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SXSWedu: Ask the Educators

by Big Tomorrow | March 2, 2017 | More Articles

Big Tomorrow
Big Tomorrow
11 min readMar 2, 2017

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For our second installment of SXSW: Conversations & Context, we look to the fast approaching SXSWedu conference, happening next week (March 6–9, 2017) in Austin. Now in its seventh year, the conference hosts educations’ brightest leaders and new thinkers to share their passion about the future of teaching and learning. Like all things SXSW, the program can be a little overwhelming. With so much to choose from, we’ve reached out to several leaders in education to get their take on the conference, offer perspective on the challenges they encounter in their work, and what they believe the future holds for education.

We hope the following excerpts from our conversations will give you some ideas for how to approach your visit to SXSWedu. Please weigh in, ask questions, or share your own thoughts or advice below.

Join our community to receive our next 2 installments and read on to get inspired for SXSWedu 2017.

Carl Hooker, Director of Innovation and Digital Learning
Eanes Independent School District, Austin, TX
@mrhooker

A SXSW veteran, Carl has presented for the last four years, and attended every year since SXSW began. This year, he’ll be sitting on the panel App Overkill: Going Beyond the Buzz Words. We talked about some of his districts’ projects and how he approaches SXSWedu.

BT: Tell us about some of your recent accomplishments.

CH: Let’s see. iPadpalooza is in its sixth year. It’s a tech conference we founded, but it’s really a learning festival. It was inspired by SXSW, and now draws about 1100 people from over 20 different countries. It’s about how to make meaningful change really happen in the classroom. We get a lot of great speakers who donate their time.

We also recently launched a business incubator class in our district, with about 160 high school kids. They form 35 different companies and create apps to solve real world problems at the school. It gives students a taste of real world experience and helps develop skills way beyond traditional classroom learning.

BT: So do you have a plan for SXSWedu?

CH: Yes! We are sending over 50 teachers from our district this year, the most we’ve ever sent. I will put together a sort of manifesto for teachers with tips on the conference. We’ll have slack channels to communicate as well, since many things happen on the fly.

BT: We’d love to see that guide! Any must-see sessions?

CH: It really depends on the individual teacher, their grade level, what assessment criteria they are looking to grow. I just make suggestions and encourage them to not get overwhelmed. If they can come away with just a handful of things they learned, resources they discovered and practices they can implement in their classroom, that’s a huge win.

BT: What will you personally seek out this year?

CH: I’m excited to hear Tim Ferriss and Brené Brown. I’m a speaker myself, so I like to see how they present, and see audience reactions. The sessions on virtual reality (VR) should also be interesting. There’s also one called Innovation Generation that looks good. To be honest, I think the casual conversations and connections you make between sessions may be the best part of SXSWedu.

Eric Bailey, Director of Design & UXR
AltSchool, San Francisco, CA
@healthyhappywis

Full disclosure: Eric won’t be attending SXSWedu and actually finds himself attending fewer conferences these days, but we aren’t holding that against him. His broad experience in both education and healthcare make him a great source of inspiration and perspective as we ponder the future of these industries.

BT: What positive trends do you see in education today?

EB: There are many. Education is embracing technology in better ways, specifically figuring out how to collect data, make meaning out of it, and actually apply it in the classroom. Companies like Schoolzilla, Summit Schools and Always Be Learning have platforms that are leading the charge. And of course, AltSchool.

Project-based learning is another. By moving away from rote learning, lecture style teaching, educators engage students with more experiential learning. The Buck Institute for Education is taking this approach.

There are also great social networking tools like Edmodo and Class Dojo, that help parents and teachers communicate more easily.

And then there’s even self-training and higher ed companies like udemy and Coursera. The face of education is really evolving on many fronts.

BT: That’s a lot. Any downsides to all of these individual efforts?

EB: I think there’s a tendency to want to “boil the ocean” and find a single solution to cure all of education’s ills. But building a system that’s scalable, and that can also account for the great variance in students’ needs, is always going to be at odds.

Many of these innovations do start at private or charter schools, because they have more flexibility in their decision making. But I think even the public system is starting to chip away at the innovation problem. Instead of just buying new hardware when they have the budget, it seems like schools and educators are approaching challenges more thoughtfully.

BT: What parallels do you see between education and healthcare?

EB: I think both industries have a lot to gain from technology. Healthcare is a little further along, in the tools they use to gather info, and how medical records are evolving. But education will get there. For both industries, I don’t believe technology or automation will diminish the human factor. Instead, I think data and technology will augment doctors and teachers’ natural intuition and bolster their efforts.

BT: Any advice to technology companies looking to partner with educators?

EB: Smart, capable people have been trying to reform education for years. Tech firms should follow the lead of these pioneers and work to unharness and scale their effectiveness. Companies shouldn’t assume that they can transform education by wholesale transferring technology solutions from other industries. They need to understand the dynamics of this vertical and then apply innovative thinking and R&D process to unlock value and bring down barriers.

Doreen Lorenzo, Director, Center for Integrated Design
College of Fine Arts, University of Texas, Austin, TX
@doreenl

We connected with Doreen just as the Center for Integrated Design celebrates its one-year anniversary at UT. She will be speaking at SXSWedu about Design Thinking as a Core Fundamental in Education, discussing lessons from launching the new undergraduate program and offering guidance for educators looking to integrate design thinking.

BT: What’s inspiring you these days, Doreen?

DL: Students constantly inspire me. Their reactions to our program are so visceral. They get so excited to have new resources available to them.

BT: These are students in your new program?

DL: Yes, we’ve launched a multi-disciplinary program that extends across business engineering, architecture, fine arts, to teach methodologies of human-centered design. Essentially, it’s about teaching students to be better problem solvers and more critical thinkers. And also teaching them about empathy, with an emphasis on collaborative learning. It includes many applicable skills that will prepare students for the real world.

BT: So would you call these fundamental skills?

DL: Absolutely. They should really be taught more in high school. We start off by letting kids play, but as they get older, we get so focused on standardized testing, that critical thinking is sidetracked. There’s also a strong “fear of failure” at play. We don’t encourage continuous learning. We tend to focus on mastering a subject, and moving on. I’m hoping we can start to change that.

BT: Is the concept of human-centered design gaining traction?

DL: It is. Businesses are already doing it with workshops and courses. But it’s not a unified, understood concept yet, like say, an MBA. I’m inspired to help clarify it. We recently connected with other universities at a symposium to discuss whether there might be a need for an organizing body, to define best practices.

BT: Will we hear more about this at SXSWedu?

DL: You will. This will be my first time speaking at the conference. I’m proud to represent UT. For a large state institution to commit to something this innovative, it’s impressive.

BT: How do you approach SXSW as an attendee?

DL: The value of SXSW is that there are literally hundreds of programs and opportunities to learn about something new. I think you have to just pick a couple of things you’re interested in, and be flexible and open to the rest. There is so much networking happening, at both the conference and parties. Austin really embraces it, so there’s a lot to take in.

Yasmina Vinci, Executive Director
National Head Start Association, Washington DC
@YasminaNHSA

The National Head Start Association recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Yasmina Vinci will be participating in a panel discussion at this year’s SXSWedu entitled Fostering the Maker Movement in Early Childhood Education. We chatted about Head Start, the challenges it faces, and the inspiration it continues to provide.

BT: 50 years! What a milestone for Head Start!

YV: Yes. It’s been a great time for us to look back, and also look forward. To renew our mission, we’ve just launched the Head Starter Network, with a focus on championing innovative practices in early childhood education.

BT: This is also Head Start’s first time at SXSWedu.

YV: Yes. It’s our debut! We have always been fans of the conference, so we’re excited to participate this year. In addition to my panel, our colleague Rick Mockler will also be participating in the panel Bringing Innovation into Early Learning.

BT: Are there any other sessions or speakers you would recommend?

YV: I am always interested in how different sectors and industries can come together to create new opportunities. Early education is our niche, so I’ll likely look for topics that can translate and be applied for young learners.

BT: How does technology affect your mission?

We see the shift to more data-driven performance standards in our industry and also the role technology increasingly plays with today’s parents. These both present opportunities for Head Start to evolve our best practices. Obviously, we don’t want kids spending all day in front of screens, but we do want to find the most appropriate ways to bring technology into early childhood education.

BT: What makes you hopeful for the future?

YV: Whenever you get to spend time in the classroom with kids, or talk to parents who are proud of their children’s progress or their own increased involvement, those are incredibly motivating moments.

That said, there are potential challenges ahead. With our new administration comes a renewed interest in possibly moving from a federal program to a state-run system. We could also lose funding. This would bring additional challenges of retaining our workforce, and keeping a strong and inspired internal community. The good news is that Head Start is an incredibly resilient organization, and has overcome many obstacles in our 50+ years.

BT’s SXSWedu 2017 Picks

We’ve talked to the experts and studied the schedule — here’s our picks for SXSWedu 2017. Downloadable here for on-the-go use.

Looking for something a little more intimate?
Let’s Talk! We’re bringing small groups of thought leaders together during SXSWedu to discuss challenges and opportunities at the intersection of education and technology.

Big Tomorrow is a design consultancy based in Austin and San Francisco.

We help organizations solve complex challenges by building experiences that improve how people live, work, learn, and play. We’re design thinkers and doers who uncover opportunities, accelerate growth, and deliver meaningful results. Think we can help? Get in touch.

Edtech
SXSW
Sxswedu
Education
Experience Design

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Big Tomorrow
Big Tomorrow

Written by Big Tomorrow

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We’re a design consultancy based in Austin and San Francisco helping organizations solve complex challenges. Learn more: http://bigtomorrow.com

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