Texas State

The SXTXState team at the Awesomest Journalism Party Ever

It hardly seems real, but yet another whirlwind of SXSW has flown through my life, leaving me enlightened, exhausted, well-connected and honestly, a bit depressed. It’s always difficult to go back to your regularly scheduled life after being introduced to so many new ideas, people, products and concepts in a such an inviting environment, surrounded […]

Election 2012: Campaigns, Coverage & the Internet

A rockstar panel spoke at the AT&T Conference Center for South by Southwest Interactive on how social media is giving the presidential race a much needed makeover. Claudia Milne with BBC, Micah Sifry with Personal Democracy Media, Michael Scherer with Time Magazine, Teddy Goff and Zeynep Tufekci all gave compelling arguments for how candidates for the 2012 election are capitilizing […]

How Not to Die: Using Tech in a Dictatorship

““We are about upgrading our humanity and our own freedom.” –  Mark Belinsky Iphones, Twitter, Facebook and the like aren’t just for Americans wanting to talk about what bar to meet at or what celebrity said what anymore. Now this amazing technology has made its way into the hands of some of the most oppressed […]

John Boyer

John Boyer has a unique message: gigantic classes can build an environment with tremendous sense of communities and connection, engage students, and turn them into excited, lifelong learners. For three years, he’s been experimenting and perfecting the process. See preview here He has help with that, including one specialist in instructional technology, Katie Pritchard, and […]

This will be the third year that Dr. Hans Ibold (@hanspi) has traveled to SXSW Interactive with a group of students from Indiana University. In helping them prep for the event, I spent a little time on Skype providing some advice. They had some great questions and observations. I look forward to meeting them all […]

Preview - "Social Media in Colombia: An Agent for Change"

The role of social media has played an integral part all around the world, including Colombia. Partly due to drug trafficking, Columbia has been in a state of armed conflict since the 60’s, but since the 80’s the violence from drug trafficking has become much worse. In “Social Media in Colombia: An Agent for Change,” […]

The Revolution Will Be Digitized

When was the last time you were asked to join a Facebook group entitled “One Million Strong For [Insert random cause].” Probably quite recently. At the Sxsw panel “How Social Networks Are Killing the Revolution,” panelists discussed how social networks are actually hindering real world action and change from occurring. Steve Swedler (Gangplank) attempted to […]