I recently had the chance to interview Kabren Levinson of the SXSWi panel “Blackboards or Backchannels: The Techno-Induced Classroom of Tomorrow.” For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Levinson, know that he is currently in his first year of school at Bard College and already taking part in a SXSWi panel. He is the host of a popular podcast and makes most college students look like slackers with his work at the MIT Media Lab Computing Culture Group and his creation of a Academic Technology program at his former high school.  We look forward to seeing what else Kabren accomplishes in the future and be sure to check out his panel on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. in room B.

1. You are currently in your first year of college and already taking part in a SXSW panel, how did this come about?

Alex Leavitt, the organizer of the panel I will be speaking about, heard about my work in Academic Technology, and expressed his interest. After my presentation at Podcamp Boston 2 and 3, my work was getting publicity. I tried my best to be active in the Boston Social Media community, attending events like Podcamp and various Social Media Breakfasts with Jeff Pulver. In August, 2008, just before I started my career at Bard College, Alex invited me to participate on his panel. My speaking at SXSW mostly comes from my Educational Technology Capstone Project in my senior year of high school.

2. Your panel is over technology becoming a bigger part of classroom learning and the possible future implications of doing so. What technological changes do you see happening in the not so distant future of classrooms?

In the near future, I see more Internet-based social technologies being used in the classroom. Personally, I am a big advocate of classroom use of blogs and wikis to help develop classroom culture outside of the classroom. I hope to see updated computer labs, that actually allow students to explore technology as much as they like. In my experience, schools have slow and restricted Internet connections, which effectively shuts out the world. It would be amazing to see schools again be the places where people go to experiment with new technology (educational institutions were among the first organizations to have Internet connections). In short, I see more social technology being used and computer/multimedia labs being improved and redesigned.

3. Looking at your achievements, you have accomplished more in high school than most people do in college. What do you hope to accomplish in your time at Bard College? Any particular projects you hope to work on?

In college, I hope to do work similar to my projects in high school. I am still very passionate about technology in the classroom, and I hope to soon be able to use my experience in Academic Technology to help improve the state of technology at my college. Moreover, I hope to get a good grounding in college (right now I’m a philosophy major, not something related to technology) so I can really be able to do more work after college. I hope to be able to work with teachers to help them use technology in and out of their classroom.

4. You have your own podcast called “Nerd News Radio,” what can you tell our readers about your show and where to find it?

Nerd News Radio is a podcast about science, technology, and anything nerdy. You can find and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or visit the website, www.nerdnewsradio.com

5. Are there any panels that you look forward to seeing while at SXSW?

There are so many panels to look forward to, but I’m particularly excited about Jonathan Zittrain’s panel called “Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet.”

Thanks to Kabren for the interview and if you want to know more about the young technology panelist then check out his capstone project from high school to get a look at what he is capable of.