We invite you #InTheLab.
The Future of Learning House is a space to play, explore, and engage with what's next in education at SXSW EDU.
RSVP below for details, or drop by at 1006 Daniel Dr.
Let's break bread.
You're at the conference to learn, but you also gotta eat. That's why we have free food at each event. Let's build community by breaking bread.
Come chill with us.
Just need a place to co-work, decompress, or chat without an agenda? We got you. Come hang out in between your SXSW EDU sessions.
Hitch a ride over.
A van will be driving back and forth from the Convention Center to the House throughout Tuesday and Wednesday. We'll be picking up at the Fairmont Austin. Lookout for our logo on the outside of the van. Vans were generously provided by our friends at Shoelace Learning.
No Panels, Please.
Each session is interactive and engaging, helping you imagine, design, and build the future of learning.
The House is brought to you by the Scully Peretsman Foundation,
and in collaboration with our friends at Shoelace Learning!
Schedule on Tuesday, March 5
Can We Be Friends With Chatbots?
Join Michelle Culver and Julia Freeland Fisher for an interactive dialouge about how to center humanity in the age of generative AI.
What will happen when a crisis of youth disconnection & loneliness meets a world shaped by AI? In the last two years, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of AI companions. They take a range of forms — virtual boyfriends, math tutors, research guides, therapists, video-game playmates. Reid Hoffman asserts that we’re not far from a future when “everyone’s going to have their own personal intelligent assistant that will be a companion as they navigate life.” Already we are seeing this technology disrupt schools, the internet, jobs, and any number of tenets of life as we know it. There is no question that it will reshape the way we relate to ourselves and others. But how? During this breakfast conversation, we’ll get hands on with these emerging tools in order to consider what happens to human relationships if that future comes to be. What hunger for connection can these chatbots satiate? What can’t they? And what beliefs or behaviors might they reinforce, support, or deteriorate?
9:00-11:00am, breakfast snacks and coffee
We Are All
Storytellers
**From our friends at Story Xperiential (Pixar and Khan Academy veterans)**
Storytelling is critical to who we are as humans and is a critical life and workplace skill. In this hands-on and interactive session, you will learn how to create meaningful stories and support students to do the same using project-based lessons from the Story Xperiential program. Story Xperiential is a community centered storytelling platform that helps participants experience real world learning by working on authentic projects as done at companies they admire. Peer to peer feedback and lessons from professionals who work at Pixar, Disney, Netflix and other studios guide participants to learn how to craft stories. Learn about storytelling career opportunities, have fun telling stories and create portfolio pieces.
11:30am-1pm, lunch
The Sneaker Bot: AI, Sneakers, and Storytelling!
In this session you're going to learn how to apply design principles to anything in pursuit of creating a special learning experience. We're going to use sneakers to tell powerful stories about what the future of learning can be. You'll grab some new skills, meet some new folks and have a chance to WIN some dope sneakers.
1:30-3:00pm, snacks
URL Breakfast
Are you part of the "United Reinvention Lab," the Reinvention Lab's community? Do you want to be? Come hang out with us. No agenda, no outcome. Just hanging out, drinking coffee, and eating breakfast with other people thinking deeply about equity and innovation in education.
9:00-10:00am, breakfast snacks and coffee
Building and Playing the Game of Life
Thinking about what comes after high school shouldn't be as stressful as it is. It should be fun and even viral in some cases. We're setting out to build a series of life skills challenges that engage students in the practice of mindset development and skills development that will help them shape their lives after high school. We invite you to help us build and test some of these challenges. In this session you'll get to learn about how we view this by jumping into the work with us. You'll actually do one of the challenges we've built and will even have the chance to build your own life skills challenge.
11:00am-1:00pm, lunch
Educating AND COMPENSATING Youth
**From our friends at Dent Education**
Teens from under-resourced backgrounds are often forced to choose: do a job, earn now OR do an enriching program, build future career skills and mindsets. Earn-to-Learn Programs end this false choice by paying youth in a supportive, empowering environment. Tailored for program directors, non-profit leaders, and policy makers advocating for youth empowerment and economic justice, this session delves deep into the reasons for and challenges involved with compensating AND educating youth.
2:30-4:00pm, snacks
AI Roundtable: Building Ethical Tools and Practices
**A live podcast recording from our friends at ESAI**
When parents and teachers hear the words “AI” and “students” in the same sentence, their first question is often, “is that ethical?” AI builders discuss the ways in which the tech should and shouldn’t be used in education, and how we can begin to map out the roles and responsibilities of builders, teachers, and students.
1:00-3:30pm, snacks
AI Poetry Slam: A "Leadership Journeys" Pre-Game
First of all, if you haven't beeen to Big Picture Learning's Leadership Journeys, you need to check it out. Here's the link, register before it sells out!
OR, head to a happy hour hosted by our friends at Teach For America - Austin from 6-8:30. So many incredible options this evening!
Before you head to either place, head over to the Future of Learning House for a fun, goofy way to play with AI. At the happy hour, we'll create poetry using AI tools, present them to each other in true poetry-slam style, and discuss who wins the prize for poetry: humans or AI?
4:00-5:30pm: Happy hour beverages and snacks
Schedule on Wednesday, March 6
The Hallcraft School Studio
**From our friends at Hallcraft School Studio**
Hallcraft's mission is to start and support high-quality, nonstandard schools that reimagine what education could be. We're thrilled to be popping-up in the Future of Learning House for the day on Wednesday, March 6th. During our session our team and studio will be available to all potential school founders in a casual "office hours" format. Are you thinking about starting a school? Do you have a wildly imaginative idea that you want to test drive? Come through the Hallcraft studio! Swing by with your idea and we'll get to work.
9:00-11:00am, breakfast snacks and coffee
2:00-4:00pm, snacks
FutureShock!: Reimagining “career readiness” through meaningful, experiential learning
Career exploration is challenging, irrespective of age. It’s especially tough for young people in the traditional k-12 system right now. Most young people are not sure what they want to do after graduating high school. They’re increasingly skeptical of traditional higher ed options. And alternative paths are unclear. Moreover, most high schoolers lack the underlying skills needed to explore career and post-secondary options. This includes skills for self-direction; reflecting on one’s interests; and translating one’s interests into concrete projects.
We believe that building your future is more than just about finding a job. The starting point does not have a single trajectory; it involves developing different skills over time and combining them in different ways. Last summer, we piloted FutureShock! - a ten-day experience where high schoolers explore career interests through hands on projects with others - in three cities across the country. FutureShock enabled students to work on cool projects and find people to support and challenge them, all while making meaning of how what they’re learning and doing might set them up for the future. By the end of the program, 100% of participants said they would want to do the program again, and 97% completed an interest-driven project in just two weeks!*
During our time together, you’ll get to experience what young people experienced this summer - from building with AI tools to curating a photo narrative to tracing your own path. Your mind will be whirring with ideas and inspiration of how you think about “career readiness”.
9:00-11:30am, breakfast snacks and coffee
Dream Design Meets Wellness: Navigating Your Goals with Heart and Mind
**From our friends at Uprooted Academy**
In this interactive session, participants will step into the shoes of students using our innovative app, engaging in a live demonstration of setting personal goals and navigating through dream design with a focus on wellness. This experience mirrors the student journey within our platform, blending aspiration with well-being. Attendees will leave with a sneak peek of our new platform and a deeper understanding of how technology can harmonize educational ambitions with mental health, fostering a holistic approach to learning and personal development. Join us to explore the intersection of dreams, wellness, and technology, and discover how we're shaping the future of learning for the next generation.
2:00-3:00pm, snacks
Charting the Course: From Science of Reading to
Full Literacy
**From our friends at Shoelace Learning**
This is an invite-only, private event.
To move literacy targets from theory to practice, district road maps must account for both foundational reading skills and reading comprehension skills. During this round table, district administrators will share their experiences situating Science of Reading and early literacy materials within larger scopes and sequences. Facilitated by education strategists from Shoelace Learning, this session will unpack the criteria that constitutes a fully literate learner and provide a framework for vertically aligned, cross-grade curriculum development and implementation.
8:00-9:30am, breakfast snacks and coffee
Shoelace Learning Demo
**From our friends at Shoelace Learning**
Join Shoelace's founder and team as we explore the immersive engagement of our games, the academic rigor of our content, and the insightful analytics of our educator dashboard. All designed to empower educators and learners alike, the platform value (much of which is free) will revolutionize your notion of what supplemental resources can offer.
9:40-10:00am, breakfast snacks and coffee
1:1 Literacy Curriculum and Instruction Consultations
**From our friends at Shoelace Learning**
With Science of Reading methodologies gaining traction, districts now have a firm basis on foundational literacy and are positioned to expand their work. Register for a complimentary thirty-minute session with an educational strategist, and build your road map for literacy curriculum and instruction across grades K-12.
9:45am-12:00pm, breakfast snacks and coffee
Dreamscape Gameplay Sessions
**From our friends at Shoelace Learning**
Drop in and play with us! Experience why Dreamscape, Shoelace Learning's award-winning reading comprehension platform, was recognized as a Top 20 product at the 2023 ASU GSV Cup.
12:00-4:00pm, snacks
Crossing the Canyon: Evolving how we support youth
after high school
Hear the hottest insights from the Reinvention Lab's ethnographic research on how leading organizations are trying to help more young people "cross the canyon" from childhood into adulthood. Begin to map yourself and other orgs working in support of youth navigating life after high school onto a 2x2 framework to: visualize the broader ecosystem of navigation support, spot the gaps, and begin to think about moving into action.
3:30-4:30pm, snacks
TFA Alum and Friends: Party Like It's 2099
Join us in celebrating a week of learning and collaboration with great music, great friends, and great views!
Before you head over here, head over to the d.school's Futures Studio; their wrap party rocks from 5-7 in the Convention Center!
6:00-9:00pm, beverages and snacks
Partner Events
We're not the only ones bringing 🔥 to SXSWedu.
Check out these two events from some of our partners, happening outside of the Future of Learning House, that you should definitely check out while you're at the conference.
Click each image to learn more!
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The Reinvention Lab is proud to be part of Teach For America
Teach For America seeks to ensure all children have access to an excellent education. But the definition of excellent is not fixed— instead, it is constantly evolving to meet the needs of young people and the rapidly changing world.
If we are to remain a powerful and relevant force in the education discussion, we must also evolve. We must be in deep partnership with those forging a new future, constantly interrogating the implications for our work. We must acknowledge both the brilliance and harm of our history, zeroing in on the unique assets we have to bring to this moment. We must be willing to imagine and test bold ideas and commit to ways of being that enable us to be nimble.
The Reinvention Lab is TFA's R&D engine. It enables TFA to lean into this next frontier— to look ahead to where the education sector must go and identify tactics, insights, and modes of operating that can catalyze this future.
More from the Reinvention Lab
Learn more about the Reinvention Lab by exploring our publications!
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