The SXSW PanelPicker is now open for voting, and Noodle has a record six proposals in the running! Now we need your help to bring the Noodle experience to Austin. You can vote once for each proposal individually by creating an account, and we hope you will!

Education For Profits Don't Have to Suck

Capitalism has turned out great phones, restaurants, and sports leagues, but in education, for-profit schools have dismal graduation rates compared to their non-profit peers--and sky-high profits. Strong financial and educational results don’t have to be mutually exclusive. A simple policy solution could create real transparency in higher ed; drive students away from for-profits with bad outcomes before they enroll; and incentivize companies to do good while doing well.

Education Lead Gen: the $1.25 billion plague

A shadowy network of websites is gaming search engines and preying on unsuspecting students, often first-generation college students. They’re called lead gen sites, and they hoodwink students into enrolling at low-quality, for-profit colleges, where they rack up debt but often emerge without a degree or a job. Lead gen sites are one of the main reasons it’s impossible to get good advice online about choosing a college, and it’s time to shut them down.

How Tech Can Create Schools That Don’t Suck

Technology is going to disrupt education in one of two ways. It could unleash tremendous creativity and customization, or take the worst ideas in education today and put them on steroids. The future of education boils down to a few key decisions that we’re making now: the place of professors in a tech-enabled world; competency-based education; and just-in-time education. These issues are much bigger than the education world: education is 10% of the economy and has massive social implications. Technologists should get involved now, before we make mistakes that are hardened into law and haunt our future.

Who Gets to See and Use the Big Data?

Renowned educator and literacy software developer Jessica Reid Sliwerski finds that student-level data supports and empowers teachers, and it's also a critical tool for school & district leaders. Serial education entrepreneur John Katzman believes that student performance data should only be given to teachers, to incentivize teachers to embrace new forms of insight generation without hesitation or fear. Join a vigorous conversation about these competing visions for how best to deploy big data.

Tech x Teacher Prep x Disruption = Student Success

In different ways, these panelists are leaders challenging the status quo in education to help teachers and students today and tomorrow. They understand a continued rise in teacher attrition is a huge problem for all, and solutions come in the form of a smart intersection of tools and technology, support, education and mentorship. Successful teachers help us get to student success, and leadership in learning takes on new meaning when this group covers what it will take to get us there and why.

Create and manage topic-based higher-ed curricula

Higher-Ed curricula have centered around traditional courses for decades. As new learning paths (example: co-op programs) and competency requirements have emerged, colleges have struggled to adapt their curricula to keep pace. Lack of tools and technology to manage and package courseware at a granular (topic/concept) level has not helped. However, that is changing. Private liberal arts colleges and large universities alike are plotting changes on this front armed with new technologies.

Which panel are you most excited about? We can’t wait to see you at SXSW!