEM curriculum development for a digital world
Moderated by: Mimi Jett, Vice President Business Development, Integre Technical Publishing Co

Digital technology provides a powerful toolkit for the creation of educational curricula, offering unique advantages-such as bridging time and distance, democratizing access to information and services, and leveraging exponential increases in computer power-that have helped transform entire industries, especially those based on information and knowledge. By incorporating advanced technology into curriculum development at the instructional design level, subjective feedback and sequencing of learning objects can be dynamically tied to the free-response answers from the student.

Technical subject matter required for STEM courses, including mathematics at every level and scientific notation in every language, has historically posed a problem for curriculum designers that were limited to graphic images of math equations and static tables and graphs. Industry standards for XML-based content are now being used to develop programs that analyze a student response against a detailed rubric, just as a teacher would. What strategies should be considered for courseware technologies that supplement a teacher's expertise?

The digital environment brings together curriculum, assessment, and instruction in a focused and meaningful presentation, customizable for each student. Full support for digital math libraries, Unicode languages, and rich text formats enable broad new applications for STEM education.

What will these advances mean to high-school students interested in a career involving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics?

Teachers as Ambassadors?
Moderated by: Din Heiman, COO and General Manager, BrainPOP

Ed Tech companies are increasingly relying on educator communities for everything from product development, feedback, marketing, research, networking and more. Join this session if you would like to hear more about the how and the why of these communities. Come ready to share some of your own experiences with supportive educators - critical stakeholders in your company.

Two Million Minutes – Is it time for a National Curriculum?
Moderated by: Sandra Schugren, General Manager, EdGate Correlation Services

Last year, Bob Compton produced Two Million Minutes, a controversial comparison of U.S student performance in the global education market.  Is there any movement toward the use of National Curriculum Standards rather than the multitude of state standards? Would National standards address the growing gap in world-wide education? How do publishers develop content that keeps pace with changes in educational standards and curriculum initiatives?

Universal Design and Accessibility Benefit All Users of On-line Learning Materials
Moderated by: Kate Gilligan, Vice-president Education Publishing, Texthelp Systems, Inc. and Mark McCusker, CEO, Texthelp Systems, Ltd.

As the necessity to incorporate English Learners, Learning Disabled and "At Risk" students in the general education classroom increases, teachers are struggling to find new ways to personalize instruction for each student.  Publishers are moving to improve access to key curriculum materials for all learners to meet these needs and improve student outcomes.

The importance of presenting curriculum materials in a way that students who need reading and study skills support can get the tools they need embedded in the learning environment will be discussed, with current examples from the market.

Web 2.0 Education Communities ... Rich with opportunities and questions
Moderator: Robert Iskander, Founder and CEO, VIP Tone Inc.

With the advent of web 2.0, challenges and opportunities abound. How can educators take advantage of the rich educational opportunities that come web 2.0? How can administrators relieve their anxiety regarding the unknowns of their staff and students navigating the wide open web? How many education social networks could any teacher be on at the same time? Will a Facebook-like leader emerge in the education space? What is the appropriate role of an online Teacher Community tool? How do we create safe, secure and integrated environments for global collaboration for teachers and learners to thrive.

Join us to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the effort to enable web 2.0 social networking in K-12 education.

You have Sold your product to School system? Now what do you Do..Is there a right way to implement?
Moderated by: Eliot Levinson, CEO, BLEgroup

This birds of a feather session is for firms that produce products that demand integration into the instructional and management processes of schools.

Effective Implementation is often a pain for vendors? What can be done beyond initial training and data conversion  to get effective  implementation of your product over time,  so that there are minimal problems, high impact and high renewals? There are often a variety of problems including; lack of ownership, poor instructional integration,  lack of  management capacity in the district  and project management that impact the effectiveness of renewal

This birds of a feather will explore  a  variety of  implantation  practices and  that are effective  and address the life cycle of program introduction and use. PLEASE COME TO THE SESSION WITH  A PROBLEM YOU ARE TRYING TO SOLVE AND YOUR MODEL FOR EFFECTIVE SUPPORT AND IMPLEMENTATION. The desired outcome of the session is a life cycle model of what is needed for implementation support that includes organizational, and technology components all stages of the life cycle.