Speaker:
Joshua Baron

As the Senior Academic Technology Officer for Marist College, Mr. Baron directs the office of Academic Technology and eLearning which is responsible for overseeing a wide range of instructional technology initiatives, including distance learning, faculty professional development, and learner support. He also plays a leadership role in strategic planning for the College in areas of academic and information technology. Mr. Baron was first elected to the Sakai Foundation Board of Directors in 2008 and re-elected for a second three year term in 2011. He has served as Foundation Board Chair for three years between 2009 and 2012. Before coming to Marist, Mr. Baron was the Associate Director of Instructional Technology at Stevens Institute of Technology. In this capacity, he helped lead a $10 million U.S. Department of Education technology initiative working both at the K-12 and college level. During this time he was also a member of the Stevens WebCampus initiative and developed one of the first Stevens online graduate courses. Mr. Baron graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering and holds a Master of Arts degree in Educational Technology Leadership (ETL) from the George Washington University through their pioneering online ETL program.

Speaker:
Sarah Krongard

Sarah Krongard is an Instructional Designer for Hybrid and Online Courses within the e-Learning and Instructional Support department at Lesley University. Prior to Lesley, Sarah was an Education Program Manager at the Center for Educational Leadership and Technology (CELT). During her time at CELT, Sarah presented and co-authored an article on Learning Management Systems to support school reform. Sarah was a Teaching Fellow and Research Assistant at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, focusing on the power of networked technologies to propel systemic school change. She served on the Community Service Learning Advisory Council to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and has been a member of the Massachusetts ASCD Board of Directors since 2009. In 2010, Sarah presented at the ASCD Annual Conference on Whole Child Education and served as a guest speaker on ASCD’s Whole Child Podcast in 2009. Sarah is a graduate of Wellesley College and received her Master’s degree in Technology, Innovation, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Speaker:
Johann Ari Larusson

Johann Ari Larusson is a Senior Recommendation Engineer at Alleyoop, a Pearson Education technology company focused on getting teens ready for college. Johann leads research and development of technologies that drive Alleyoop's adaptive and personalized learning services. Johann has a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Reykjavik University and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Brandeis University.

Before Alleyoop, Johann was most recently an Academic Technology Architect at Brandeis University and before that held various research and engineering positions in both the tech industry and banking. Overall, the theme in Johann’s work has been transmission, manipulation and analysis of large volumes of (unstructured) data. The focus of this work has narrowed over the past 10 years to designing and implementing next generation educational software and analytic tools and methods to better understand computer-mediated learning activities. Most recently, Johann co-invented a low cost/overhead method and algorithm, called “Point of Originality”, that enables teachers to closely monitor students' progress at the individual level, through automated evaluation of their writings.

Johann has a substantial expertise, and a strong publication record, in the fields of Learning Analytics, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Learning Sciences, e- Learning, Cognitive Science and Human-Computer Interaction.

Speaker:
John McCormick

John McCormick has a M.Ed. from the University of Washington in Educational Communications and Technology. He is Senior Instructional Designer at Lesley University’s eLIS (eLearning and Instructional Support), where he collaborates with faculty, instructional designers, and instructional technologists in designing and facilitating online and hybrid courses and programs. He also designs and facilitates online professional development seminars on topics including online course design, online facilitation, and online collaborative group work. Before working with Lesley, he was a Senior Instructional Designer at Simmons College and an Instructional Designer at North Shore Community College. Prior to working in distance education, he taught English as a Second Language at Shoreline Community College in Seattle and in Boston University’s CELOP (Center for English Language and Orientation Programs). He has presented his work on Learning Analytics at the 2012 Association for Educational Communications and Technology’s International Convention, and on various topics in distance education at local conferences including Massachusetts Colleges Online Conference and Massachusetts Community College Conference on Teaching Learning and Student Development.

 
Speaker: Scott Payne

Scott Payne is the Director of Academic Technology Services at Amherst College. He has conducted research and published in the field of computer-assisted language learning on a range of topics that draw heavily on the analysis of learner behavior tracking and other performance data. Other research interests include: digital game-based learning, place-based games, corpus linguistics, and the use of cognitive capacity measures to better understand how technology-mediated language learning impacts the developmental trajectories of different learners under specific task demands.
 

Speaker: Heather Woods

Heather Woods is the Director of Research and Instructional Support at Wellesley College. This merged team provides instruction and support for the use of information and technology resources in teaching, learning and research, and the library public services and outreach. Heather's latest projects focus on the development of deeper levels of support for academic specialties including Digital Media, Digital Humanities, Quantitative Analysis and Computational Science.