Just back from Austin, where I gave a flash talk on Transmedia Storytelling and Learning through Narrative Engagement Out of Time. I was humbled to participate on a panel with 12 amazing women who are literally cracking the code of educational technology, and laying the ground work for coming generations of STEM-smart women to lead the way in educational innovation.
But the greater engagement was in time, with the many remarkable people with the common mission of unlocking the potential in the young minds now learning, to enable them to create their own more vital, dynamic and engaged world. It gives me hope.
In fact, Twitter seemed to be the note-taking mode-of-record. A quick review of SXSWEdu via the micro-blogging platform (including most-tweeted) show the highlights of my own experience–and but a slice of the buzz around how technology, research, assessment and student engagement are transformed in the global open classroom:
Brad Ovenell-Carter, talking to an SRO crowd on how to spur student curated content creation and thinking, aka, Tweeting your class notes to spark deeper discussion using critical thinking. The idea: promote transparency and share your work with your classmates and the world, because learning is iterative: what we know today builds on what others have learned before.
Learning how to be the boss of your brain–a growth mindset, as opposed to the fixed mindset that “I can’t do math” or “I’m so dumb I’ll never get it” through metacognition training with Tracy Clark.
EdTech Women speaker Erica Gruen talks about being only the second woman ever to head up amajor cable company. “My mom called me my first day on the job and said, “Is what I hear thesound of glass shattering?”
And one shameless plug here, a visual captured from my presentation on Transmedia Storytelling and Learning through Narrative Engagement through Out of Time at the EdTech Women panel: to enter and engage in learning on a range of subjects, from the physics of time travel to language learning to 15th century Renaissance culture and society.
Can’t help but be impressed at the panels, workshops and presentations at #SXSWedu. With so many creative minds at work on the problem of adapting learning beyond acquiring information to making deeper insights and building skills for the digital age, the potential for engaging young minds in learning today, to prepare them for the challenges of tomorrow, is limitless.
In fact, I think we’re already on the way!