Live from SXSWedu in Austin, TX

This is a post by JBFC Senior Faculty / Program and Curriculum Developer Aaron Mace

Here I am in Austin, Texas at the SXSWedu Conference! First of all, I have to admit that it is great to be away from the snow. It’s been chilly and raining here but there are palm trees outside. What a welcome sight!

This year the JBFC is hosting a booth at the Edu Playground, an interactive space for hands-on activities which highlight innovative and creative approaches in discovery-based learning. All week we’ll be showcasing some of the coolest features on our website: View Now Do Now’s (VNDNs) and the Visual Glossary. Check out this special View Now Do Now we’ve created just for SXSWedu. So far, we’ve been getting pretty great responses!

All sorts of people have come by our booth to talk: public and private school teachers, advocates for kids with special needs, delegates from a Chinese school who send their students to the US, higher education professors, and even a few neighbor-organizations from Chappaqua, Hartsdale, and Sleepy Hollow.

Our booth is located right in front of the Playground Stage. Throughout the day there have been interesting talks from a variety of field-leaders and innovators such as: the Ann Richards School, an all girls school here in Texas that requires every student to participate in their maker space throughout high school; CPD for Teachers, a UK-based organization which teaches kids as young as 5 programming; and Flowstory, a couple of college professors who use music to help communities and individuals grow.

Today I will be joined by fellow JBFC faculty member, Sean Weiner. We will take turns going to and participating in interesting discussions and workshops for the remainder of the week. Stay tuned for more updates, photos, and tweets!