Welcome back to another school year.  Most of us start the year with recounting a summer experience.  I would like to tell you about the MassCUE/LearnLaunch Beta Teacher event that was held on July 23, 2013 at the Hoag Center in Waltham in partnership with LearnLaunch.

Let me give you a little background. Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Eileen Rudden, one of the co-founders of LearnLaunch. LearnLaunch is a non-profit organization with the mission to increase learning by providing support for the creation and growth of education technology and learning companies in New England. LearnLaunch offers classes, peer group learning, conferences, networking opportunities and other educational services to individuals and organizations seeking to work with educators, students and families to enable the growth and success of the learning ecosystem.

Now let’s go back to Beta Teacher.  Eileen and I brainstormed about an event that would give teachers an opportunity not only to hear about new instructional technology programs currently being developed by forward-thinking entrepreneurs, but also, since these programs are in “beta” format, these developers welcomed teachers to “beta test” their products.  The event was a great success with 35 entrepreneurs exhibiting and 75 teachers attending.

I am pleased to announce that LearnLaunch will also be at our MassCUE/M.A.S.S. fall conference at Gillette Stadium, October 23^rd and 24^th.  I hope you will take the time to visit their suite during the conference and even sign up to be a beta tester!

In case you have not heard, our keynotes are Tony Wagner and Chris Lehmann.  We will have many fascinating presentations and of course once again we will have the premiere educational technology companies exhibiting.  Click here for more information and to register for the fall conference.

I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming conference.  Best wishes for a terrific start to the school year,

September 2013

Shelley B. Chamberlain