Cast Your Vote For Our SXSWedu Panels

Getting Smart hopes to participate in SXSWedu this year with one of its five panel ideas that cover education innovation, investment in edtech, digital learning initiatives, open educational resources (OER), games in learning, math learning, Big Data, and more. SXSW invites its community to cast votes on which panels they’d like to see in March 2013.
We encourage you to vote on one or a few of our panel ideas listed below:

Investing in Education Innovation

The shift to personal digital learning is the best opportunity we have ever had to boost achievement and extend access. For interested donors and funders that want to make a difference in education we will outline investment options, both philanthropic grants and return seeking. The session will also be useful for schools and organizations seeking to raise money and wanting to learn how to speak to donors and investors.

Speakers include:

Tom Vander Ark Getting Smart
Alex Hernandez Charter School Growth Fund

Vote now!

Ease on Down the Digital Learning Road

Panel Participants will include the team behind the Digital Learning Now! Smart Series papers. Leadership from Digital Learning Now! and Getting Smart will share highlights from the paper series designed to explore the implementation challenges at the intersection of the shift to digital learning and the Common Core State Standards. Panelists will share the top considerations that leaders must address in order to ease the transition to personal digital learning. Topics include: funding the shift to digital learning, building expanded learner profiles, prepping for online assessments and moving to competency-based learning.
Speakers include:

Carri Schneider Getting Smart
Tom Vander Ark Getting Smart
John Bailey Digital Learning Now!

Vote now!

Open, Mobile, Social, Gaming, the Learning Environment

Reports show that students say school is too easy, that they are bored, and unengaged. These are the same students that engage with technology for hours on end as they learn, play, share and experience life through as digital natives. Engaged in video games for hours on end, using mobile apps to find and share information that just a few years ago was unavailable, and, (some still do) read books, while multi-tasking with a smart phone or tablet searching for additional information about the subject they are reading. Yet, when the school bell rings all the technology shuts off and with it, the engagement. Progressive teachers and district are meeting students where they are – digitally – to create student-centric learning environments that prepare kids for college, careers and the 21st century. A panel including of experts discuss the trends and future of technology in the learning experience – beyond the classroom.

Speakers include:

Tad Druart Compass Learning
Arthur Vanderveen Compass Learning
Tom Vander Ark Getting Smart/ Open Education Solutions
Andrew Druart The Civil War for Kids

Vote now!

Brain Research & Math Learning: Real or Rhetoric?

In order to achieve the goals of Common Core State Standards and raise the bar for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) performance in the United States, we must first understand the the neuroscience behind math learning. Dr. Matthew Peterson and Nigel Nisbet share extensive success and stories that leverage blended learning, game-mechanics and the gamification of math concepts to engage and inspire students to revolutionary math proficiency levels.
Speakers include:

Matthew Peterson MIND Research Institute
Nigel Nisbet MIND Research Institute

Vote now!

Donuts, Data and Deep Dives

We all remember the Dunkin’ Donuts commercial where a sleepy employee rolls out of bed & murmurs, “It’s time to make the donuts.” Every day. Without fail.
Our public education system suffers the same rinse-repeat drudgery. Educators teach to the mean in industrial-age classrooms. Top students are bored; others get left behind. Everyone suffers through standardized tests that are over-valued as measures of success & progress.
Personalized, data-driven education can break the cycle. The data is already there: Educators collect troves of it every day. But then it gets stored and siloed. To finally address our national education crisis, we need to put that data to work in classrooms.
Speakers include: