NCED Connect Symposium 2025

In this slice of NCCAT's popular four-day seminar,  Expanding Your Tech Toolbox, teachers will learn about a variety of instructional tech tools designed to engage students, showcase learning, elevate thinking, and promote collaboration. The tool curated in this list will be free, easy-to-use, and versatile. Join us and add new tools to your tech toolbox!

In "Soaring to New Heights: AI-Powered Time Savers for Educators," participants will embark on a journey into the world of AI technologies designed to enhance teaching and save them precious time! Various AI platforms will be modeled for teachers and "plearn" time will be given for them to test out the platforms independently. Tasks cards will be used to guide their exploration. The Prompt Engineer Framework from the book "The AI Classroom" will also be showcased with time for participants to try it out.

Join us for an exciting look at the first year of our district's AI literacy integration in Chatham County Schools! This presentation will explore how we're empowering both educators and students to navigate the future of generative AI with confidence and responsibility. With the support of the prestigious NCDPI Impact Grant, we’re on a path to create a digitally savvy community that understands how AI can drive positive change. By 2027, we aim to equip our schools with the tools and knowledge to harness AI in transformative ways, and we want YOU to be a part of that process!Our year one goal is to provide educators with practical tools and guidance for integrating generative AI into classrooms. This will include an AI pedagogies document and opportunities for professional development, such as our DISC (Digital Innovation Steampunk Camp) annual district-wide conference and partnership with Magic School Enterprise, along with ongoing communications and training throughout the year.  Our goals for years two and three include collecting educator feedback on AI’s role in education and how they use it, in order to refine program efficacy. This data will be used to improve professional development initiatives, including DISC, which will be held in person for the first time post-pandemic in 2025. This year’s theme, “Innovation is in the AIr,” will focus on culturally responsive and ethical AI tools for various instructional specializations, with future DISCs incorporating evolving AI topics. Through DISC and related AI training, we aim to reduce concerns surrounding plagiarism and copyright infringement. As educator proficiency improves, student and family proficiency will also rise, supporting positive outcomes in instruction. Simultaneously, we anticipate analyzing student data on AI usage to inform instructional planning and identify trends from 2024 to 2027, ensuring our AI strategies meet diverse student needs. By implementing safe AI-based accessibility features aligned with ISTE standards and NCDPI guidelines, we plan to accommodate all learners by 2027. The program’s success will result in a local population well-equipped to engage with AI responsibly, improving digital citizenship and driving positive community impacts.

Join us for an engaging session on how Navvy is transforming the formative assessment process with cutting-edge data science and technology. Navvy provides pre-built, standard-by-standard assessments that save teachers time while delivering precise, actionable data to better guide personalized learning. By leveraging a tech-savvy, student-friendly platform, Navvy enhances both the efficiency and effectiveness of ongoing classroom assessment, empowering educators to make informed decisions faster and with greater accuracy.Our innovative solution is making a lasting impact on student growth and proficiency, particularly in charter and data-driven schools and districts. Navvy solves for the long-standing need to have pre-made psychometrically-sound formative assessments that align to psychometrically-sound state assessments .  With rigorous alignment to North Carolina's academic content standards, Navvy is a scalable solution that provides educators with the tools and information needed to know what students know to help them grow. By aligning with today’s need for scalable approaches in education that provide rigorous alignment to North Carolina’s academic content standards. This not only simplifies the teacher’s workload but also significantly boosts student outcomes.Discover how Navvy can seamlessly integrate into your instructional cycle, boost student growth and proficiency, and support each learner’s personalized learning journey.

Come learn how AI can help you captivate your students’ attention and personalize their learning! In this fast-paced session, ideas for differentiation, gamification, and general engagement will be shared. Leave with specific ideas and FREE tools you can use tomorrow in grades 3 -12!

This session’s purpose is to give participants free AI resources that allow them to differentiate, personalize, or gamify resources to better engage their students. The session begins with a whole group introduction of the CRAFT prompt model, best practices regarding generative AI, and the recommended tools: Canva, Diffit, MagicSchool, Goblin Tools, and SchoolAI. Each topic (general engagement, differentiation, and gamification) is then tackled with specific content examples that utilize one or more of the five tools.

Participants will receive a digital "one-pager" with all relevant links from the session. The one-pager is organized by the three topics and then broken down into “Quick Wins”, “Little More Effort”, or “Trailblazing”, allowing participants to choose example ideas that match both their interests and skill level with the tools.

We know AI helps teachers, but what if students could use AI in the classroom too? Come explore 3 FREE, safe tools that students of all ages can use! Engage your students’ interest, while also teaching ethical use of AI. Lesson ideas will be provided for grades 3 - 12.

This session’s purpose is to give participants free, vetted, and age-appropriate resources so participants can model the ethical and safe use of AI and let the students interact with AI themselves. The key point is to have concrete tools and lesson ideas that put students actually using AI tools or the applicable thinking skills. Participants will receive a digital "one-pager" with all relevant links from the session and their own editable copy of the session slides to organize in their Google Drive.

In this session, discover how AI can transform data management in education by quickly summarizing test scores, surveys, and school-wide metrics to provide actionable insights. We’ll dive into AI tools that simplify data analysis and inform instructional decisions, all while supporting the implementation of school-wide goals. This session will also cover essential practices for safeguarding student data, ensuring that insights are generated without compromising privacy. Join us to explore how AI can be a powerful ally in making data-driven decisions, all with safety and efficiency at the forefront.

In this interactive session, we'll explore how to harness the power of robotics to unlock the limitless potential of elementary students - no matter their starting point. By reimagining the traditional robotics classroom as an engaging sandbox, we'll discover innovative ways to differentiate instruction and empower each young learner to thrive. Hands-on activities teach you how to leverage adaptive technologies, scaffold learning progressions, and foster a culture of creativity. We'll demonstrate strategies to nurture computational thinking, problem-solving skills, and a love of STEM. You'll leave with a toolkit of differentiation techniques guaranteed to ignite elementary innovators, from beginners to advanced.