March 15-17, 2023
Detroit, Michigan
Registration Opens in Huntington Place Concourse
Workshop Slot #1
Lunch Break
(lunch on your own, meals are not provided)
Workshop Slot #2
Snack Break for All Workshop Attendees
Workshop Slot #3
MACUL 2023 will be give every attendee access to cutting edge tools, classroom resources and learning strategies for today’s technology driven schools.
As an attendee, you will be able to learn, get inspired and grow from the following:
The annual Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) Conference will be held in Detroit, MI from March 15-18, 2023. Yes, you read that right, we will be in person in Detroit after four years missing for the 47th Annual MACUL Conference.
Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of a trilogy of illustrated books about creativity in the digital age: Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going. He’s also the author of Newspaper Blackout, a collection of poems made by redacting the newspaper with a permanent marker. His books have been translated into dozens of languages and have sold over a million copies worldwide. He’s been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. New York Magazine called his work “brilliant,” The Atlantic called him “positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet,” and The New Yorker said his poems “resurrect the newspaper when everybody else is declaring it dead.” He speaks for organizations such as Pixar, Google, SXSW, TEDx, and The Economist. In previous lives, he worked as a librarian, a web designer, and an advertising copywriter. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and sons. Visit him online at www.austinkleon.com
Jay B. Marks, Ph.D. is a widely-respected educator who has been in education since 1991, where he began his career as a Special Education Teacher at Northern High School with the Detroit Public School System. During his career he has served as a classroom teacher for 17 years with both Detroit and Southfield Public School Systems, as well as an educational consultant on the local and national level. Most recently, Dr. Marks worked as a Diversity & Equity Consultant with Oakland Schools (the Intermediate School District in Oakland County, Michigan) where he served and supported the professional development needs of the 28 school districts within Oakland County. He is highly sought after for his work in the area of equity focused on Anti-Racism, Social Justice, Cultural Competence, Courageous Conversations about Race, Culturally Responsive Teaching, Educating African American Males, and Student Engagement. In addition to his professional work in the field of education, he has been mentoring youth since 1989, and has started several mentoring programs in the Metropolitan Detroit Area as a result of his experiences. Currently, Dr. Marks is an Instructional Design Consultant with Henry Ford Health, where he designs, develops and supports the professional learning for doctors, fellows and residents.
His academic credentials include a B.S. degree from Western Michigan University (1990), M.A. degree from University of Detroit Mercy (1995), and an Education Specialist Certificate (1997) and Ph.D. (2005) in Curriculum and Instruction both from Wayne State University. As a graduate student, Dr. Marks studied abroad at Oxford University in Oxford, England as a student in their British Studies Program.
Dr. Marks is an active member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and the proud father of two beautiful daughters, Amari (19) and Jalia (16).
Dr. Joe Sanfelippo is the Superintendent of the Fall Creek School District in Fall Creek, WI. The Fall Creek School District was named an Innovative District in 2016 and 2017 by the International Center for Leadership in Education. Joe holds a BA in Elementary and Early Childhood Education from St. Norbert College, a MS in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a MS in Educational Leadership, and a PhD in Leadership, Learning, and Service from Cardinal Stritch University. Joe is also an adjunct professor in the Educational Leadership Department at Viterbo University. Joe has taught Kindergarten, 2nd Grade, and 5th Grade. He was also a school counselor and high school coach prior to taking on an elementary principal position in 2005. He has served as a principal in suburban and rural Wisconsin.
Joe started the #1minwalk2work Leadership Challenge, and co-authored The Power of Branding-Telling Your School’s Story, Principal Professional Development: Leading Learning in a Digital Age and Hacking Leadership: 10 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Learning That Teachers, Students and Parents Love. He was selected as 1 of 117 Future Ready Superintendents in 2014 and 1 of 50 Superintendents as a Personalized Learning Leader in 2016 by the US Department of Education. He attended summits at the White House for both distinctions. Education Dive named Joe 1 of 5 K-12 administrators to watch in 2018 and their National Superintendent of the Year in 2019. He has been a featured speaker in multiple states in the areas of Advancing the Use of Social Media for School Leaders, Telling Your School Story, Creating a Culture of Yes, and Personalized Professional Growth for Staff. Go Crickets!!
Leslie Fisher’s interest in technology began while studying music at the University of Southern California. She quickly realized the value of utilizing computers for music mixing and recording. She grabbed her 300 baud modem, jumped on the Internet (before anyone really called it the internet) and started looking for music resources. She soon realized she was spending more time discovering technology than playing music so she changed her major and tried to figure out what geeky thing she could do for the rest of her life.
After graduating from USC with a Business and Marketing degree in 1989 and a quick stint as a Trainer, Leslie joined Apple Computer in 1992. When the Internet took off in 1994, Leslie was one of the first Apple employees assigned to study Internet growth and implementation.
In 1997, Leslie was roadkill on Apple’s road to recovery and part of their massive lay off. Leslie planned to spend most of her huge severance package golfing and waiting a few months to look for a job. The day after her layoff, her phone began to ring with Apple customers requesting consulting, training and presentation services. Before she could say fore, Fisher Technologies Inc. was created to help educators with their technology implementations and decisions.
Fisher Technologies Inc. is now a worldwide company (meaning one employee named Leslie gets to travel the world teaching) specializing in presenting emerging and practical technology solutions to educators all over the world.
Jennifer Hall has been an educator for more than twenty-five years and currently serves as a district Digital Learning Specialist for Atlanta Public Schools. Before taking on her new role, this school year, Jen spent eights years as a district Educational Technology Specialist (ETS).
Jen’s passion is leveraging instructional technology to foster student engagement and personalize learning.
Jen is a speaker, trainer, National Board Certified Educator, ISTE Certified Educator, Google Certified Educator, Innovator, and Trainer, Apple Learning Coach, as well as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert.
She created her Tech Tips 411 website to share apps, tools, resources, ideas, and more for teachers. She also shares on her Tech Tips 411 YouTube channel quick tips, how-tos, tutorials, lesson highlights, student projects, and live-streamed professional development. Jen is passionate about all things #edtech and loves working with teachers to enhance instruction and engage students.
Jen has presented at international, national, state, and regional conferences and enjoys sharing with teachers ways to effectively integrate technology in standards-based lessons, highlighting resources to develop students’ college and career readiness skills, providing targeted training, as well as facilitating timely and relevant professional development.
Before becoming an ETS, Jen had the joy of being a middle school language arts teacher for seventeen years, teaching gifted language arts for nine years.
In her spare time, Jen is an avid traveler and photographer. www.jlhallphotos.com
Michelle Emerson taught 2nd grade and 4th grade for seven years and now supports teachers around the world by creating digital teacher resources, producing educational videos for teachers on her YouTube channel, Pocketful of Primary, and sharing productivity tips on her podcast, Teaching to the TOP. She believes all teachers should feel empowered by their profession instead of overwhelmed and seeks to help educators master technology and create a work-life balance through her tips and strategies.
Dr. Troy Hicks is a professor of English and education at Central Michigan University where he collaborates with K–12 colleagues to explore how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms. He directs the Chippewa River Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, and teaches masters and doctoral courses in educational technology. During the 2020-21 school year, he is serving as the leader of a Teaching with Primary Sources grant through the Library of Congress, and as a co-editor of the Michigan Reading Journal.
Since beginning work at CMU in 2007, he has earned numerous distinctions including the Michigan Council of Teachers of English Charles Carpenter Fries Award (2008), CMU’s Provost’s Award for junior faculty who demonstrate outstanding achievement in research and creative activity (2011), the Richard A. Meade Award for scholarship in English Education (2014), the Michigan Reading Association’s Teacher Educator Award (2018), CMU’s Excellence in Teaching Award (2020), and the Initiative for 21st Century Literacies Research’s Divergent Award for Excellence (2020).
In 2019, Hicks earned recognition as an ISTE Certified Educator, in 2021 he took a facilitation certification course in digital storytelling through Story Center. He consults regularly with a number of educational companies and non-profit organizations. Of note, he is a regular presenter at the annual conventions for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the International Literacy Association (ILA), and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Dr. Hicks has authored dozens of books, articles, chapters, blog posts, and other resources broadly related to the teaching of literacy in our digital age.
As a teacher, professor, consultant, and member of senior leadership teams, Dr. Kristopher J. Childs focuses on excellence in teacher content and pedagogical knowledge, equity, leadership development, and organizational change. His work is guided by his mantra, “Live life to the fullest; you only get one.”
Dr. Childs is a highly sought-after keynote speaker due to his coaching skills, storytelling, and passion. As a speaker, Dr. Childs inspires audiences to relentlessly pursue their goals and dreams. He seeks to help each find his or her passion and purpose, and his messages have been deemed “life-changing” by clients.
Dr. Childs seeks to create a movement through educating, advocating, and inspiring individuals to pursue academic excellence. Due to his student-centered approach to teamwork, faculty, staff, and students recognize him as a visionary and collaborative leader. Dr. Child’s approach helps both school and district teams that he consults achieve common goals and improve student academic success and students’ classroom experiences.
Dr. Childs is a Life Member in the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University National Alumni Association and a Life Member in the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated.
Dr. Childs earned his doctor of philosophy in mathematics education from the University of Central Florida, his master of science in mathematics education from Nova Southeastern University, and his bachelor of science in computer engineering from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
He is co-author of Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching Girls in Grades K – 5 and author of the article Good Mathematics Teaching is NOT Telling, it is Facilitating.
Brian Aspinall is an educator and best selling author and is considered one of the brightest STEM innovators in education. He is the founder of Code Breaker Inc., an organization whose mission is to engage students and amplify voices of passionate educators who believe that all students can achieve if given a fair chance. He travels the globe speaking and leading professional development programs that inspire educators to create curious seeking individuals in classrooms built on a community of trust, risk-taking and a freedom to fail. His books, Code Breaker, Block Breaker, Risk Taker, When Passion Meets Project and Disrupt the Status Quo continue to top the charts in STEM education with a focus on rethinking assessment and evaluation. He was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence for his work with coding and computational thinking. His enthusiasm, thought leadership, and approach to building capacity within STEM education has made him a sought after speaker across the globe.
