Opening Keynote

Dr. Elyse Eidman-Aadahl

Elyse Eidman-Aadahl is Executive Director of the National Writing Project (NWP), a network of nearly 200 literacy-focused professional development and research communities located at universities across all 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Based at the University of California-Berkeley, the NWP leads nationally-networked learning and research initiatives for educators working in K-12, university, and out-of-school settings.


Sunday, October 11, 2015  8:15-9:15 pm
Digital Writing, Connected Learning, and the Civic Mission of Schools
Digital composing, social media, the read/write web—these Internet-powered platforms for writing have opened up tremendous opportunity space for the reinvigoration for civic engagement by young people. In this talk, Eidman-Aadahl will look at recent research on youth and participatory politics, and suggest some ways that young people’s interests in community life can motivate the writing curriculum.

Closing Keynote

Dr. Troy Hicks

Troy Hicks, an associate professor at Central Michigan University, teaches pre-service writing methods classes and facilitates professional development on the teaching of writing, writing across the curriculum, and writing with technology. In his research, he collaborates with K-16 teachers and explores how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms.  He also serves as the Director of the Chippewa River Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project at CMU. His publications include The Digital Writing Workshop (Heinemann, 2009) and Because Digital Writing Matters (Jossey-Bass, 2010).  Twitter ID: @hickstro


Wednesday, October 14, 2015  7:00-8:00 pm
(followed by a general discussion about digital writing from 8-9 pm)
Make. Write. Repeat.
The "maker" movement has taken hold in education, and its core principles reward those who take risks, create, fail, reflect, and start the process anew. In what ways can we connect the ideas of "making" and "writing" to rethink literacy instruction? With examples from a number of teachers and by exploring many digital writing tools, we will discover opportunities for our students to make, write, and continue the process of learning over and over again.