The EdTech Collaborative Summit is in its third year and is continuing its efforts to get teachers and EdTech tools and companies in the same room.

The conference was developed by Eileen Murphy, CEO and founder of ThinkCERCA, and she's using her past as a teacher in Chicago Public Schools to bring a teacher perspective into EdTech as she feels the two both work in education but rarely collaborate.

"Now kicking off its third year this Thursday, the EdTech Collaborative is starting to see the benefits of putting these stakeholders in one place: this year, the conference will heavily feature teachers presenting on their best practices with EdTech and personalized learning tools," said ChicagoInno.

Murphy told ChicagoInno that teachers will present how they used tech in their classrooms this year, many of them using techniques built from the previous two conferences.

"Educators from schools across the country (though with many from Chicago) will discuss how they use products such as EduCanon, NoRedInk, TeachBoost, Classcraft, and more. The aim is that educators and EdTech innovators alike will have a better sense of what works," the article said.

Topics will cover "everything from starting an EdTech company to after school programs to customizing special education lessons."

Murphy recognizes that there are many large scale conferences concerning EdTech such as the ASU+GSV Summit and the International Society for Education Technology (ISTE) conference, but believes that there is a need for smaller conferences such as the EdTech Collaborative Summit to truly engage teachers from the ground floor up.

Read the full article here. Did you attend? Do you want to? Let us know more and comment with your thoughts below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

07/22/2015