Rice staff to present at SXSW festival

By Anita Alem     3/9/16 7:39pm

Joining the list of performers at the 23rd South by Southwest Interactive Festival, which includes Barack and Michelle Obama, are three of Rice’s very own presenters. The music, interactive media and film conference SXSW is in Austin from March 7 to 20 and is considered the largest music festival of its kind, with more than 20,000 attendees.

Kim McGaw, director of professional programs at the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, will present a workshop titled “Improv and Zombies: Waking Up the Virtual Classroom” regarding how to engage students in online courses. McGaw has conducted live online professional development courses with the Glasscock School with student participants across the world. She also has a background in improvisational comedy, having trained and performed at Second City in Chicago.

McGaw has compared teaching online courses, which she said have higher dropout rates than regular courses, to performing a rock concert with regards to keeping the audience engaged.

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“Think of it as a set list: You’re going to involve the audience by playing your best-known songs at the very beginning and end, and you’re going to change up your songs every five to six minutes,” she said.

Norie Guthrie and Scott Carlson will present their do-it-yourself website that advises record labels and bands on how to preserve and archive their work. Guthrie, who is a Fondren archivist librarian and resident associate at Sid Richardson College, and Carlson, a metadata coordinator at Fondren, have their project on the web at indiepreserves.info.

Guthrie and Carlson said they encourage bands and labels to examine their physical and digital preservation of their work, especially considering threats such as natural disasters or theft.

Associate professor of entrepreneurship at the Jones Graduate School of Business Yael Hochberg will be presenting at SXSW for the third time. She is also the head of the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative. Hochberg will be presenting with Susan Cohen of Robins School of Business regarding entrepreneurial accelerators, which provide investment, mentorship and education to startups.

Edit: After this story was published, Michelle Obama reported she will attend the funeral of Nancy Reagen in place of appearing at SXSW.

Correction: Norie Guthrie's name was previously misspelt.

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