The dates for the Nebraska Fall Ed Tech Conference will be Monday, November 6, 2023.

We are excited to welcome Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook to present The Attention Switch.

With advertising, social media, and constant notifications, it’s harder than ever to maintain attention — especially in the classroom. How can we keep student attention, and engage them in meaningful learning? It’s all about the Attention Switch in our students’ brains. In this session, you’ll learn what keeps students connected, and you’ll feel inspired to create learning that students will love. This speech features unexpected twists and lots of fun, looking at now-defunct social media platforms, Pinterest fails, YouTube trends, and more. You’ll walk away with some practical, concrete steps and ideas for engaging students as well as big-picture ideas that can shape your instruction.

About Matt

Matt Miller has been infusing technology and innovative teaching methods into his classroom for more than 10 years. After trying to do the traditional “teach by the textbook” for a few years, he launched into a textbook-less path where learning activities were often custom-produced for his students as well as infused with technology. He likes the results a lot, and his students do, too.

He has been recognized for excellence in teaching and technology integration. He is a Google Certified Teacher (one of less than 2,000 worldwide) and a PBS LearningMedia Digital Innovator. He was awarded the Golden Apple Award by WTHI-TV in Terre Haute, Ind., and was nominated for a Bammy Award for Secondary School Teacher of the Year in 2014.

Matt is the author of five books, including Ditch That Textbook, a book that encourages teachers to free their teaching and revolutionize their classrooms with mindsets, techniques and curriculum to serve today’s learners. He also created the Ditch That Textbook blog (DitchThatTextbook.com) and regularly writes about educational technology and creative teaching. Thousands of educators subscribe to his blog, which has visitors from more than 100 countries.

Matt hasn’t always been in education, though. Before becoming a teacher, he was a newspaper reporter and wrote for several Indiana daily newspapers, including the Indianapolis Star. He made the switch when he realized that his true passion was helping other writers with their writing, not doing the reporting himself. He returned to school and had a teaching job in eight months. The rest is history.

He is a proud graduate of Indiana State University (go Sycamores!) and is living the dream — a wife, three kids, a mortgage and three dogs.

Connect with him … he lives for it!

Twitter: @jmattmiller

Facebook: facebook.com/DitchThatTextbook

YouTube: youtube.com/DitchThatTextbook

Pinterest: pinterest.com/DitchThatTxt