There are three necessary preconditions to innovation: starvation (or scarcity, perhaps need—a shortage of resources where usually there is abundance), pressure (or urgency—an immediate and relentless demand for resolution of the scarcity—a changing world), and perspective shift (new ways of thinking about the problem). We know that libraries are a part of the knowledge ecosystem but how can they be more innovative so they are recognized as having an impact on that knowledge ecosystem? How can they help others innovate more? And how can libraries gain new perspectives and types of thinking? Our popular speaker will challenge your thinking and supply some interesting insights.

Staying secure and safeguarding privacy in our hyperconnected era are two issues that will never go away, and threats to our security and privacy will never stop changing. So what’s up with the “meh” attitude and lack of concern students seem to exhibit on this subject? Gary Price thinks the library and education communities should be pressing students, and all of us, to remain vigilant and stay informed about this. In this session, he offers up a “presentation in a box”—knowledge and resources you can use in your schools and libraries to make the case to students, patrons, and fellow staffers.

The Out of Eden Learn online learning community is an engaging project that connects students from around the world as they follow Paul Salopek’s multi-year journey to walk the path of human migration. Mary Catherine Coleman tells how she connected with the project, collaborated with classroom teachers, and leveraged it to introduce students to blogging, social media, and a host of new apps. She also shares how the project demonstrates the value of connecting online and helps students develop digital citizenship skills.

If you give a 21st-century school librarian a computer, she is going to apply 21st-century teaching and learning methods and technologies to empower, engage, and connect with screenagers. Come hear the story of how this high school library media specialist utilizes social media, mobile devices, YouTube, digital content, and even Hip Hop to facilitate student success in all content areas.

In this session, learn all about Tech ALIVE!, a professional development program series offered to educators once per month through collaboration between a classroom teacher and librarian. Sarah discusses the importance of using collaboration and technology to leverage leadership in the librarian profession. Then, for a take-away, she helps you design an outline of what technology PD outreach would work well in your own educational setting.

Search results have evolved from a portal to a destination. This is especially true for students, who are now entering school with a command of Google, even if they don’t know how to use a mouse. Deirdre and Christi talk about EBSCO’s user research findings on the topic of search results, including why students are drawn to Google and Wikipedia, how school libraries can use this to their advantage, and how those habits represent a technological and sometimes generational divide.

Marshall Breeding leads the discussion among a panel of executives from key companies which provide or support strategic technologies for libraries. These executives represent organizations with a mix of strategic perspectives, including those that develop library management platforms, discovery services, content and technology products, and open source development and support. Following a brief introduction, Breeding facilitates a lively discussion probing the technology and business trends currently in play, including industry consolidation, differing approaches to opening software to library programmers, and the shift toward cloud-based technologies.

The Baltimore County Public Schools are using two inquiry-based models to facilitate brief and extended research across the curriculum for students in grades K–12. Their Online Research Models and Slam Dunk lessons scaffold the research process, utilizing digital content and tools to integrate 21st century skills with content learning in all subjects. The presenters share their process and many examples of students research done right.

At Burke School, feedback about student progress in the library and the “Makery” has been directed toward parents through report card comments. Flip the audience and transform learning. How? Burke’s librarian and maker facilitator assess work and write comments directly to students on digital portfolios. There, on Google Sites, third and fourth grade students curate their own projects, reflect on their process and product, and engage in online conversation with teachers. The result: a supportive ecosystem for students to learn about themselves as learners. Metacognition! Transformative learning!

While technology makes many things easier, for students and adults who are “organizationally challenged” it can become yet another distraction, something that pulls them away from what is truly important. But there are many tools available that, if accessed and used well, can help students and adults become successful. This session explores a variety of tools and resources for all platforms that support organizational skills and provides suggestions to make all students (and teachers) more focused and efficient.

While we would love our students to use library resources all the time, we know they often run to Google. At the Cheng Library at William Paterson University, students are told that Google is fine for some—not all—research, but that part of using Google well is evaluating the websites they find. In this session, Cara Berg covers how they teach and assess website evaluation to first year students at WPU. This same lesson has been successfully used for high school students as well! The assessment, methodology, and history of this assignment are discussed and current results from the past semester are shared.

How can you empower your students to translate and evaluate complex, globally important concepts into personally relevant information? In this session, Jen Spisak embraces the power of transliteracy by taking you step by step through the creation of fully integrated multimedia learning stations, complete with a perfect mix of content, technology, and multiple formats. Find out how to create multimedia learning stations that employ podcasts, databases, educational apps, videos, and websites to explore content standards and bring out the 21st-century learner within each student. These learning stations will help you facilitate instruction, strengthen student research skills, and build collaborative partnerships in your school.