Headed to SXSW Interactive Festival March 9-13
Posted by arvind s grover Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:39:09 GMT
I am fortunate to work in a school where 1) professional development is valued, and 2) the nearly limitless potential impact of technology is recognized.
Because of that, my school is sending me to the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. I work/live in New York City, so sending me to Austin comes at a significant expense to the school. However, SXSW is a place where some of the most brilliant thinkers on technology and the future will be presenting. This is an opportunity for me to learn about developing technologies and approaches to using them. Most people who attend SXSW aren’t educators – but, they are thinkers. And that is why I want to be there. I want to push the boundaries of how we think about education and what’s possible. I plan to surround myself with outside-of-the-box folks who might help inspire future projects within my school.
My school, while traditional, became a 1:1 laptop school in 1998. This was very early, and as a girls school was pioneering. We are now 9 years in to the program and we know a lot more than when we started. Computers in the hands of every student have great potential, but require a dramatic shift in the way we think about the classroom. School change is an art and science, and anyone good will tell you that real changes takes years and great effort. I hope to be inspired by folks at SXSW like Kathy Sierra, Will Wright, Dan Rather, Limor Fried and hosts of other speakers who will be there.
So many of us attend professional development sessions that train on completely hands-on skills. That is great, that is necessary. But, are we spending enough time doing professional development on vision, on future-thinking? Probably not, so I am going to seize this opportunity.
Is anyone else going to South by Southwest? Please leave a comment, perhaps we can have an educator meetup in Austin.
Technorati Tags: 1:1, Austin, Creating Passionate Users, Dan Rather, education, future, Kathy Sierra, laptops, Limor Fried, professional development, school, school change, South by Southwest, SXSW, Texas, vison, Will Wright
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How cool is that. I am really jealous. You are right, we often times focus on the here and now and don’t plan for the future. I can’t wait to readh about your experience.
I’m officially jealous. :)
Tech by day, great music and film by night… I wish I would have thought of that! Have fun arvind, and bring us back some fresh ideas (as you always do).
I know there are some other K-12 folks going down there, but having a hard time finding them. Posted it on upcoming.org: http://upcoming.org/event/154114/ Let’s see if I can meet up with any other lower ed folks…
I’ll do my best to transfer my experiences to you all through my blogging/webcasting.
cool. i wouldn’t have the guts asking my school to pay despite that i’m the official go-to-geek on campus! kudos to you! :)
i’ll definitely be there, on my pennies, and i just received an email from andy carvin (http://www.andycarvin.com), the learning.now (http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/) blogger for pbs, stating he will be there, as well. it would be good and refreshing to connect the k-12 teacherGeeks at sxsw. let me know if you’re meeting up somewhere.
i’ve grown tired of most, if not all, edtech conferences, so i’m really looking fwd to this as a new alternative for me.
Yeah, I’m definitely going – March 9-14. I’m not going specifically related to edtech – I’m just planning to hang out, shoot some video, absorb as much as I can and perhaps do some coverage for NPR . But if there’s any kind of edtech meeting I’d be interested….
Saul and Andy, that is great that you both will be down there. There is a higher ed meetup, but I am more interested the K-12 angle. Why don’t you both sign up for the upcoming.org K-12 meetup and we can figure it out down there: http://upcoming.org/event/154114/
I don’t know anything about Austin, so if you have an idea for a venue, let me know.
i signed up for upcoming and for the meeting. perhaps we can choose a venue/party/happy hour already happening and meet up for a drink. maybe one of the early ones at the park—mozilla party, dorkbot, ?—whatever you decide, ill definitely do my best to be there.
Will you be live blogging from there? Of course I’m curious of the Dan Rather piece.
Awesome opportunity Arvind!
see above comment
Amy, I’ve never been a good live blogger, but I might try. I am going to be doing some live webcasts at EdTechTalk.com. Schedule will hopefully be up on the site by Friday.