With Amanda VanDerHeyden, Ph.D. and Tim Heckel
Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 5 p.m. ET
Educators are weighing the benefits of ed tech against growing concerns about the impact of screentime on students. But ed tech doesn’t need to be an all-or-nothing decision.
In this edLeader Panel, Amanda VanDerHeyden, Ph.D., will discuss the importance of paper and pencil activities for learning and reducing screentime while leveraging the immense power of technology to help educators deliver effective instruction. Tune in to learn:
- How paper-based activities support working memory, reduce cognitive overload, and build stronger problem-solving and reasoning skills
- Strategic uses for technology, including automating many of the time-consuming and challenging parts of a teacher’s day, like data-based decision making
- What AI can and cannot do for educators
- Why technology is the right tool to drive implementation science in classrooms
Join us to learn how to strike the right balance between paper-based learning and purposeful technology use so you can put AI and other technology tools to work where they matter most: giving educators time back and helping every student get the instruction they deserve.
This edLeader Panel will be of interest to elementary through high school teachers, school and district leaders, and curriculum and instruction leaders.
Meet Your Webinar Presenters:
Amanda VanDerHeyden, Ph.D.
Founder & CPO, SpringMath Accelerate
Amanda VanDerHeyden, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Product Officer of SpringMath Accelerate, is an internationally recognized researcher, author, and innovator in education, with deep expertise in academic screening, intervention, implementation science, educational technology, and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). As the developer of SpringMath, she has led the platform’s evolution into a schoolwide solution that accelerates math achievement through efficient, data-driven practices. Amanda has published over 100 scholarly articles, ten books, advised state departments of education and policy groups, received national awards for her contributions to education research, and is a sought-after presenter. Her full bio can be found here.
Tim Heckel
Chief Technology Officer, SpringMath Accelerate
Tim Heckel is a veteran ed tech leader with more than 25 years building end-to-end systems that fuse intuitive front-end design with resilient, high-volume back-end architecture. As principal architect at Cedarlabs, Tim built the recipe-driven data-transformation engine now trusted for K-12 state reporting in Massachusetts and Iowa. He later founded Slatebox, an AI-powered visualization platform that turns complex information into dynamic, story-rich presentations. His career spans cloud providers, bare-metal clusters, and every hybrid space in between, coupling deep DevOps expertise with seamless AI integrations. Tim mentors emerging engineers and champions scalable, data-informed solutions that advance learning outcomes. Tim is now bringing his incredible talent to SpringMath Accelerate as the new Chief Technology Officer.