Speakers, panelists and moderators at Technology & Learning's Tech Forum are innovators in the field of educational technology. With years of experience as conference presenters, educators, school leaders and Technology & Learning authors, they offer a unique perspective on technology challenges and solutions.

Dr. Jan Van Dam, president of ISTE (International Society for Technology and Education), has been an educator since 1970. She has taught middle and high school mathematics, computer science, and language arts. More recently, she was a district technology director and worked at a regional educational service agency — as a consultant, director, and assistant superintendent for career, media and technology. She has also been deeply involved in many professional associations, serving as a Board member for both ISTE and MACUL (Michigan Association of Computers Users in Education). Van Dam is currently working with 21st Century Learning in Phoenix, Arizona.

John Q. Porter serves as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In this capacity, he heads up the school system's Office of Global Access Technology, and is responsible for setting the vision for and carrying out MCPS' many technology initiatives. He holds a J.D. degree from Ohio State University and brings years of expertise in law and business to his current job as a school administrator. Mr. Porter's professional affiliations include membership on the executive committee of the board of directors of the Consortium for School Networking, the advisory group for Scholastic Administrator magazine, the High Technology Council of Maryland, and the Montgomery County Economic Advisory Council. Mr. Porter is on the Executive Committee of the African American Business Council, is past Chairman of the Greater Montgomery Chamber of Commerce and sits on the Executive Committee of the Governor's Workforce Investment Board. Because of his expertise in information technology, he has been called upon to serve on panels and give workshops in the areas of educational data driven decision-making, records management, imaging technology, telecommunications and other technology subjects. In addition to his current duties as CIO for MCPS, Mr. Porter is the founder and owner of Spectrum International, Incorporated, a full service information technology firm based in Rockville, MD, specializing in document and facility management, data processing, telecommunications, systems integration and technical consulting.

Jane Bloomquist, MCT, CNI, Master CIW, received her Doctorate in Philosophy from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Dr. Bloomquist has worked in education for 25 years. In addition to her experiences in the K-12 environment as a high school teacher, a regional technology coordinator and as an administrator, she has taught for Northwestern University and Northern Illinois University and worked in the Internet industry. In her current position as Quality Assurance Manager for the Office of Technology Services in the Chicago Public Schools, she is working on policies, standards and procedures for WAN enterprise networking projects including security for wireless connectivity. Jane's interest in wireless technologies has been supported by the Chicago Public Schools' initiative to provide network and Internet access to all students and staff by including a wireless component in the minimum configurations for all schools.

Jeffrey Branzburg, a technology consultant and president of Branzburg Associates, Inc., is a former supervisor of instructional technology for school districts in New York State, as well as for the New York City school system. He is a contributing editor and regular columnist for Technology & Learning Magazine.

Mr. Burke serves as director of the Division of Information Services, Office of Global Access Technology (OGAT), of the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland. As the director of the Division of Information Services since August 2000, Mr. Burke's responsibilities have included providing leadership to the school system's Instructional Television unit, Web Services Team, Electronic Graphics and Publishing Services (EGPS) unit, and coordinating communications for OGAT. Under Mr. Burke's leadership, the Instructional Television unit increased locally produced programs and on-air programming, and was awarded a local Emmy in 2001. The Web Services Team manages the MCPS Web site, (http://www.mcps.k12.md.us) which comprises over 380,000 HTML, graphic, database, and PDF files published by more than 650 webmasters. During the 2003 academic year, the site averaged 32,000 visitors and nearly 150,000 page views each day while increasing user satisfaction through an industry-standard redesign. Mr. Burke has presented at National School Board Association conferences, Florida Educational Technology Conference, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development conference on MCPS technology initiatives surrounding data-driven decision making. Mr. Burke was the principal of Wayside Elementary School in Potomac, Maryland, prior to his appointment to OGAT.

Kim Carter is the Director of Monadnock Community Connections School, an alternative public school choice for high school students in southwestern New Hampshire. She was the 1991 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year and the 1996 New Hampshire Media Educator of the Year. A contributing editor for Technology & Learning, Kim has been a co-conspirator in the SchoolTech Expos and Leadership Institutes since their inception. Her greatest love is her three sons, followed closely by a fascination with how people learn and how technology empowers learning and teaching for all.

Michael Greenfield, formerly with the Chappaqua schools, is now director of technology for Harrison Central School District in New York. Involved in education for the past 15 years, he is an experienced teacher, professional developer, administrator and consultant. Additionally, he has presented at regional and national conferences on a wide range of topics including technology integration, data driven decision-making, infrastructure management and emerging technologies.

Kathleen P. King is Program Director of the M.S. program in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, and Director of the Regional Educational Technology Center at Fordham University's Graduate School of Education. She is co-author of the book, A Model for Planning for Effective Faculty Development: Using Adult Learning Principles (2000), and author of a two-volume series about professional development of educators with Hampton Press. In addition, she is founding editor of a new adult education journal, Perspectives; The New York Journal of Adult Learning, and is co-editor of a new issue of New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education from Jossey-Bass on the professional development of teachers of adults. She coordinates several grants that provide professional development for teachers in educational technology and also non-technology content areas. These include NY City Department of Education Title III grants and a US Department of Education FIPSE grant that serves teachers across the nation via online technologies.

Todd McIntire has 16 years of experience in education and technology. After nine years of classroom teaching, he shifted his efforts to school and district leadership. In this capacity, his experiences range from founding a technologically-innovative high school in New York City to managing the multi-million dollar technology initiatives of school districts to building a nationwide network of schools in the lowest performing urban centers. For the past three years, he has worked for Edison Schools in a variety of capacities including building principal, achievement director and director of technology. As an instructional leader, McIntire has a proven record of raising student achievement through appropriate application of technology, professional development and data analysis. He frequently publishes articles on data-driven decision making and is a regular speaker at national conferences on educational technology.

Susan is an experienced middle and high school teacher. She has written about and reviewed software for Newsweek, School PC, Parenting, Entertainment@Home and other publications, and has talked about software on Microsoft NBC's The Site, and other technology television programs. She coordinates, judges and reports on the annual T&L Software Awards Contest, and acts as a judge for various other contests, including the Software Publishers Association Codies, and the EdPress awards.

Steven E. Miller co-founded Mass Networks, an organization which partners with education leaders, provides policy input to public officials, and promotes the integration of technology into school activity. Its current areas of activity include Curriculum Alignment, Standards-based Assessment, Teacher Leadership, Data Informed Decision Making, Technology Integration, Network Security, and Technology Planning. A former teacher and community organizer, Mr. Miller worked on the first Lotus 1-2-3 Reference Manual and was editor-in-chief of LOTUS Magazine. He has been a TV and radio commentator, and on the national boards of Grassroots International (GRI), Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). His articles have appeared in numerous national magazines and his book, Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway, was published in 1996 by Addison Wesley.

Peter Pappas is the assistant superintendent for instruction at East Irondequoit Central Schools, a suburb of Rochester, New York. He has over 32 years experience in instruction, curriculum and technology and is the recipient of state and national grants and fellowships including the "NEH Independent Studies in the Humanities." Pappas has served as a consultant to districts across the country and published in professional and popular journals. He hosts an educational resource site at www.peterpappas.com

Mary Ann Pollett has spent the last 31 of her 35 years as an educator at the Montefiore Special School, a special education therapeutic day school for severely emotionally disturbed (SED) boys, established in l929. She has served as Montefiore's (first woman) principal since l993. She received her B.S.Ed. in l966 from Northern Illinois University, an M.A. from Roosevelt University in l971 and her Ed.D. from Loyola University in l982. She was one of thirty-one principals selected in l996, by the CEO and the Chief Accountability Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, to serve as a Probation Manager/Mentor Principal. In l999, she was a recipient of the School Leadership Award presented jointly by the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association (CPAA) and CPS. With help from Oracle and Beaumont Foundation grants, Montefiore students all have regular access to technology. A case-study she co-authored with Montefiore's technology coordinator documenting Montefiore's extensive technology-based work was inducted into the Smithsonian's permanent ComputerWorld collection of the National Museum of American History.

Gary Ramella has served as the Executive Director of Technology Information for the Union City New Jersey Public Schools since 1982. His responsibilities include both the Administrative and Educational technology areas. Union City (http://www.union-city.k12.nj.us) has over 3500 computers, a state of the art wide-area-network and a true integration of technology within all curriculum areas. Prior to his current position, he was an elementary teacher for 12 years. He has served as Chairperson of the Hudson County NJ Distance Learning Coordinating Council; the Hudson County NJ representative to the New Jersey Dept. of Education, Distance Learning Depot; Chairperson of the Union City Board of Education Technology Task Force; and Past President/Trustee of New Milford, NJ Board of Education. He has presented at many state and national conferences focusing on technology in education.

Pete Reilly is the Director of the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center, a non-profit technology consortium of 62 school districts located in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, just north of NYC. Pete is presently focused on shifting the technology discourse from "cables and chips" to the human issues involved in creating effective educational technology environments. His latest essay, "When the Classroom Door Swings Inward", is part of the anthology, "Being Human at Work"; edited by Dr. Richard Strozzi-Heckler and published by North Atlantic Press. He has presented to diverse audiences throughout the United States and Canada. Peter has worked on a consulting basis with the Edison Project, numerous school districts around the country and has been featured in articles in Electronic Learning, Curriculum Product News, Media and Methods, and the Heller Report. In September 1995, Peter visited China on behalf of UNICEF and developed a report on the state of educational technology in China today.

Judy Salpeter, an experienced educator and education technology specialist, is program chair for Technology & Learning Events. On the editorial staff of Technology & Learning magazine since 1985, Salpeter served as editor-in-chief from 1994 to 2000. She is now consulting editor to the magazine and works as a freelance writer, consultant and conference planner.

Gwen Solomon is Director of techLEARNING.com, the web site of Technology & Learning magazine. Gwen has served as senior analyst in the U.S. Department of Education, coordinator of instructional technology planning for New York City Public Schools, and founding director of New York City's School of the Future. Her latest books are Connect Online: Web Learning Adventures and Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Educational Digital Divide (edited book).