Make Learning Personal: The What, Who, Wow, Where, and Why

Barbara Bray is a writer, speaker, instructional designer and creative learning strategist who enjoys connecting people and ideas around transforming education. She has focused on creating learner-centered environments for over 25 years and coined the term “Making Learning Personal” in 2000 because she believed that education really needed to be all about our learners and learning first. Not only is Barbara focusing on personalizing learning, she posts on Rethinking Learning (barbarabray.net) and is the Founder/Owner of My eCoach (my-ecoach.com) My eCoach is based on a coaching platform for teachers because they are learners too and need ongoing support as they change teaching practice. She wrote the professional development column for CUE for 17 years and received the CUE Gold and Platinum disks for her contributions to educational technology for the advancement of teaching and learning.

Barbara is passionate about writing, sharing stories of transforming learning, and facilitating change. She is encouraged when she sees teachers and administrators immersing themselves in challenges that stretch their minds and imagination. She loves combining the neuroscience of learning with the design-thinking process and project-based learning in a learner-centered environment. Barbara helps schools and organizations develop sustainable coaching programs,  design professional learning to transform teaching practice and guide the redesign of flexible learning spaces. She enjoys working with leadership teams in guiding change so all stakeholders are committed to a shared vision around teaching and learning.

Barbara lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her best friend and husband Tom, who she has been married to for forty-six years. She is grateful for her sisters Sandy Ritz, Terry Leach, and Janet Ritz for their ongoing support over the years. Barbara feels so lucky to watch how her two creative children are passionate about what they do and how they live, Sara Zimmerman and Andrew Bray, and for her amazing granddaughter, Cali who constantly shares what she has learned and creates on her own. Barbara wants to thank her friends and family who inspire her to follow her purpose to make learning personal for all learners.

Kathleen McClaskey has been on mission the last three decades to level the playing field for all learners and to assist educators in discovering the learner in every child.  In her career, she has been a middle school teacher, K-12 administrator, professional developer, innovative leader, author, and futurist who believes that everyone on the planet is a learner. As an educational technologist for over 33 years, graduate instructor in MA and NH and an Universal Design for Learning consultant, she has worked worldwide in training thousands of teachers in using tools to instruct all learners in the classroom. She most recently had the opportunity to go to Dubai to keynote and train teachers in the Middle East on personalized learning. Over the last 15 years, Kathleen directed and designed the professional development using Universal Design for Learning as the framework in multiple technology-based projects in math, science, literacy and autism to build 21st Century classrooms and sustainable learner-centered environments. She is passionate in empowering learners with tools, skills and learning strategies so that they can become independent learners with agency who can realize their hopes and dreams and have choices in college, career and life.

Kathleen is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Personalize Learning, LLC,  founder/owner of EdTech Associates, Inc. and the President and Advocacy Chairperson for the New Hampshire Society for Technology in Education (NHSTE), an affiliate of International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Her advocacy work has expanded 10 years in Congress, advocating for legislation and funding for educational technology during that time. In 2012, she was awarded the ISTE Public Policy Advocate of the Year Award.

Kathleen lives in New Hampshire with her husband and best friend, Jim, who she has been married to for 43 years. She has two wonderful sons, Joshua and Seth and two handsome grandsons, Austyn and Benny who all continue to serve as her daily inspiration to personalize learning for every learner. She is thankful to have family, friends and colleagues that have supported her lifelong mission to level the playing field for all learners.