Supporting Remote Learning

Registration is now open for the June 30 Supporting Learners in an Online Environment virtual conference, organized by Millersville University’s Professional Education Unit. The conference will take place over multiple Zoom sessions where K-12 educators, counselors, administrators, and others in the field will meet to discuss and share information about online learning.

The conference will be organized as a series of conference sessions divided into categories. These presentations will last approximately 15 to 25 minutes and highlight instructional approaches, research, professional experience and holistic contributions. Submissions for presentations are now closed, but registration to attend the online conference will be open until participation reaches 500 people.

Presentations will be divided into the following seven areas:

1. Supporting social-emotional learning in online instruction
2. Remote teaching and learning for labs, studios, and performances
3. Remote teaching and learning in the elementary classroom
4. Remote teaching and learning in the middle level classroom
5. Remote teaching and learning in the high school
6. Supporting learning diversity, equity, and mental health in remote teaching and learning
7. Thriving and surviving in online spaces (critical conversations and considerations).

The conference will also feature keynote speaker Dr. Oliver Dreon, a professor of educational foundations at Millersville University. Dreon regularly provides professional development and consultation on teaching and learning and holds more than 25 years of experience teaching in various environments.

As noted from the conference website, they are “committed to providing an inclusive, welcoming and respectful environment for all participants to discuss ideas relating to education.”

Dr. Tim Mahoney, chair of the Department of Educational Foundations, shared what the Professional Education Unit hopes to achieve through the conference.

“The transition to online instruction created some unique and previously unimagined challenges.  While there were struggles with access to technology and scheduling and instructional resources during the quarantine, many school districts pulled off some amazing instruction,” Mahoney explains. “We wanted to highlight the really innovative and creative things some teachers did in response to the pandemic and give other educators a glimpse of what is possible.  We also wanted to put a spotlight on some of the incredible ideas and practices engaged by many of our student teachers during the transition, so they feature prominently in the schedule.”

As for continuing the conference, Mahoney says there are future plans. “We hope this is the first of a series of conferences on innovative practices in online learning we will hold throughout 2020-2021 school year.  We are already planning to hold another virtual conference in November.”

More information and registration can be found here: https://supportinglearnersconf.com/