Presenters

Cory Plough
Cory Plough has been teaching online for eight years. He works primarily in a hybrid learning program in Las Vegas, Nevada that mixes online curriculum with face to face mentoring. He also teaches Professional Development courses on social media for the state of Idaho’s teacher training program and has worked as an adjunct professor at Boise State University teaching best practices for online teachers.

Cory has a M.Ed in Educational Technology and is currently working on his Administrative Credential at UNLV. He has been speaking, and presenting about online learning, social media and personal learning networks for the last five years. He has presented at ISTE several times since 2007 about online learning and social media tools. He most recently keynoted at the Speaks Volumes Conference, spoke at Educon in 2011 about online learning, and frequently presents in online webinars for professional development purposes.

Cory has published several articles about using social media and social networking in schools and is currently co-authoring a book chapter about virtual cyber schools with leading researchers on the topic.

His main goal as an online teacher is to individualize instruction for all of his online students while providing opportunities for a more personalized education experience. Often, he uses social media sites as a way of giving students options for choosing creative tools when completing activities and that helps support individualization**. @mrplough07** _____________________________________________________________________________

Michelle Baldwin
Michelle Baldwin is an educator with more than seventeen years of experience. Michelle graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University. For six years, she was the 7-12 Vocal Music director for Conestoga Public Schools in Murray, Nebraska. She has certifications in Orff and World Music Drumming and is currently finishing her thesis to complete her graduate course work for Master of Music Education degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

After a four year hiatus in corporate training, consulting, and e-commerce project management, Michelle returned to education as a Technology Staff Developer for the Millard Public Schools in Omaha, Nebraska. During the eight years in this position, Michelle was instrumental in designing district new staff technology orientation, organizing laptop implementation for teachers, and developing workshops for teachers and staff to assist students in becoming producers with technology. She is a frequent social media presenter for schools, as well as business and community organizations.

Michelle returned to the classroom in 2009 and continued to teach in Millard Public Schools until 2011. She joined the staff of Anastasis Academy in Lone Tree, Colorado in August of 2011 where she learns along with her students using a blended instructional technique. Students at Anastasis are immersed in inquiry and project-based learning activities. Most recently, Michelle has presented at Educon 2.3 about the importance of cultivating connections through the Arts in education and will participate in a panel presentation at ISTE 2011 regarding the use of technology in the Music classroom.

Motivated by her own children and their adventures in social media, Michelle discovered her own personal joy of blogging in 2005 and was an on-again-off-again Twitter user starting in 2007. You can find her blogging at Avenue4Learning, as well as with her students at Inquiring Minds. **@michellek107** _________________________________________________________________________

Amanda Dykes
Amanda Dykes is a science teacher in Birmingham, AL. She has presented around the country in the areas of science and technology as well as blogs about Web 2.0 tools. Her classroom is based on deep learning in science through technology integration.

Amanda has a BS in Elem/Early Childhood and Special Education, an M.Ed. in Technology in Education, and an Ed.S in Technology in Education. She works closely with social media networks around the country and in her local region. She is an avid social media user with years of experience supporting teachers in the utilization and implementation of social media in to their courses.
 * @amandacdykes **