After an absence of 5 years due to the pandemic, our KS EdTech Conference finally relaunched! It was held on June 4th-5th at the Blaisdell Center, and it was a blast! Got to be the morning emcee and donned the “Wings of Innovation.”

We collaborated with HSTE to bring back Edcamp Honolulu as our pre-conference event. How cool is that?! It was great seeing all the familiar faces and reconnecting with great friends.

The energy this year was amazing! Keiki Breaks opened our conference with street dancing.

We added a few new wrinkles to this year’s conference including Dj Jem spinning the music🎵 and having food trucks outside🚚 It was a nice treat!

One of the overall highlights for me was the participation of the Kaimukī High School W.O.R.M.S. Club. Very inspirational kumu. Here is the list of the other sessions.

I was also able to give a presentation on language learning and tell my personal story in the format of a TED Talk.

There was a great vibe and great moments throughout the 2½ days. This impromptu jam sesh consisted of former KS Designer Gavon, Abe from The Ukulele Collective, and Kona and Cory from our AV Dept. Check out Twitter at x.com/ksedtech for more. #KSEdTech

Love the friendly, intimate, cozy feel of our conference. Learned a lot and had an amazing, amazing time. See you next year!

“Soapbox” was launched at the Kamehameha Schools Education Technology Conference in 2013 as a new platform to collaborate and share ideas. Soapbox is an informal session, much in the spirit of mini TED Talks. Speakers are given 5-10 minutes to share an idea, an innovation, or tell a story. The goal is to include student voices as well as innovators, thought leaders, makers, and creatives from industry.

At this year’s conference, we wanted to highlight teacher voices. It was an absolute blast! The hope is that this session could expand into perhaps a quarterly meetup for educators statewide. Here is a summary of the past few years…

2019
Soapbox returned to the KS EdTech Conference on June 4th, 2019. We heard stories from educators in (public, private, charter schools, homeschooling, online learning, and entrepreneurship.) Our theme was ‘A‘ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau ho‘okahi. All knowledge is not learned in just one school. Mahalo to our speakers!

• Cecilia CC Chung, Kaʻimiloa Elementary

• Trevor Atkins, Hālau Kū Māna

• Dorothy Hirata, University of Hawaiʻi

• Carey Yen, Homeschooling

• Nick Wong, Nalukai Foundation

2015
Soapbox 2015 took place at the Kamehameha Schools Education Technology Conference, on Tuesday, June 9th, at the Blaisdell Center’s Pikake Room. Here was the lineup:

• Genesis Leong, Lead Curator of TEDxHonolulu

• Russel Cheng, Co-Founder of DevLeague, Hawaiʻi’s first coding bootcamp

• Katelyn, kindergartener at Hongwanji Mission School

• Elizabeth Garrison, President of HSTE, Hawaiʻi Society for Technology in Education

• Tiffany Chang & Isabel Wong, Co-Founders of The Canvas, Hawaiʻi’s first student workspace

• Jenny Engle, Teacher Liaison at the Honolulu Museum of Art

• Burt Lum, Executive Director at Hawaiʻi Open Data & Producer of Bytemarks Café on Hawaiʻi Public Radio

2014
Soapbox 2014 took place at the Kamehameha Schools Education Technology Conference, on Wednesday, June 4th, at the Blaisdell Center’s Pikake Room. Here was the lineup:

• Casey Agena, Nichole Adolpho, Punahou School / Kimo Carvalho, Envision Hawai’i

• Marion Ano, Salt Water Apps, HICapacity

• Erin Kinney & Kirra Downing, “mojo managers” for Our Kakaʻako

• Michael Fricano II, ‘Iolani School, JoAnn Jacobs, Mid-Pacific Institute, EdCamp Honolulu

• Chad Nacapuy, Hawaiʻi Department of Education

• Jonathan Honda, Kamehameha Schools Senior, Louise McGregor Award for Outstanding Student Director

• Kaleiohu Lee, Five by Five

2013
At Soapbox 2013, topics included coworking, design thinking, TEDxHonoluluED, and the Google Teacher Academy. We even brought in a “soapbox” platform from our drama department. Here was the lineup:

• Katie Sakys, Kamehameha Schools Sophomore

• Rechung Fujihira, The Box Jelly

• Adam Pating, Punahou School Junior, TEDxYouth@Punahou

• Douglas Kiang, Lab School @ Punahou

• Cathy Ikeda, KS-Hawaiʻi

• Ian Kitajima, Oceanit

• Liz Castillo, Kamehameha Schools, Google Teacher Academy

• Kourtney Puahala, Kamehameha Schools Senior