- This blog post written by:
- Paul Roitman Bardack, Esq.
- USDLA Chair Emeritus
The 2018 USDLA National Conference will take place April 29 – May 2, 2018 at the Hilton Indianapolis Hotel and Suites in Indianapolis, IN. In attendance will be university presidents and provosts, K-12 and higher education faculty, college deans, chief information officers, chief knowledge officers, corporate and government trainers, instructional systems designers, K-12 and higher education administrators, and others.
The opening keynote – focusing on the evolution of online learning and assessment of market opportunities for workforce-aligned degrees – will take place the morning of Monday, April 30, and the opening keynote speaker will be Ms. Carol Vallone.
For many years Carole Vallone was the driving force behind Meteor Learning, the leading company enabling higher education institutions to launch online, competency-based education degree programs that build job-ready skills and enhance career advancement. She is a seasoned technology executive with over 30 years’ experience in market-leading companies. Previously, she served as board chair, president and CEO of Wimba Corporation, the global leader in virtual collaboration software for higher education. Vallone led and grew the company through sale in 2006. She also launched WebCT, Inc. in 1999, the company that defined and delivered the premier e-learning solution for education. As board chair, president and CEO, she built a higher education global customer base of almost 2,000 post-secondary institutions in 70 countries and 14 languages. She led the company from start-up through sale in 2006.
Prior to her pioneering efforts in education, Vallone held several executive level positions with companies breaking ground in the corporate technology sector. For over 10 years, she served on the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and chaired the Massachusetts Education Foundation where she spearheaded an effort to re-write the Massachusetts Department of Education’s Instructional Technology Standards with a focus on integrating technology into the curriculum. She annually recognized K-12 instructors whose teaching practices served as models for engaging technology use in STEM disciplines.
A frequent spokesperson on educational technology, Vallone has appeared globally in education industry print publications, nationally on CNN Headline News, and on Boston-based television news and radio programs. She often guest lectures at noteworthy business schools on how to start and grow a technology company and provides mentoring to technology CEOs.
The closing keynote will take place the morning of Wednesday, May 2, and the closing keynote speaker will be Mr. Doug Lederman.
Doug Lederman is co-editor and one of three founders of Inside Higher Ed. He co-leads the site’s editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features.
Lederman speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings around the country, and his work has appeared in The New York Times and USA Today, among other publications. Lederman was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003. Before that, he worked at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles, first as an athletics reporter and editor.
Lederman has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one in 2009 for a series of Inside Higher Ed articles he co-wrote on college rankings.
Things to note:
Registration is now open for the 2018 USDLA Conference
Please join us for our two Pre-Conference Water Cooler Discussions
10 Great Reasons Why You Should Attend 2018 USDLA Conference