The South by Southwest conference, famous for spotlighting a variety of filmmakers, musicians, and entrepreneurs, will feature Georgetown representatives for the first time in its conference on educational innovation, SXSWedu. The conference will be held on Mar. 5 in Austin, Texas.
The panel, “Designing the Future University from the Inside,” will include Provost Robert Groves, Chief Information Officer Lisa Davis, and Program Manager for Innovation and New Media Strategy Michael Wang (MSB ’07). They will sit among representatives from the University of Texas at Austin, Teach for America, Microsoft, and the U.S. Department of Education. The conference will focus on how innovations and technology can be integrated into university education.
Georgetown representatives have been attending as audience members since 2011, but this year will be the first time that they will be featured on a panel. Out of a total of 1000-1500 panelist entries, about 600 went into the crowd source voting and about 100 were chosen as panelists.
“When we went the first couple of years, there was a disconnect between entrepreneurs creating solutions for academia without the context and the experience behind the experts in the field that have been doing this,” Davis said.
Groves said those who were dismissive of technology’s role in the world of education may now see how important it has become. “Those who were a little more bold on their predictions in how technology could answer every question are now saying that there is a reason to think about [traditional education] and new [technology] together,” he said.
Georgetown representatives will discuss their Initiative on Tech Enhanced Learning, the $8 million fund dedicated to technological innovation at Georgetown, and Hackathon, the conference for the Georgetown community to discuss innovation at Georgetown first launched in November 2012.
Groves said the panel also hopes to collaborate with universities for new ideas. “Sometimes these events end up being quite important because we pick up a connection. It’s rare that you walk out of these things without new ideas,” he said.
