Jennifer Casa-Todd is an award-winning educator, wife, mom, Teacher-Librarian at Cardinal Carter CHS in Aurora, a former Literacy Consultant for the York Catholic District School Board, as well as the author of the book, Social LEADia, Raising Digital Leaders (Summer 2020), and co-author of the Digital Citizenship Children’s book series, Aubrey Bright in The Stories that Connect us (Summer 2020) and Aubrey Bright in the Games We Play (Fall 2023). She holds an MEd in Curriculum and Technology from Ontario Tech University, specializing in social media in the K12 context. She is passionate about showing teachers and students how they can use technology and social media to make the world a better place.
Full bio and more at jcasatodd.com where I blog my reflections and thoughts regularly.
Please connect with me on Twitter (X), BlueSky, Threads, LinkedIn, and Instagram: @JCasaTodd
About Social LEADia
“On average, every 60 seconds, 452,000 Tweets are sent, 4.1 million YouTube Videos are viewed, 70,017 hours of Netflix are watched, 1.8 Million Snaps are created, and 46,200 Instagram posts are uploaded, with numbers continuing to accelerate. How are we preparing today’s students to not simply survive and be safe, but to lead and thrive in a globally connected society? Casa-Todd does a masterful job addressing the “Yeah, buts…” while moving the social media conversation from compliance to leadership. Social LEADia is a brilliant read and a needed tool for your educator toolkit.
– Thomas C. Murray, Director of Innovation, Future Ready Schools
Social LEADia brings inspiration and a call to action to educators teaching today in the digital age. Through the lens of digital leadership, Jennifer offers direction and positive encouragement for educators seeking ways to support students at all levels to become connected in their roles as digital citizens of the world. Teachers can fill their toolboxes with ready-to-implement ideas offered through student vignettes, scripts for guided conversations, case studies, project examples, and detailed listings of tech tools. Written with intention, purpose, and a passion for championing teachers and students to find, share, and amplify their voices, this is a must-read book for every educator ready to make our world a better place through the sharing of stories and perspectives from our connected classrooms. Bravo!
–Dr. Jennifer Williams, Professor, Global Program Developer & Connected Educator
In her new book, Jennifer Casa-Todd explores the concept of digital leadership and its place in today’s schools and classrooms. Written in an engaging style and rich with real-world examples, Casa-Todd takes us beyond simplistic, outdated, and ineffective narratives around kids’ relationships with technology in order to paint a rich portrait of the world we live in and what that means for our children’s futures. Using stories from her own practice, Casa-Todd helps us to make the leap from digital citizenship to digital leadership and provides plenty of concrete ideas and tips that we can bring into the classroom in order to help students become engaged and inspiring leaders who will drive change in both the face to face and digital worlds.
–Dr. Alec Couros, Professor of Educational Technology & Faculty of Education, University of Regina
Jennifer Casa-Todd makes an impassioned and compelling case for the use of social media in education. Social LEADia beautifully juxtaposes students’ voices with Jennifer’s experienced educator’s lens. This should be required reading for all teachers, especially those who want to support their students in creating positive digital footprints.
–Janette Hughes, PhD, Canada Research Chair, Technology & Pedagogy,
Faculty of Education, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
SocialLEADia is a must-read for any educational leaders in any role, be it district personnel, administrators, teachers, and perhaps students themselves. Our role as educators is to guide and help our learners maximize their potential to impact change. Jennifer Casa-Todd does an excellent job of detailing how we can help them lead by leveraging the power of social media.
–Sarah Thomas, Edumatch Founder
The world today that students and kids are growing up in is filled with near ubiquitous access to information. As we’ve seen, this information, while mostly helpful, can be difficult to navigate without help and the understanding of how to effectively distill the best. Being naturally social students are receiving much of this information through social media. Jennifer has written an essential handbook for educators to not only help them best position social media in their classrooms but to also guide students as they learn as well. Any educator would benefit from taking her advice and creating an environment where students can think critically but flourish as well. A must read!
–Steven Anderson, Educational Evangelist Speaker/Consultant
Students communicate and engage with the world through social media on a daily basis. Social LEADia provides educators with ideas, resources, and activities to ensure students make a positive impact with their digital choices and behavior. Social LEADia is a book much needed for all educators to ensure schools are at the forefront of guiding students to be digital leaders and improve the world.
–Shelly Sanchez Terrell, International Speaker, Innovator and Author
Social LEADia connects the dots between the theory of technology/social media and real life practice. Jennifer Casa-Todd gives real life examples of how to harness the immense power of the digital age to enhance the education of students. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is connected to education.
–Justin Schleider, Physical Education and Health Teacher/Technology Integrationist
In an effort to protect students and keep them safe we often block social media in schools. Social LEADia is a must read for all educators that will change your perspective on the power of social media to empower learners to connect with others, pursue passions, and even change the world. As a mom and an educator, I am so thankful for this book to push my thinking about why we must leverage social media in schools and create an experience that supports kids to become the digital leaders that our world needs them to be.
–Katie Martin, PhD , Director of Professional Learning University of San Diego