Our Team

Co-Founders

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Sheryl is a 20-year educator who has been a classroom teacher, technology coach, charter school principal, district administrator, and digital learning consultant. Currently, she is in the dissertation phase of completing her doctorate in Educational Planning, Policy and Leadership at the College of William and Mary. She is the President of 21st Century Collaborative, LLC, a digital consulting firm.  Sheryl is a published writer and regular presenter at state, national and international conferences speaking on topics of homelessness, teacher leadership, virtual community building, educational leadership and 21st Century reform.

Will Richardson

Will is an internationally respected author, speaker and blogger whose focus is helping educators realize the potential of Web 2.0 technologies in their own personal and professional practice and in their classrooms. He is the author of the best selling Blogs, Wikis Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms from Corwin Press and spent 22 years as a public school educator. Will is a national advisory board member for the George Lucas Education Foundation, and is the Chief Learning Officer at Connective Learning, LLC.

Community Development

Robin Ellis

Robin Ellis is the Director of Community Development for PLP. Previously she served as the Instructional Technology Specialist in the Quakertown Community School District in Quakertown, PA. She was their the Classroom for the Future coach, facilitating staff development for teachers who have chosen to participate in a statewide initiative focused on moving classroom practices toward 21st century learning environments . She blogs at Connecting Through Conversations

Community Leaders

Karl Fisch

ADVIS Cohort
Karl Fisch has been a teacher for twenty years. He has taught middle and high school math and is currently Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, USA. He is the project leader of Arapahoe’s Curriculum Innovation Team, leading the staff development efforts for 21 st Century Learners, a group of teachers exploring constructivism and 21st century learning skills. He invites you to join the conversation at The Fischbowl.

Clarence Fisher

Archdiocese of Philadelphia Cohort
Clarence has been a classroom teacher for the past 13 years. He blogs professionally at remoteaccess.typepad.com, with his networked, thinwalled classroom at thinwalls.edublogs.org. He has spoken at conferences across North America. Clarence has won several awards, including one of Canada’ highest teaching awards, the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching for his integration of technology into daily classroom life. Clarence’s innovative classroom practices have been featured online, in books, magazines, and newspaper articles. He is an advocate of classroom 2.0, learning spaces that take complete advantage of the tools that are available to learners in their quest to learn rather than having school be something that is done to them.

Lani Ritter Hall

Ohio Consortium Cohort & PEARLS Cohort
Lani Ritter Hall, a National Board Certified Teacher, cherishes her 35 years in classrooms in Canada and Ohio. She has designed and facilitated workshops for educators for over 15 years. Currently Lani serves as an e-mentor and instructional designer. She blogs at Possibilities Abound.

Dean Shareski

Tristate and Ontario International Cohorts
Dean Shareski is a Digital Learning Consultant with the Prairie South School Division in Saskatchewan, Canada. He also teaches pre-service teachers at the University of Regina. He attained his Masters in Communication and Technology from the University of Saskatchewan in 2006. But enough of the formal stuff. Dean’s true passion is providing teachers with the opportunity to create relevant, engaging classrooms. The Read/Write Web offers provides unlimited resources. Dean’s work revolves around helping teachers use these resources effectively by connecting with others with similar passions. You can read about his perspectives at http://ideasandthoughts.org. He is involved in way too many other places to list.

John Pederson

Tristate Cohort
John Pederson is an Educational Technology Liaison with WiscNet, a research and education networking organization in Madison, WI. He works with K12, higher education, libraries, and municipalities with the focus of “building the network around the network”. John graduated college with a degree in Teaching Social Sciences for Secondary Education and jumped straight into educational technology as K12 Director of Technology from 1996 – 2005. Frustrated slinging boxes and wires and wanting to focus on instructional technology, he moved into educational technology professional development for a regional service agency in 2006 and now works on community development in educational technology throughout Wisconsin. A raging introvert, John discovered blogging and Twitter, much like Columbus discovered America. He followed others much more adventurous than himself very early on, settled in, and created a scene. His blog and twitter are an exercise in understanding people networks online, playing with others’ attention, and celebrating the awesomeness of the Internet.  Thousands of hours later, here is what he has learned as a result.

Alec Couros

Ontario International Cohort

Dr. Alec Couros is a professor of educational technology and media and the Coordinator of Information and Communications Technology at the Faculty of Education , University of Regina. Alec works with undergraduate and graduate students to develop their understanding and competencies in working with technology and media in K12 environments. He has given hundreds of workshops and presentations, nationally and internationally, on topics such as open education, social & networked learning, instructional design, digital citizenship and critical media literacy. More about Alec can be found at his popular educational blog, Open Thinking, found at http://couros.ca.