Steinhardt Alumni Group Hosts Third “Unconference” for EdTech Community

The Unconference is an interactive, community-driven, knowledge-sharing event for the EdTech industry, including Steinhardt Educational Communication and Technology students and alumni.

Maurice Boothe stands with a microphone — Maurice Boothe Jr. at the 2024 Unconference. *Photo credit: Starry Wang.*

On October 5, an NYU Steinhardt volunteer-led group called CoNNECT (Community Navigation Network in Educational Communication and Technology) hosted Unconference 2024: An EdTech Thought Exchange. This collaborative and participant-centered event allowed educational technology students, alumni, and professionals to connect over current trends in academia and industry.

Co-founded by Steinhardt alums Maurice Boothe Jr. (MA ’21, Learning Technology and Experience Design) and Trace Hagan (MA ’18, Learning Technology and Experience Design), CoNNECT organizes programming designed to connect students, alumni, and friends of Steinhardt’s Educational Communication and Technology (ECT) community.

“Through CoNNECT, we facilitate a safe space to share experiences, discuss new and relevant topics, and support each other beyond the classroom,” says Boothe, who is also an instructional technologist at NYU Meyers and currently pursuing his PhD in Educational Communication and Technology at Steinhardt. “We originated a few years ago to provide a bridge between NYU and industry and create more opportunities for members of the ECT community to grow their network.”

A man presents to a group — *Photo credit: Starry Wang.*

Around 100 members of the EdTech community, including ECT students and alumni, attended the conference in person and online.

“This is the third time we've run the Unconference, and it’s untraditional in the sense that the audience is very much involved in the way the day unfolds,” says Hagan, a learning experience and product designer based in the United Kingdom. “A lot of the discussions happen the day of, and the audience can pitch ideas and really participate just as much as the speakers can.”

“One of the notions we lead with for Unconference is ‘we’re all experts here,’” echoes Boothe. “This is a conversation, and we want to recognize that we don’t know it all and really take the chance to learn from each other.”

Three panelists with microphones — L-R: Dennis Morgan, Nate Pettit, Jessica Millstone. *Photo credit: Starry Wang.*

The conference kicked off with a panel discussion led by:

Dennis Morgan, founder and chief creative officer at Harlem CoLab and a part-time instructor at Columbia University Teachers College
Nate Pettit, vice dean of MBA and graduate programs and associate professor of management and organizations at NYU Stern School of Business
Jessica Millstone, managing director at Copper Wire Ventures, founding member of ANGELS.vc, and co-organizer of NYEdTech Meetup

Attendees sit on a couch during a presentation — *Photo credit: Starry Wang.*

Afterward, presenters led sessions structured around a theme, topic, question, or research area of their choice. This year’s topics included using emerging technologies like AI and VR to improve learning experiences, games for learning, and collaboration as community.

“CoNNECT is entirely volunteer-led, and we’re really proud of the community we’ve created,” says Hagan. “For example, one of this year’s sessions was co-led by an ECT student and her now-employer; they met at last year’s Unconference when she was just a first-semester student, which led to them working together. Creating this network within and for the ECT community is a labor of love, but the payoff is incredible.”

For more information about CoNNECT and next year’s Unconference, sign up for CoNNECT’s mailing list.

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