In March, I had the opportunity to attend the SXSWedu conference in Austin, TX. Overall, the conference was an amazing opportunity to engage in sessions, workshops, hands on experiences, and networking among other educators committed to the future of teaching and learning. The #SXSWedu conference is one of the top learning and innovation conferences available. From my experience, this was immediately evident from: the quality of sessions and presenters (think TED talk quality), the variety of formats available (see image below), and the powerfully inspiring keynotes. Dr. Temple Grandin’s keynote, Helping Different Kinds of Minds Solve Problems. Dr. Grandin’s keynote still has me evaluating my work with our students and hoping I do not miss opportunities to support students with some degree of spectrum condition. As the organizers of the #SXSWedu put it, the conference is “inspired by a diverse lineup of visionary speakers, compelling sessions, and networking opportunities.”
If you would like to get a sense of other participant’s “takeaways” from the conference, search on Twitter for the hashtag #SXSWedu. You will find people still commenting on the impact of the conference and how it relates to teaching and learning. Also consider a general Google News search and read what education journalist say about the conference - here is one from USA today I retweeted recently. For a sense of the offerings and the scale/scope of the conference, please browse the program guide. Looking through these sources should make evident that #SXSWedu is not a tech conference, it is an opportunity to learn about education.
When describing this conference to colleagues, I find it important to share the structure of how the conference is delivered. The image below (from the SXSWedu program guide) provides an overview of the variety of formats and session formats available. Couple this with 15 different thematic tracks and concurrent sessions and you end up with one fantastic dilemma - having to choose a session among many great options! The difficult choices between all the engaging and interesting topics available was similar to my childhood days with only $.05 in my pocket and making a tough decision regarding which candy would be the lucky one.
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