TLI: Technology Leadership Institute- 2025-2026
🍂 October 17th- Join Us for Our Fall Event🍂
Open Doors – Open Minds – LHRIC Leadership Connect & TLI Kickoff
Dr. Mandy McLean - TLI Keynote
Dr. Mandy McLean has spent over a decade studying how people learn, earning her PhD in education and statistics, and later advanced through roles at Guild as Director of Research, Head of Applied Science, and Director of AI Transformation, where she led initiatives focused on working adult learners. As a former high school teacher, she is committed to building technology that strengthens human connection in classrooms. You may enjoy her summer substack post highlighted by Dr. Jon Haidt, First We Gave AI Our Tasks Now We Give it Our Hearts. Beyond her work in her company ClassWaves, Mandy writes and speaks on education, technology, and society. She lives in Colorado with her husband, two kids, and two cats, and she loves running, mountain adventures, and exploring big questions.
Learn More About Dr. McLean
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mandymclean
Substack: signallearning.substack.com
Most recent posts:
Hope in the Pushback Against Harmful Tech 9/12
Website: www.classwaves.ai
Leadership Agenda 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
🍁 8:00- 9:30 - Leadership Tabletop Conversations & Breakfast
This isn’t your typical sit-and-listen event! Rather, it's an opportunity to have casual, engaging discussions with you and the LHRIC leadership team on topics that matter most:
- Security Operation Services: learn how our Verticals work together to keep your district's network secure and ask any cybersecurity-related questions
- Financial Understanding: learn about nVisions' new employee portal
- Instructional Technology: engage in conversations about what the requirements are for NYSED Instructional Technology Plans -submitted & approved by 6/30/26
- Data Assessment Solutions: explore how LHRIC is empowering districts to make data-driven decisions with the Teacher Level Reports
- Procurement: meet the staff behind the scenes and ask questions related to purchasing
🍁 9:30-11:00 AM - TLI Keynote: AI as a Social Technology
By now, we’ve all seen the dynamic impact of the NYS cell phone ban on our students. classrooms and our schools. Administrators and teachers are noticing greater engagement across learning environments. This is a moment for us to come together, share our successes and challenges, and become more intentional about our use of technology, particularly AI, with students. How can students maintain their composure as they navigate large language models that can often feel like a friend, buddy, or even a companion? AI is often introduced as a breakthrough in efficiency, promising to give teachers back time for the work that matters most. Yet its earliest and deepest effects are social. It is already changing how students think and relate to one another. Teachers notice the tension: on one side, AI lightens their load and streamlines preparation; on the other, they see assignments completed more quickly, but the deeper habits of persistence, critical thinking, and connection begin to weaken when students use AI regularly. Personalization should help students grow, yet too often it pushes them into isolated work instead of shared learning. And that misses what school is really for. Beyond delivering content, classrooms have always been places where young people practice how to live, think, and work together. Dr. Mandy McLean will share her research on AI as a social technology first and will explore how schools can move forward with purpose—using new tools to protect and strengthen the human capacities that matter most.
🍁 11:00-12:00 PM Making AI Purposeful in Our Schools - -AI Literacy Framework
Dr. Tara Nattrass, co-author of the AI Literacy Framework in collaboration with. Code.org and others, will be working with Dr. McLean to present the Framework to our region. Your district will gain strategies to take back to your schools, enabling you to continue the conversation about technology and AI, while keeping the human at the center of it all.
🌟 12:00-1:00 - Be an Influencer on a NEW AI App - classwaves.ai
Wait- there is more??
If you’re able to stay for lunch, we invite you to explore a new AI tool (not released) - classwaves.ai -that is actively seeking feedback from educators. In line with our mission to bring educational leaders and software developers together before products are built, this is your chance to shape the tools that will support 21st-century learning.
Your insights can help ensure that technology is designed with educators, not just for them. Come and be a part of the conversation—and the innovation—at the cutting (some say bleeding) edge of educational transformation.
TLI Events
Friday, October 17, 2025
REGISTER: Open Doors – Open Minds – LHRIC Leadership Connect & TLI Kick-Off
LHRIC · 450 Mamaroneck Ave. Harrison, NY
(In Person)
NEW! October 28- 30
Project-Based Learning PBL Works & NYSCATE
TLI Members will receive a 10% discount on district registration
UTF 52 Broadway 10th Floor NYC
Early bird special applies to all of our TLI members regardless of the date submitted.
NEW!Friday, November 4, 2025
NYSCATE Regional Conference - Bridging Innovation and Education
Registration Code: TLIHV25
Roy C Ketcham High School, Wappingers High School
November 23-25, 2025
2025 NYSCATE Annual Conference
Registration Code: 25TLIAC*
Turning Stone Resort and Conference Center · Verona, NY
*The code can only be applied for the Full Conference and Single Day options. It will not work for the Full Conference/Premium Membership Bundle or the Women in Technology Breakfast.
FULL DETAILS COMING SOON
Friday, January 23, 2026
Winter TLI Event
(Virtual)
Friday, March 20, 2026
TELL Awards
Edith Macy Conference Center · Briarcliff Manor, NY
(In Person)
Thursday, May 7 – Friday, May 8, 2026
TECH EXPO
Windrose on Hudson Conference Center · Ossining, NY
(In Person)
Learn About Last Year's Expo
Voices of Leadership: Previous Keynotes from the Institute
TLI Events and Information Links
About TLI
Participation in the LHRIC’s Technology Leadership Institute (TLI) member-only events provides the best opportunity for continuous learning and growth in the rapidly changing landscape of educational technology. Our TLI program allows district leaders to come together to learn about, share ideas on, and discuss excellence in teaching and learning through technology. Each year, we expand our connections with international leaders, educational networks, and partners, enabling members to experience new technologies and their impact on education. TLI also offers networking opportunities with peers to explore how each leadership topic pertains to current challenges and future planning. Take a moment to review past events to appreciate the exceptional quality and depth of our programming, which goes beyond your typical leadership programs.
Participation includes unlimited registration for virtual events and an eight-seat limit per face-to-face conference, including the NYSCATE Annual conference. If you want to learn more about this program, please contact Mary Lynn Collins-Callanan, Manager of LHRIC Instructional Technology, at 914-922-3405.