To accompany SXSWEdu session proposal

1. EdTechBridge
SXSWEdu 2017

2. OUR MISSION
#EdTechBridge is a twitter chat and online community with a goal of
facilitating collaboration among edtech stakeholders (educators,
developers, researchers, students, etc.) to build better EdTech for our
students.

3. WHO WE ARE
Steve Isaacs
Steve has been teaching for 24 years. He
teaches Video Game Design and
Development at William Annin Middle
School. Through the years, Steve has
developed relationships with EdTech
companies (E-line Media, BrainPOP,
TechSmith, Microsoft, PBS Learning Media,
YoYoGames, etc.) to provide input to guide
product development, recruit student voice,
and share resources with other educators.
He is passionate about student choice and
student voice in education.

4. WHO WE ARE
Katya Hott
Katya is the UX Research at BrainPOP,
working with BrainPOP’s design team
and teachers and students to collaborate
on designs. Before coming to BrainPOP,
Katya worked as an ESL teacher in
Boston and was passionate about
incorporating technology in her
classroom. After teaching, Katya
received a Masters in Digital Media
Design for Learning from NYU and spent
three years as the learning content
producer for educational games at E-Line
Media.

5. SXSWEdu 2014
Bridging the Teacher-Entrepreneur Divide
Problem: Teachers want to bring innovative and effective technology to their
classrooms, and EdTech companies need teachers to evaluate their products
from inception to launch. Both parties know it's important to work together to
build good tools, but often run into the cultural divide that exists between
educators and technologists.
Session: In this problem solving session, we raised the issues that exist
between the teachers and EdTech creators and participants collaborated to
create a resource that both technologists and teachers could use to learn more
about each other and better communicate and collaborate. From this
workshop, the #EdTechBridge Twitter Chat and Community was born!

6. SXSWEdu 2015
During our first appearance at
#SXSWEdu in 2014, we promised to
create a resource to bridge the gap
between the two groups. From that
session came #edtechbridge: a
weekly chat that asks teachers and
EdTech professionals to share
practices, tackle problems, and
work together. In 2015, we hosted a
conversation on the successes and
challenges of building a teacher-
entrepreneur community and what it
means to make great EdTech
together.
Building the #EdTechBridge

7. SXSWEdu 2016
Real Examples: Teacher-Entrepreneur Collaboration
At SXSW 2016, a panel of #edtechbridge community members shared their
experiences working together outside of Twitter. The panel comprised two
teachers and two EdTech developers who have forged mutually beneficial
relationships that influenced the development and successful classroom
integration of products.

8. SXSWEdu 2016
Also . . .
The US Department of Education asked #EdTechBridge to facilitate meeting
bringing together Early Childhood Educators and EdTech Developers.

9. SXSWEdu 2017
Coming to SXSWEdu 2017 . . with your help!
Build Your Product with Teacher Voice
This year we will share our findings from this community on how to effectively
incorporate teachers' voices into an EdTech product in the form of strategies,
advice, case studies, and tales of success and caution.