Last week I attended SXSW EDU. I have been attending since 2016. Below is a recap of my experience.
I observed the Question the Quo data being displayed at the conference. The survey results are very interesting.
I attended the “Empowering Education and Social Leaders through Better Applications” breakout session. The discussion was very insightful. It was refreshing to hear organizations that fund Edtech companies through their accelerator programs talk about a framework to make the application/submission process more streamlined and understandable. I was very impressed with the discussion of how impactful feedback could be provided to applicants who were not selected. I would like to give special kudos to Daniel Stein-Sayles. I had a follow up conversation with him later and came away feeling that he and the consortium of organizations that put on this session really understand the pain of startup companies who devote time and effort to submit applications. I hope all similar programs will institute this framework.
I attended “Promise & Peril: The Potential of Our Community Colleges. The speakers did an outstanding job of laying out how our Community Colleges can best serve their students. There was a discussion of partnerships with 4-year institutions, corequisite courses and earn to learn models. Examples of Community Colleges doing a great job were given as well. Two things stuck with me: 1) integrate career centers into every program on campus and 2) most students that attend Community Colleges want a bachelor’s degree. I hope other Community Colleges move to some of the models discussed.
I attended the “Hide & Seek: Find, Train, Place & Support Hidden Workers” session. I found the session very informative about “hidden” workers and what they need to be successful. Two things stuck with me: 1) some employers hire for attitude (passion), not aptitude and 2) skills-based hiring may be good a first job, but not a career.
I attended the “Build, Buy, or Partner: HBCUs & Tech Innovations” breakout session. I was very impressed with some of the partnerships with HBCUs that were used as examples in the discussion. The work that Dr. Manicia Finch is doing at South Carolina State is outstanding. Cecelia Marshall did a good job of explaining and tying everything together.
I attended the “Reimagining CTE & How Industry Can Support WBL for Students” session. Lisa Dughi gave a very good overview of how under resourced high school populations can be helped.
I attended the “Reimagining Workforce Development: Bridging the Skills Gap” session. Juanita Soranno and Pete Selden did an excellent job of demonstrating how to bridge the skills gap by utilizing partnerships with Community Colleges. One thing that stood out was how a Community College could partner with state and non-state agencies to address non-academic or skill needs like rent, food insecurity, etc.
For the first time I participated in a roundtable session. I attended, “Designing EdTech for Educators & Students” session. Each table was assigned mentors that would lead or facilitate discussion. Every so many minutes the mentors would move to different tables. The discussions at my table included: 1) how to find a cofounder, 2) how to do research, 3) funding and 4) how to build product for an audience.
The format for this session was that of a meetup. Each table had people who would give information about the work their organizations were doing in specific areas. It was a great meetup. I met quite a few people doing amazing things in the space.
I attended the, “Savior or Disruptor?: Non-Degree Credentials & Higher Ed” session. The work being done at the University of Texas by Lydia Riley and Wake Tech Community College by Anthony Caison is outstanding. Things that stood out included: 1) the one college approach, 2) getting faculty buy in for teaching non-degreed courses, 3) moving the career center into the non-degreed area of a college and 4) employers say that will hire based on skills, but job descriptions and hiring practices have not changed.
I attended, “A Nontraditional Approach to Bridging the Skills Gap” session. Terah Crews of ReUp Education presented a problem I dare say many are not aware of. How do you identify and recruit students that left your university without a degree or credential to come back. She elegantly lays out a narrative of how many there are and the impact if these people could be convinced to return to education.
Mentoring.
For the first time I served as a one-on-one mentor at SXSW EDU. I thoroughly ENJOYED the experience! I spoke to Ben Resnick of GMAT for Business School, Randall Fullington of the University of Colorado Boulder, Dennis Dahlmann of GetScale, Shiloh Burton of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. I hope I was able to be a sounding board and provided some answers tto the questions they had. Take the time to reach out to them on Linkedin and find out more about what they are doing, or want to do.
Amazing Change Makers I met or reconnected with.
I reconnected with Joshua Marks of Hip Hopportunity. He is continuing his work of using Hip Hop to connect young people to financial education. He has made some great progress since I first met him last year.
I met Tedrick Holmes of the Houston L.E.A.D. Preparatory Academy. He is putting in a school for Special Needs children. It was a pleasure to meet him. I have a heart for teachers and others that are making the lives of Autistic and other students with special needs better.
I met Leila Nuland of Hanover Research in the Mentor room.
Others I met include Elizabeth Kosop, Aatash Parikh, Katie Dumai, Carlisha Harris, Nathan Levin-Aspenson and Kirk Banghart.
Things I felt were missing.
There are too many sessions on skilled-based learning that do not include job recruiters, HR system implementers, small business owners. Typically, I see large company CEOs or other high ranking officials representing the hiring -side of this argument. We have to go a bit lower. We need to present why businesses say they want skills-based but continue to hire the old way. To do that you must include the people that are in the trenches. My area of expertise is in the implementation and use of HR systems. Please reach out to me ([email protected]) if you would like to broaden this conversation.
While there were several stem-based presentations what was missing was data and evidence of efficacy. There is an entire discipline around the interventions that are successful in getting more students from all groups to enroll and succeed in completing a STEM degree and go on to working in a STEM job. Understanding Interventions (https://understandinginterventions.org/) creates training and venues to develop research based on outcomes from STEM interventions as well as the ability to publish and cite this work. Dr. Anthony DePass is the executive director and a noted expert in this field. Please reach out to him if you would like to broaden your discussions on this subject.
