WCS Student Participates in Social Think Tank

Published August 30, 2013

A Franklin High School student recently had a unique opportunity to share his thoughts on education with an international audience. Franklin High Senior Colton Black was among the panelists selected to participate in the August 27 Innovation in Teaching and Learning Social Think Tank in Franklin.

The event was organized by Dell and hosted by Intel and Williamson County Schools with the goal of creating an open forum where participants could discuss the topic of innovation in education.

Black, who hopes to attend Harvard next year, is a member of an organization called Student Voice which was founded by Zak Malamed, the moderator of Tuesday's event.

Black says he was excited to be one of 15 panelists chosen to participate in the Think Tank. Other panelists included WCS Superintendent Dr. Mike Looney, Fairview High Principal Dr. Juli Oyer, Page Middle Principal Dr. Eric Lifsey, WCS Instructional Technology Coordinator Belinda Moss and WCS Ambassador Ralph Hildabrand of CIMplify.

"We had three main topics we worked on today," said Black. "The first one was personalized learning; the second was innovation in assessment; and the third was entrepreneurship in education. I thought it was a great discussion and there were a lot of really good ideas that came out of it."

In addition to using social media to extend the conversation and engage other leaders in innovation and education, the event was broadcast live online and was viewed by people from as far away as Brazil and Netherlands.

While Dell has hosted previous Think Tanks at locations such as M.I.T., this was their first regional event. Photos and videos from Tuesday's Think Tank can be viewed online by going to Dell's website at http://new.livestream.com/Dell/domoreedu/videos/28413837.