Keynote Speaker:
Weston Kieschnick

Opening Keynote - 8:40 a.m. - 9:55 a.m.
"Go Forth and Be Bold: Educating for the Future" 

Weston Kieschnick is an award-winning educator, best-selling author, TEDx speaker, coach, husband, and father. He is the author of, The Educator’s ATLAS, Bold School, Breaking Bold, co-author of The Learning Transformation: A Guide to Blended Learning for Administrators, and the creator and host of Teaching Keating; one of the most downloaded podcasts for educators and parents on iTunes. Weston has worked in collaboration with innovative tech and publishing companies (Google, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Apple) to redefine teaching and learning in the digital age. As such, he’s advised educators from every state in the US and more than 30 countries around the world. Districts, where Mr. Kieschnick has designed content, implemented initiatives, and trained educational leaders, have been recognized by the Learning Counsel as being among the top ten in the nation for their work in blended learning. You can find Weston’s work published in EdWeek, EdTech Magazine, The Spark, and featured on TED, the 10-Minute Teacher, Teaching Tales, Kids Deserve It, and LeadUp Teach.

Weston Kieschnick was also named one of EdTech Magazine's Top 30 K-12 IT Influencers to follow in 2023! These top educational technology innovators are leaders in classrooms, schools, and organizations who embrace change in this age of digital transformation.

We are so excited to welcome the energizing voice of Weston Kieschnick to EdTech Academy 2024! 

Keynote: Go Forth and be Bold: Educating for the Future

Wisdom informs innovation; the latter simply cannot exist without the former. In the push for future-focused schools, we need to take an honest look at the strategies and practices of our past. Which highly effective strategies need to accompany us on the path forward? Which practices never worked to begin with, and need to go the way of the floppy disk? The world’s best educators understand that learning is king, growth is queen, and “cool” is the court jester. The jester is technology, and the jester has value, but we shouldn’t put the jester in charge of the kingdom. The elite skills of our predecessors need a place in the classrooms of the future. Weston Kieschnick will share his findings from the best-selling book Bold School, after spending decades coaching some of the most talented educators from all 50 states and more than 30 countries around the world. He will offer participants practical strategies for immediate implementation while demonstrating how masters of pedagogy and technology try early, fail often, and pursue excellence with joy to create bold, blended learning experiences that work.