Last year another part of the whole South by Southwest experience was initiated, SXSWedu. While it shares the South By name and includes some of those involved in its older cousin, SXSWedu is considered a separate conference. This year’s convention will be March 6 – 8 at the Downtown Hilton in Austin.
Austin Hilton Downtown
Highlights include a roster of those in the Distinguished Speaker Series. They include Steven Farr of Teach for America and Mike Feinberg of KIPP Houston, as well as Catherine Casserly, the CEO of Creative Commons, The University of Texas’s S. Craig Watkins, a professor in radio, technology, and film whose research focuses on social and media behaviors, is another.
Jane McGonigal
One of those generating quite a buzz is game designer Jane McGonigal, whose SuperBetter was designed as a therapeutic game to promote healing in those dealing with mild brain injuries – and originally helped in her own recuperation from an injury. SuperBetter has been applied to help many feel better faster through any illness or injury, or even chronic conditions such as diabetes, migraine or asthma.
LeVar Burton
Then there are each day’s keynote speakers: LeVar Burton, a successful director, writer, and actor, is familiar to many for roles as Kunta Kinté in the miniseries Roots, as Geordi La Forge in the sci fi series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and for public television’s Reading Rainbow. He is one of the 100 most-followed people on Twitter with more than 1.74 million followers currently. Marjorie Scardino, the chief executive of Pearson, an international educational and media corporation consisting of Pearson Education, Penguin, and the Financial Times Group gives the keynote address on Day 2. The final keynote speaker is U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
By any standards, the quality of the notable figures in education and beyond who will be presenting is outstanding and reflects well on SXSWedu.
The various presentations and panels during the concurrent sessions address a variety of themes of interest in both K-12 and Higher Education. Separate strands focus on early childhood, digital content, assessment, college and career readiness, general as well as higher education, gaming and learning, statewide portals, virtual learning and courses, research and evaluation, Project Share, open educational resources, and emerging trends. Panels can be solo or duo presentations or panel discussions.
Panelists and presenters are chosen through the Panel Picker, an online system for presenting programming suggestions and proposals. As with the Panel Picker for other SXSW conventions, members of the SXSWedu community review, vote, and comment about the various proposals before the final line-up is selected. Continue reading “Exploring the 2012 SXSWedu” »
