Join us for an eye-opening conversation about the promise and perils of Internet technology in schools. How much student Internet access is just enough? How much is too much? What is the balance between ensuring student safety and teaching ethical use? Should your school's network be an open playground or a walled garden? Our diverse panel of experts will discuss Internet ethics, filtering, the role of instructional technology, legal and regulatory issues and the everyday challenges facing school practitioners.

Event live streamed by Yahoo! Safely at http://safely.yahoo.com/safety-tips/webcast

Moderator Bio

Nick Siewert is a senior educational consultant at Teaching Matters. In that role he both consults directly in schools and manages the organization's work in 36 middle schools in the NYC Connected Learning Program. Prior to joining Teaching Matters, he had a 15 year career as an English and social studies teacher in middle and high schools across the country. He has taught in Colorado, California, Florida and New Jersey. In addition to teaching, he has served in schools as an academic dean and teacher trainer, a communications director and a major gifts officer. He holds a BA in English from Middlebury College, an MA in English from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury and an EdM in Technology, Innovation and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Panel Bio

Aileen Abrams is Associate Counsel to the New York State School Boards Association, and has been with the Association since September 2008. Ms. Abrams provides legal information and assistance on a daily basis to school board members, school attorneys, district clerks and school superintendents on legal issues confronting school districts. She assists the Association’s General Counsel with direct litigation and writes friend of court briefs on behalf of member school boards. Ms. Abrams has lectured around the state on a variety of education law matters. Prior to joining the Association, Ms. Abrams worked in private practice as counsel to school districts in Westchester County, NY, focusing on both general and special education matters. Ms. Abrams obtained her bachelor of arts in history at Canisius College, Buffalo, New York. She holds a juris doctorate from the University at Buffalo School of Law.

John Benson has been the Senior Program Manager for Safety Initiatives at the NYC Department of Education since November 2010. His job responsibilities include the management of several safety-related projects for New York City’s 1500+ schools. One of his main projects is providing cyberbullying outreach to the schools. The work includes communication with various social networking/media websites in hopes of removing objectionable material along with educating students, staff members, and parents on cyberbullying, Internet safety, and the world of digital communication.

Tim DiScipio is the Founder of ePals. Created in 1996, ePals is the Internet’s largest and fastest-growing community of connected global classrooms and provides schools with safe and customizable online workspace and collaboration tools designed specifically for K-12 classrooms. Tim meets with ministries of education worldwide, and has written articles and presented on topics such as of "The Globally Connected Classroom – Academic Innovation In The Collaborative Social Learning Age". Tim was the key force in the company’s partnerships with Microsoft, Smithsonian, Dell and the New York City Department of Education. He recently briefed US House and Senate members on the impact of broadband technology in 21st Century education, and contributed to a key FCC report on “Barriers To Broadband Adoption”. He serves on several industry and education advisory boards including the National Middle Schools Association 21st Century Classroom Project. Before ePals, Tim founded several early Internet design agencies. He spent seven years as Director of New Business Development for TMP Worldwide (parent of Monster.com), where he led TMP-Monster.com's early web interest and focused key management on using the Internet in the agency’s business model.

Michelle Luhtala is the Library Department Chair of New Canaan High School (CT), a public high school in the New York Metro area. She serves on the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Board of Directors, two Connecticut Digital Library (iCONN) advisory committees, and she co-chairs the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN)’s Awards Committee. Ms. Luhtala presents monthly webinars and facilitates a virtual learning community for school librarians called Using Emerging Technology to Improve Your Library Program at edWeb.net, an online professional learning network for educators. Michelle is an advocate for free-range media and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) learning in K-12 education, which is the focus of her blog, Bibliotech.me.

Rebecca Randall is the Vice President of Education Programs at Common Sense Media, a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping educators and parents teach young people how to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly in today's digital media world. She has more than fifteen years of experience working in the non-profit education sector on behalf of children and families. At Common Sense, Rebecca is responsible for partnering with school districts and departments of education across the country, including providing oversight to education program staff working in the three largest districts in the nation— Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City— as well as in Omaha, Denver, the San Francisco Bay Area and the State of Maine. She also leads the organization's professional development efforts and has facilitated sessions at leading education conferences such as ISTE/NECC, FETC, TCEA, NSBA, NMSA and NAESP. Prior to joining Common Sense, she was the Associate Vice President/Education Program Officer at United Way of the Bay Area and worked in various child development and community agencies in Chicago. Rebecca holds a BA from the University of New Hampshire and an MA in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago.