Mandela Schumacher-Hodge, an alumna of the LMU/Teach For America Partnership program, was named to the 2014 Forbes “30 Under 30 in Education” list. The distinction recognizes her influential accomplishments at the intersection of education, technology and entrepreneurship.
In 2013, Schumacher-Hodge was named Director of Startup Weekend Education, the education-oriented branch of UP Global, a non-profit dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship, grassroots leadership and strong communities around the world. Startup Weekend Education hosts weekend events in cities around the world designed to bring educators, developers, designers, entrepreneurs and other eager minds together to create and cultivate new education ventures. As the first-ever educator in charge of Startup Weekend Education, Schumacher-Hodge was quick to make waves by announcing her intent to double the organization’s number of weekend events in 2014. What’s more, she also hopes to reshape the non-profit’s output by involving more educators, school administrators, policy-makers and other key stakeholders in the entrepreneurial pursuit to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest education problems.
Beginning in 2008 as an LMU/TFA corps member at Bret Harte Middle School in South Central Los Angeles, Schumacher-Hodge went on to teach at Bert Corona Charter School in Pacoima, CA, where she was voted Lead Teacher during her second year. She later joined forces with Brian Martinez, to create Tioki, described as the “LinkedIn for Educators,” featuring resources and opportunities for educators looking to grow professionally. This idea was pitched and developed at a Startup Weekend Education event, where it took first prize, and was later accepted into the leading educational technology startup accelerator, Imagine K12.
Edvision interviewed Schumacher-Hodge via email:
You started as a teacher, but quickly began to explore how technology and entrepreneurship intersect with education. How is technology working to solve the problems facing education in this country?
Technology has the ability to drastically improve education outcomes for a wide array of learners, ranging from pre-K to higher ed and beyond. Here is a brief list highlighting some of things that can happen when great technology is wonderfully implemented:
- Individualized and adaptive learning opportunities
- Creative, interactive, and culturally-relevant methods of engagement
- Alignment to standardized curriculum, such as the Common Core
- Real-time feedback and data to help educators more efficiently and effectively identify students’ areas of needs and iterate their instruction as necessary
- Freeing up teachers’ time to provide remedial support to students falling behind, insert their own creativity into their instruction and potentially foster a more balanced work/life balance to decrease teacher burnout
- Increasing students’ mastery of technology and its application in the real world
This list does not nearly exhaust all the ways technology is solving problems in education today, and the potential it has to accomplish significantly more in the future, but I’ll save that conversation for another day. One thing I do want to point out, however, is that in order for these technology benefits to become a reality for all educators and students, a variety of key stakeholders (e.g. educators, school administrators, policy makers, entrepreneurs, developers and designers) must be involved in the various stages of the technology development and implementation process. Too often, policy, technology, purchasing and implementation decisions are made in silos, and because of this, the real-world needs of educators are not necessarily being addressed with policy. Even if education technology companies take it upon themselves to build products that address those needs, the current infrastructure of the school system is not particularly conducive to adopting new technology.
Startup Weekend Education aims to bring these key stakeholders together early on in the creation of education technology, in hopes that through early-stage collaboration, the school system and its educators and entrepreneurs who are passionate about solving education problems, can find a common ground to not only create great technology, but also create an ecosystem that’s supportive of implementing that technology.
What makes the intersection between education, technology and entrepreneurship so exciting and rewarding?
Education is the universal thread that runs through all of us. Spanning every city, country and continent across the world, education is the method in which we learn new information and transfer it to future generations for the purpose of survival and growth. Education comes in a variety of forms, including the traditional 1 teacher/20+ students model, flipped classrooms, 1:1 virtual instruction, informal parent and child interaction, home-schooling method, amongst others. The world is changing at a rapid pace, and both children and adults are challenged more than ever to acquire new skills and information that will help them get admitted into schools of higher education, secure work and contribute to the advancement of society.
Technology plays a crucial role in helping educators adapt to the continuously evolving world and be equipped with the necessary tools and resources to ensure students are prepared and inspired to continue the pursuit of lifelong learning. Not to mention, computer and software literacy is now a basic requirement for many jobs and has become a foundational skill for people to master, much like English and arithmetic.
One of the main reasons entrepreneurs give for entering the education technology space is their personal experience as a student, parent and/or teacher. They understand the value of a great education, and they often times have seen the devastating consequences of a poor education. They are emboldened to play an instrumental part in utilizing innovation and technology to positively impact education outcomes, and programs like Startup Weekend Education provide them with a unique opportunity to get started.
How can educators better learn about and implement transformative technologies in their day-to-day practice in classrooms, schools and districts?
There are a variety of resources in existence that equip educators with the knowledge and know-how to effectively select and integrate new technology in their schools and classrooms. The Edsurge Edtech Index is a fantastic place to start when searching for new technology, and Edweek, Edutopia, and Hack Education, amongst others, all feature the latest and greatest of education technology and integration practices, allowing educators to stay up-to-date on the newest tools to assist them in their instruction. Also, more companies recognize the importance of not only creating great products, but also creating easy-to-follow plans to support educators in the seamless implementation of technology in their classroom. It’s one thing to have a product that can help increase student achievement, but it’s an entirely different thing to know how the school infrastructure will accommodate such a product, and how much time and training educators will need to take full advantage of it.
And let’s not forget Twitter, with its hashtags (e.g. edchat, edtech, ntchat, edcamp, blended learning) and their accompanying weekly chat sessions, it has become one of the most popular places for educators to congregate and discuss their pain points, offer solutions and exchange ideas. Lastly, over the past two months, Startup Weekend Education teams created three new platforms (TinkerEd, EduLinq, Golden Egg) aimed at connecting educators, educational technology startups and developers to work collaboratively to create technology that best serves the needs of educators and their students.
There are also a variety of offline resources, including the Educelerate and Edsurge Meet-ups, 4.0 Schools Essentials and Launch programs, iZone and SXSWedu, amongst others, which give educators in-person experience with cutting-edge technology.
What lessons from your experience in the LMU/Teach For America Partnership program influence and shape your current work?
My time in the LMU/TFA teacher credentialing and master’s degree programs was instrumental in preparing me for my current role as director of Startup Weekend Education. It was there that I learned the foundational skills of teaching and was given the opportunity to conduct in-depth research on school administration and policy. Coupled together, these experiences equipped me with the knowledge and skills that would prepare me for my role as Lead Teacher, influence my pursuit of a Ph.D., and contribute to my desire to involve more teachers, school administrators and policy makers in the education innovation process.