Opening Session

Opening Session - 8:30-10:00am Tuesday, March 6

"On the Horizon: Harnessing Emerging Technologies in Education"

SXSWedu is pleased to team up with two other educational conferences for an opening session that will virtually connect SXSWedu attendees with their colleagues at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) conference in Washington, D.C. and the Society for Instructional Technology in Teacher Education (SITE) also in Austin.

On the Horizon will feature Larry Johnson, of the New Media Consortium, who notes “This interactive session will look back over a decade of findings from the highly influential Horizon Reports. What can we learn from these annual reports on emerging technologies for learning, and how should they inform the actions of teachers, administrators, colleges of education, policymakers and the private sector?” With the help of LifeSize video conferencing, each conference will be connected for a respondent to provide live reactions to Dr. Johnson's remarks. An interactive Q&A connecting SXSWedu, SITE and CoSN will conclude the session.

The respondent at SXSWedu will be Ken Kay, CEO of EdLeader21, the nation's first professional learning community for school district leaders dedicated to enhancing the 4C's: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. Ken has been the leading voice for 21st century education for the last decade. He co-founded the Partnership for 21st Century Skills in 2002 and served as its president for 8 years. Respondents from CoSN and SITE will be announced shortly.

Top photo courtesy of Tina Phan

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CoSN is the premiere professional association for school, district and educational service agency leaders. CoSN’s members are a unique blend of education and technology leaders and decision makers from the public and private sectors. The mission of CoSN is to empower K-12 district technology leaders to use technology strategically for the improvement of teaching and learning.

SITE (founded in 1990) is a society of the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). AACE (founded in 1981) is an international, educational, and professional organization dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge, theory and quality of learning and teaching at all levels with information technology.