Skip to main content
DLAC Ignite 2026 Atlanta Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Table Talk

Leadership and Program Management

Designing Futures that Matter: Reimagining EdTech for Belonging, Care, and Collaboration

SESSION DATES & TIMES COMING IN AUGUST 2026
Audience Classification: Digital Learning
Audience Expertise: All Levels - This session is intentionally designed to engage and provide value across experience levels-from beginners to seasoned leaders.
Grade Level Focus: Pre-K, Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, Higher Education, Adult Learners
Primary Audience: All attendees
Does this session focus on a specific product? No – This session is focused on ideas, strategies, or practices, not a specific product or service.
Abstract Description : How might we design educational technologies that go beyond content delivery to cultivate belonging, care, and collaboration? This interactive Table Talk engages participants in a fast-paced design cycle to explore that question. Drawing on findings from my dissertation on cross-sector collaboration in early-stage edtech, participants will experience a structured process of brainstorming, converging, ideation, and prototyping. In small groups, attendees will surface challenges from their own educational contexts, identify opportunities or areas of challenged, and co-create product briefs that reimagine what edtech can - and should - do. By the end of the session, participants will leave with draft prototypes and concrete design principles for more human-centered, equity-driven tools, having experienced firsthand the power of collaborative, participatory design. This session is ideal for educators, researchers, developers, and funders seeking new ways to build meaningful futures in the postdigital education ecosystem.

Learning Objectives:

  • Participate in a structured design-thinking process to generate innovative product briefs that reimagine how edtech can foster belonging, care, and collaboration.
  • Identify and articulate design principles that bridge educator, researcher, and developer perspectives, equipping them to champion more human-centered, equity-driven approaches to educational technology.