NIS International Research-to-Practice Conference

Inspirational Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Todd Schwartz

Todd Schwartz is the Co-CEO and Co-founder of Education.com, the leading educational platform that provides parents and teachers with resources designed to build a strong foundation for early math and reading success.

An advocate for education with a passion for technology, Todd is dedicated to positively impacting the lives of students and educators through his life’s work. That dedication has taken Education.com from early stage startup to one of the largest education technology platforms presently available in over 10 million classrooms and households worldwide. As an entrepreneur and seasoned executive, Todd has a background in leveraging big ideas and new media to build leading companies and brands, such as Ask.com and directMass. Todd has developed companies in diverse categories, ranging from education and e-commerce to content creation and interactive media & advertising. Todd received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland and has served as an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.

VIII NIS International Conference, 27-28 October 2016: Presentation

The Role of Digital Technology in Education

In the application of education, digital technology increasingly plays an important role, yet at Education.com we feel strongly that technology is merely a tool that should support the efforts of educators and learners, not detract from them. At Education.com, we believe that properly designed digital technology can significantly increase task efficiencies for teachers and learners, thus allowing more time to develop mastery of skills. Just as communication and facilitation technologies (such as Remind and Google Classroom, respectively) clearly benefit users by streamlining distribution of information, content and assessment technologies likewise reduce total time spent; assessments quickly target areas where learners need to focus and content types are optimized for learner needs. No matter how advanced, digital technology will never replace the capabilities of human facilitators of learning like parents, teachers, coaches, or administrators – but rather extend and strengthen them.