Professional Presentation.
In January 2025, Kelly Campbell, who is a middle school Spanish teacher at my school, and I co-presented at the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) in Orlando, Florida on the topic of cross-curricular implementation of CoSpaces in a presentation entitled "Computer Science to Spanish Class: CoSpaces for Experts and for Dummies." CoSpaces, which has since been renamed to "Delightex Edu," is a digital platform that allows students and teachers to create three-dimensional worlds, animate the worlds with code, and interact with the worlds either on a device or through augmented or virtual reality. Throughout the previous school year, I had helped my colleague, who had no experience with coding or computer science curriculum, implement CoSpaces in her Spanish classroom through storytelling and scene recreation. We decided to present our experiences with the framing of "For Experts and Dummies" with the understanding that I was the "expert" in technology and that Kelly was the "dummy" in technology, yet an "expert" in curriculum and pedagogy.
One lesson that I learned from my experience presenting with Kelly is that cross-curricular integration works best when expertise is shared. Not every teacher must be an expert in educational technology. Rather, technology integration is best implemented when teachers and technology specialists work in collaboration. Our presentation emphasizes that pedagogical expertise with technical support allows for a richer learning experience for students. In future collaborations, I would like to be more intentional about clearly defining roles to allow for an even more cohesive approach, as her section seemed somewhat disjointed from mine.
Another lesson that I learned from my experience is that framing can make a presentation more engaging or fun. Using the "For Experts and Dummies" story helped make the session less intimidating for audience members who may be less experienced with technology. Additionally, aiming the presentation to teachers outside the world of computer science by having representation from another content area helped encourage more audience members to choose our session, as it stood out from the many other presentations about computer science education. However, something I could change would be the exact wording of the presentation title to allow for more inclusive language so that all participants feel respected and capable.
Additionally, I learned that technology should support learning goals, rather than learning goals being written just to support the use of technology. Working with Kelly helped me better understand that the most meaningful uses of technology occur when it enhances the previously established learning goals in that content area. This experience also encouraged me to evaluate digital educational tools more critically, selecting them based on their ability to deepen learning instead of simply increasing engagement, though still important.