Management

TCEA 2023: 4 Major EdTech Themes Emerge for Upcoming San Antonio Convention

Tabletop cybersecurity exercises and leadership sessions are among the 700 sessions offered to a wide range of educators.

Taashi Rowe

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Taashi Rowe is the managing editor for EdTech: Focus on K-12 magazine.

Whether you are a novice or an expert, the 2023 TCEA Convention & Exposition will offer attendees their pick of hundreds of sessions focused on the intersection of education and technology. With the theme of “Passionate Educators. Limitless Possibilities,” the four-day event begins Monday, Jan. 30, and runs through Thursday, Feb. 2, in San Antonio.

The conference will feature something for everyone, from teachers and librarians to IT staff and school administrators. Each day begins with a morning “power hour” with featured speakers. These include Michael Hinojosa, former superintendent of Dallas Independent School District and now superintendent-in-residence at the Council of the Great City Schools, and Joe Dombrowski, an educator who’s spent years studying improv comedy.

In his session “How to Leverage Educational Technology as a Learning Strategy,” Hinojosa will share how forward-thinking school leaders use innovation to power learning, from career and technical education to personalized classrooms.

In Dombrowski’s Wednesday morning session, “Keep it REAL. Keep it FUN. Keep it UP!” he will share stories and strategies for maintaining a high level of engagement.

While the topics and sessions are numerous, we see four themes emerging for this convention.

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1. Sessions Offer Hands-On Technology Tips to Improve Learning

As schools continue to recover from the pandemic and focus on bouncing back from learning loss, many sessions offer hands-on tips on how teachers can use technology to help:

“Improving Reading Fluency and Confidence Through Reading Progress in Teams” will focus on how teachers can extract data from Microsoft Teams to help identify trends and areas for growth and create differentiated lessons.
“Integrating Media and Digital Picture Books Into PK-5 Mathematics” will explore how Microsoft 365 can make math innovative and fun.

Other teacher-focused sessions will showcase:

2. Sessions to Focus on Improving Professional Development

Although the entire conference can be considered professional development, those who train teachers will find lots of opportunities to refine their own teaching skills. “Establishing the Coaching Habit to Be More Effective” will explore the value of telling less and asking more in PD leaders’ work with teachers.

Presenters from Albuquerque Public Schools will lead the following sessions:

“Digital Badges: Encouraging Growth Within Your Tech Community” will look at developing learning objectives, generating materials, designing and assigning digital badges, and rewarding participation in professional development.
“Floating Through the Rough Waters of EdTech PD” will examine how tiered and differentiated approaches can buoy teachers drowning in too much data and PD.

LEARN MORE: What is leadership’s role in professional development?

3. Sessions Share Strategies to Protect Students and Their Data

School security also is at the top of the TCEA agenda with sessions such as:

CDW Education’s “The Four Pillars of School Safety” will address prevention, physical security, social-emotional learning and cybersecurity.
Verkada’s “Simplifying and Scaling Security Across Campuses” session will focus on using a fully integrated hardware and software solution for campus safety.
IT leaders from several districts will lead the “Interactive, Tabletop Cybersecurity Exercises You Can Experience and Apply” to prepare organizations for the worst-case scenario.
Judson Independent School District will share lessons learned from their 2021 ransomware attack in “Repair, Recovery and Innovation Post-Ransomware Attack.”

DIVE DEEPER: See how schools can take incident response planning to the next level.

4. Leadership Sessions Prepare Admins for Future-Ready Schools

The convention will also offer several leadership sessions for administrators of all stripes:

“Creating Future Ready Schools” session attendees will learn how to revamp teacher empowerment, personalized professional learning, innovative learning spaces, community partnerships and more.
“Prioritizing Equity” will look at how to collaboratively problem-solve to ensure equity in access and in opportunity.
“Future-Proofing the CTO Role” will review research and share lessons from colleagues about how technology leaders can stay relevant as districts create a post-pandemic learning landscape.

LEARN MORE: Find out how this chief diversity officer plans to use tech to build equity into education.

Join EdTech as we provide written coverage of TCEA 2023. Bookmark this page and follow us on Twitter @EdTech_K12.

Photo by Luis Quintero