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Connected Educator Month: Those who do, teach. Own it, worldwide. October 2014.
A celebration of community, with educators at all levels, from all
disciplines, moving towards a fully connected and collaborative
profession. Convened by the connected education community, with the full
support of the U.S. Department of Education, building on the success of
previous years with hundreds of new events and activities from dozens
of organizations and communities. We’ll be working together, in October
and beyond, with all stakeholders, leaving no device unturned, no
country or learning environment unexplored. Get involved at
connectededucators.org.
About Connected Educator Month
Millions of educators and others around the world have participated
in hundreds of professional development opportunities as part of
Connected Educator Month (CEM) the past two years. Originally developed
by the U.S. Department of Education and its partners as part of the
Connected Educators initiative, CEM offers highly distributed, diverse,
and engaging activities to educators at all levels. Based on its success
in 2012 and 2013, the initiative is poised to reach even more educators
in 2014, through expanded partnerships and enhanced programming.
Highlights of CEM 2013 included:
- More than 300 major education organizations, companies, or
communities officially participating, including, for the first time,
entire states and districts
- More than 600 national events and activities conducted officially (on the CEM calendar), many more conducted independently
- More than 1 million web pages and other online locations
referencing, promoting, or discussing the event (a 300% increase over
CEM 2012)
- More than 14 million educators and others reached around the world via Twitter alone (more than triple the reach of 2012)
- Recognition as one of the top educational technology news stories of both 2012 and 2013 
For more information about the first two years of CEM, see our reports on the 2012 and 2013 events, and/or this
post and
video by
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (who hosted his first Twitter
chat as part of the 2013 celebration). Connected Educator Month in
2012 and
2013 was convened by the
American Institutes for Research and its partners in the
Connected Educators project (2010-2014), on behalf of the Office of Educational Technology of the United States Department of Education.
CEM 2014
As successful as CEM 2013 was, there are still educators who are not
connected, and many more who are not yet taking full advantage of the
opportunities connected education affords. More broadly, the field of
connected education itself is still in need of further stimulation and
development. Based on participant feedback, we hope to:
- Make the event more fully global, to better incorporate learnings
from around the world, supporting multiple countries in the development
of full event slates as part of the celebration
- Make the celebration more fully mobile and blended, in reflection of trends in educational practice and educator use
- Provide a greater emphasis on collaboration in our planning, tools,
and activities, as the logical next step beyond connection, and address
participants’ desire for a more action-oriented approach (2x+ as many
events were collaborative in 2013)
- Launch a series of ongoing connected education initiatives during
the month (our own and others) to keep momentum building throughout the
year, as well as develop more year-round resources (like 2013’s district
toolkit)
- Include more events/activities that pull in other education
stakeholders—parents, students, whole school communities,
policymakers—to magnify the event’s creative impact We also expect to
enhance CEM’s editorial programming and infrastructure to keep the event
fully accessible as it continues to grow, as well as engage in more
extensive capacity-building to empower the broader community to take
more ownership of the celebration.
