By: Michael Minihane
President, METAA
Director of Information Technology, Notre Dame Academy

The Massachusetts Educational Technology Administrators Association (METAA) held its seventh annual CTO Clinic in collaboration with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and March 10, 2016 at the Doubletree Hilton in Milford, MA. A record breaking 150 people attended this clinic for Massachusetts technology leaders with the theme of Lighting the Future with Blended Learning.

The day began with an inspiring keynote by Michael Horn who convinced us that Blended Learning was both a necessary, flexible, and achievable goal for everyone.

The agenda for the day was filled with breakout sessions covering a wide range of important topics focused on Blended Learning strategies and implementation models:

Hurdles to Overcome: Policy Procedure Data — Jean Tower
Blended PD in Mashpee — Suzy Brooks, Colleen Terrill
From a Student’s Perspective — Eric Butash
Open Education Resources Support Blended Learning — Andrew Joseph, Kenneth Klau
Blended Learning Research and Technology Course — Alida Hanson
Mapping, Planning, and Implementing Blended Learning — Allison Powell
Building a learning environment using Office 365 for Education Tools–Joseph Lorenzatti
Making the Shift to Blended, Personalized Learning — Grace Magley
Blended Learning Platforms — Leo Brehm
Blended Learning with BYOD — Michael Williams

As always, the day provided opportunities for networking among participants and with the over twenty vendors who helped to support the day. I know that I left the day feeling re-energized and excited to move forward with implementing new and engaging strategies to help foster better teaching and learning. My only regret was that I couldn’t attend ALL of the sessions, but fortunately the session presentations are all posted on the METAA website at www.metaa.org . Please visit to review and download both Michael Horn’s keynote and any or all of the amazing presentations.

I am particularly grateful to the following METAA board members who served on the CTO Clinic committee: Theresa Jay, chair, Gail Callahan, Jared Perrine, Stephanie Whitaker, and Karen Winsper.

About the Author:

W. Michael Minihane has been president of METAA since 2013 and served as secretary of the founding board since its inception. He is a member of CoSN, MassCUE, and ISTE. Mike has been the Director of Information Technology at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham since 2005 and is committed to creating infrastructures to support technology and to enhancing teaching and learning through the use of technology. He feels that the role of technology directors is crucial to the advancement of digital learning and 21st century education. Since his first Technology Director position in Abington in 1983, he hoped for an organization like METAA which would support both technology directors and the importance of that role at the administrative table – local, state, and national.