March Conference Preview: BIE at SXSWedu, ASCD, Deeper Learning

 

March is here, and that means it’s time for education conferences. The Buck Institute for Education is sending teams to three events, so register soon if you want to catch one of these:

SXSWedu – March 6-9, Austin, Texas
This is part of the South by Southwest “family of conferences and festivals” – the gatherings of "creative professionals" that include “society’s true rock stars: educators!”  It’s huge—over 13,000 attended in 2016, including cutting edge education thought leaders, tech companies, nonprofit org folks, teachers, and school leaders. The program includes keynote speakers, hundreds of sessions, a policy forum, a film festival, a “playground” and… well, something for everybody.

BIE is involved in two sessions here:

Community Voices: An Immersive Project Based Learning Experience
Wed. March 8 from 11:00AM-5:00PM at the JW Marriott, Salon G.
This is one version of BIE’s “Project Slice” workshop, which I explained in this post last year. It is intended to give educators the chance to learn via PBL, which most did not experience when they were in school. Their “project” for the day: assume the role of community planners, work together in teams to explore the local and cultural context of San Diego, develop a digital interpretation of their findings, and craft a proposed vision for the future of the city. It’s being led by Rody Boonchouy, BIE’s senior director of innovation and partnerships, and Bob Lenz, BIE’s executive director.

 

Learning & Leading in a Project-Based World
Wednesday, March 8, 3:30PM-4:30PM at the Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon J.
This is a panel discussion (with three “empty chairs” so attendees can join in) on the topic “Project work will dominate careers of today's students. Explore the implications for preparing students for a relationship economy through the lens of teaching and learning through projects.” The panel includes BIE's chief program officer, Brandon Wiley, plus Marc Chun of the Hewlett Foundation, Kristin Cuilla of New Tech Network, and Tom Vander Ark of Getting Smart.

 

ASCD Empower 17 Annual Conference – March 25-27, Anaheim, California
BIE has been going to this event for years, with an exhibit hall booth and sessions presented by me and others. We’ll be at booth #948 if you want to stop by to say hello, check out our books, or talk about our professional development services.

In addition to our exhibit booth, we will have two things happening this year:

• We’re hosting an event to announce the first draft of “High Quality PBL Guidelines for Practice” and seek feedback. To create the guidelines, BIE is facilitating a process from now until 2018 that includes leading PBL organizations, practitioners, academics, and any other interested parties who would like to contribute.

 

Advanced Project-Based Learning for Equity, ELL, and Greater Authenticity
Monday, March 37, 1:00PM at the Anaheim Convention Center, level 3, room 303B.
This is being presented by me and my esteemed colleague Gina Olabuenaga, and here’s how I explained it in the program: “We will go beyond the basics of BIE’s model for Gold Standard PBL and explore issues of more advanced teacher and school practice. Many teachers have found PBL to be a tool for promoting educational equity for students furthest from opportunity, including its use with English language learners. PBL teachers have also found that classroom- or school-based projects, while valuable and appropriate in some cases, can become more powerful and even transformative for students if they involve authentic real-world problems, school communities, and external experts and organizations. Hear about K–12 examples in various subjects and apply BIE's lessons learned about these issues to your own project designs and PBL plans for your school.”

 

Deeper Learning 2017 – March 29-31, High Tech High, San Diego, California
This is the fifth annual Deeper Learning conference, and it’s always a wonderful event – see my blog post about it last year. It’s attended by around 1000 educators, mostly from the Deeper Learning network but also anyone interested in DL. Participants not only attend sessions and hear keynote speakers, but also have opportunities to do actual learning-by-doing in “deep dive” extended workshops and a makerspace.

BIE is facilitating one of the deep dive sessions:

Community Voices: An Immersive Project Based Learning Experience
Thurs. March 30 from 10:30AM-4:00PM.
This is one version of BIE’s “Project Slice” workshop, which I explained in this post last year. It is intended to give educators the chance to learn via PBL, which most did not experience when they were in school. Their “project” for the day: assume the role of community planners, work together in teams to explore the local and cultural context of San Diego, develop a digital interpretation of their findings, and craft a proposed vision for the future of the city. It’s being led by BIE’s Rody Boonchouy, senior director of innovation and partnerships, Bob Lenz, executive director, and Brandon Wiley, chief program officer.

 

It’s going to be a busy but productive month of travel. Join us, won’t you?

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