►
From YouTube: Improving Online Learning and Collaboration Through Design, Kortney Ziegler - CodeConf 2015
Description
Dr. Kortney Ziegler, the founder of Trans*H4CK, discusses his newest endeavour, Black Star Media, a startup company to extend the accessibility of online learning for everyone.
About CodeConf
CodeConf improves the software community by providing a forum for thought-provoking talks and forging social connections. The third installment of the CodeConf series took place in Nashville in 2015. Attendees came together to discuss open source, best practices, documentation, and community.
For more information on this year's CodeConf, go to:
https://codeconf.com/
A
Big
warm
welcome
for
Courtney
how's
it
going
my
mics
on
I'm
heard.
I'm
guy
need
to
start
with
disclaimer
I
have
a
small
headache.
Last
night
was
really
awesome
at
the
party.
We
did
not
get
to
do
D
regulators,
but
you
know
we
got
to
do
it
next
time
for
sure,
and
my
my
second
disclaimer
is
that
someone
in
this
audience
has
already
seen
me
give
this
talk
before
and
they
came
up
to
me
last
night,
like
I
saw
you
give
this
talk.
I
was
like
that.
Wasn't
me.
I
have
no
idea.
A
Cuz
I
for
the
number
one
rule
that
I
was
a
little
bit
wasted,
so
I
apologized
that
you
were
seeing
this
talk
for
a
second
time,
but
I'm,
hopefully
I'll
make
it
a
little
bit
better.
So
my
name
is
Courtney.
Ziggler
I
am
the
co-founder
of
black
star
media
and
we
are
a
education
company
at
our
core
and
we
really
focus
on
providing
tools
that
are
accessible
to
create
all
types
of
learning
opportunities
that
for
everybody.
Right
specifically,
we've
been
focusing
on
entrepreneurs
I'm
an
entrepreneur
myself.
A
My
co-founder
is
an
entrepreneur
and
we
came
together
to
really
focus
on
how
we
can
cuz.
That's
us,
that's
me
and
that's
my
co-founder
Tiffany
Michael
we
met
about
a
year
ago,
year
and
a
half
ago
in
Chicago.
I
am
also
the
founder
of
Transtech
I.
Don't
know
if
you've
heard
about
it,
but
it's
a
hackathon
speaker
series
for
trans
people
from
space
to
create
technology
for
trans
people,
so
I
took
it
to
Chicago
and
I
met
Tiffany
Michael
at
dev
bootcamp.
A
She
was
on
the
founding
team
of
the
DBC
Chicago
and
she
helped
co-organized
it,
and
so
we
were
both
doing
our
own
thing.
She
was
actually
leaving
her
job
and
wanting
to
do
continue.
Her
consulting
business
I
was
self-employed
and
transact
was
my
main
thing
and
she
after
we
work
together.
She's
like
when
you
start
a
company
with
me
and
I
was
like
no
one's
ever
asked
me
to
start
a
company
with
them
yeah.
A
Let's
do
it
so
I
have
spent
multiple
multiple
years
in
school,
I
was
in
school
majority
of
my
life,
I
finished
school
29
years
old
along
the
way.
I
picked
up,
multiple,
multiple
degrees.
So
I
am
a
traditional
learner.
I've
been
in
the
education
space.
Tiffany
is
I.
Guess
her
term
is
a
self-directed
learner,
a
very
non-traditional
education,
patient
background.
Self-Taught
went
to
I,
see
stars,
which
is
a
program
that
teaches
tech,
development,
I,
hope,
I'm
expressing
I,
see
stars
properly,
but
they
teach
technology
skills
to
under-represented
people.
A
So
she
went
through
that
program
and
became
a
developer
and
spent
the
past
ten
years
been
a
developer,
while
I
was
doing
the
past
10
years
in
school.
So
when
she
came
to
me
and
said
we
should
start
a
company,
my
first
idea
was
like
well
you,
of
course
we're
both.
We
both
love
education,
but
how
do
we
now
could
put
our
two
backgrounds
together?
A
So
we
came
up
with
Blackshear
media
like
what
kind
of
tech
ed
product
did
we
want
to
create
again,
so
we
started
looking
at
different
models
and
different
spaces
of
spaces
that
provide
education
and
one
of
the
things
that
we
that
we
knew
that
we
wanted
to
offer
was
experiencial
learning
and
we
wanted
to
really
solve
the
problem
of
the
idea
that
learning
is
kind
of
put
into
this
box.
Of
like
what
is
what
the
content
is
about
right,
so
here's
like,
for
example,
tipping
game
in
this
example.
A
Yesterday's
actually,
for
example,
if
you're
teaching
someone
JavaScript
there's
a
certain
formula,
there's
this
method
of
what
the
language
is
about
right
and
this
idea
that
everybody
can
learn
it
right,
but
that,
while
that
may
be
true,
we're
not
really
focused
on
the.
So
what
and
the
noun
what
which
really
means
like
now
that
you
have
this
skill,
what
can
you
do
with
it?
What
can
you
build?
What
type
of
technology
is
going
to
look
type
of
technology?
A
Can
you
build
that
may
create
a
social
impact,
or
that
may
be
useful
for
the
community
that
you're
from
and
being
who
we
are
Tiffany
and
myself?
We
come
from
different
kinds
of
communities.
We
are
I,
guess
in
tech
considered
underrepresented
right,
and
so
we
wanted
to
create
an
experience.
Experience
with
learning
space
that
offered
that
that
appeal
to
underrepresented
people
and
that
was
very
accessible
and
answer
the
sowhat
and
the
noun
would
and
I
am
probably
going
too
fast
and
I'm
a
little
bit
nervous
for
some
reason.
A
So
I'm
gonna
slow
it
down
a
notch
and
grab
my
marbles
together.
So
again,
so
we
were
focusing
on
experiential
education
and
we
were
again
trying
different
models.
We
were
looking
at
creative
live
spaces
like
General,
Assembly,
Linda,
calm
and
all
these
other
tech,
ed
spaces
that
provide
education
and
really
try
to
be
accessible,
but
aren't
necessarily
succeeding
in
multiple
ways,
and
so
we
were
like.
What
can
we
do
so
we
try
the
creative
live
model
format,
creative
life
for
black
people,
which
is
what
we
called
it.
That's
me
giving
our
our
first.
A
It
was
our
MVP,
so
it
was
our
first
lecture
and
I
was
talking
about
research.
I
even
forget
about
talking
about
research
with
a
PhD
or
something,
and
what
happened
at
that
space.
It
was
on
site
and
online.
So
while
I
was
giving
the
the
course
on
site,
Tiffany
was
moderating
our
online
audience
and
we
had
a
virtual
audience.
We
also
tried
to
do
in-person
collaboration,
which
is
the
picture
on
the
left,
the
bottom-left,
through
a
program
with
DBC,
we
started
called
inclusive
dev,
which
was
really
focused
on
making
development
about
the
devil,
devil
development.
A
Space
say
that
five
times
fast,
making
the
development
space
more
accessible
for
people
of
color.
So
we
partnered
with
DBC
and
create
inclusive
dev,
and
it
was
a
supplement
to
their
curriculum
to
help
their
students
complete
the
bootcamp,
and
so
we
did
on
site
code,
pairing
brown
bag
lunches
just
providing
a
space
for
people
to
talk
about
whatever
they
were
getting
through
to
help
them
complete
the
program.
We're
also
trying
to
do
completely
virtual
interactions.
So
we
held
weekly
Google
Hangouts
with
people
using
just
basic
Google
hangout
platform.
A
We
would
have
technology,
entrepreneurs
share
their
stories
and
have
maybe
about
10
people
in
this
kind
of
exclusive
setting,
be
able
to
ask
questions
and
do
whatever
they
want
to
and
I
apologize,
I'm
sweating,
it's
hot
in
Nashville,
so
I
think
we're
all
sweating.
So
I
really
don't
apologize,
so
can
go
back
to
that
slide.
While
we
were
in
this
space.
What
we
noticed
is
that
the
virtual
space,
the
online
space
we
received
lots
of
traction.
A
The
on-site
curriculum
that
we
were
development
was
really
great,
but
we
weren't
able
to
have
a
we
wanted
to
have
a
wider
reach
and
we
really
want
it
to
be
more
accessible,
engaging
and
be
more
inclusive,
and
so
what
we
learned
is
that
the
online
space
allowed
us
to
be
be
more
malleable
in
that
way.
So
we
were
like
thinking
that,
okay,
now
that
we
figured
out
that
we
really
want
to
be
and
want
to
produce
a
product,
a
tech,
ed
product,
that's
about
virtual
online
learning
collaboration
we're
like
now.
A
What
can
we
do
so
we're
like?
What
is
the
platform?
Look?
What
does
the
platform
look
like?
That
provides
meaningful
education
for
underrepresented
learners
and
we're
like
okay?
What
can
we
do?
Let's
take
inclusive
death
next
level,
so
we
ended
up
having
the
first
ever
virtual
conference
for
tech
entrepreneurs.
I
don't
know
if
anybody
went
to
it,
but
it
was
called
inclusive
dev
and
we
had
it
in
March
of
this
year,
and
this
is
the
platform
we
developed.
We
actually
let
me
go
back
to
this
slide.
A
So
while
we're
we
were
thinking
about
how
to
to
test
out
this
space
of
online
learning,
we
again
looked
at
other
platforms
like
Adobe,
Connect
figuring
out,
crowd
casts
I
think
what
else
that
we
look
at
a
number
of
other
kind
of
web
webinar
web
software
kind
of
things,
but
they
really
weren't
what
we
needed,
for
example,
live
captioning
and
things
like
that
weren't
available,
so
we're
like,
we
should
make
it
ourselves,
so
we
hacked
this
together.
You
can
actually
go
to
learn
busy
and
look
at
it's.
A
The
look
at
the
conference
platform
is
still
up
and
we
had
a
virtual
conference
protect
entrepreneurs,
the
whole
tech
ecosystem,
which
was
super
amazing.
It
was
a
one-day
four-day
conference.
We
had
30-plus
speakers
from
across
the
country
and
across
the
world
actually,
and
we
had
over
a
hundred
people
engaged
for
the
full
time
for
four
hours,
which
is
really
amazing.
I
was
in
my
home
in
Oakland,
Tiffani
was
in
her
home
in
Chicago.
A
We
had
speakers,
New,
York,
DC,
all
kinds
of
places,
and
they
were
all
on
our
platform
in
one
day,
and
it
was
super
amazing
and
one
of
the
we
learned
really
important
things
actually
at
this
conference
about
online
learning
and
collaboration,
and
the
first
thing
that
we
learned
that
was
the
most
important
when
developing
our
product
was
to
be
mindful
and
be
mindful
about
the
design.
So,
for
example,
I
was
saying
we
looked
at
like
Adobe
Connect
and
all
these
kind
of
other
Web
Services
things,
but
they
were
ugly,
no
offense.
A
If
anybody's
that
we
can,
they
were
there.
They
were
not
very
pretty
and
I
think
that
when
it's
not
very
pretty,
it's
not
very
engaging
sometimes
so
we
wanted
to
have
design
that
was
engaging
and
mindful
of
different
kind
of
participants,
so
I'm
sorry
I'm,
going
back
and
forth
three
slides.
So,
as
you
see
on
this
is
what
the
platform
looks
like
the
little
iPhone
is
we
made
it
mobile
responsive
our
design
was
important
for
people
to
have
to
be
able
to
be
able
to
access
our
conference
in
a
mobile
format.
A
We
thought
may
weekend
conference
would
be
great,
and
a
weekend
conference
on
a
Sunday
would
have,
as
we
were
hoping
to
have
as
many
participants
as
possible,
which
it
worked
out
really
well,
because
we
were
able
to
have
again,
as
many
speakers
Dedic
donate
their
time
to
participate
and
we're
also
able
to
have
more
sorry
about
that
participants,
because
it
did
happen
on
Sunday
we're.
Also
mindful
of
the
price
we
I
think
we
charged
$30
for
almost
five
hours
of
business
education
content,
which
was
amazing,
which
is
something
that
we
we
really
value.
A
Making
education
accessible
by
price
is
really
important,
specifically
in
the
tech
industry,
when
a
lot
of
spaces
are
kind
of
exclusive
to
people
who
maybe
cannot
participate
because
of
price.
We
really
wanted
to
make
to
kind
of
challenge
that
and
and
then
also
test
an
assumption
that
you
can
offer
something
of
value
and
it
can
be
affordable
right.
A
The
second
thing
that
we
were
really
that
we
learn
from
our
conference
to
create
our
conference
platforms
to
make
it
engaging
and
our
content
was
engaging
and
our
content
was
engaging
not
because
it
was
just
business
education,
but
our
people.
We
had
a
diverse
range
of
speakers.
We
had
a
diverse
range
of
tech
professionals,
so
we
had
people
who
were
coders.
A
We
had
people
who
were
CEOs,
we
had
people
who
were
just
marketing
people,
but
we
had
a
variety
of
perspectives
to
really
fill
out
the
tech,
the
tech
ecosystem,
so
I
already
do
that,
and
the
space
was
engaging,
as
you
saw
from
the
slide.
I
wish
I
actually
took
more
screenshots
and
that's
why
I
apologize.
So
with
our
conference
platform,
we
again
wanted
to
be
aware
that
everybody
learns
differently
and
everybody
collaborates
online
differently.
A
A
So
if
you
weren't
able
to
watch
our
you,
have
your
hard-of-hearing,
the
heart
of
seeing
we
have
we
kind
of
covered
those
things,
and
that
was
really
important
for
us
again
to
make
it
very
accessible,
and
we
were
very
grateful
because,
after
the
conference,
multiple
people
reached
out
and
said-
thank
you
for
you
know
being
inclusive
of
us
for
that
matter,
future
steps.
Right
now
we
are
taking
our
MVP
to
a
product,
so
that
was
our
MVP.
A
It
was
literally
hacked
together
using
I,
think
PHP,
some
JavaScript
and
WordPress
I
did
that
great
and
we
literally
made
it
overnight
and
it
was
super
cool.
So
our
future
steps
right
now
is
to
actually
build
out
our
platform
through
online
design
sessions,
we're
holding
and
we're
also
going
to
hold
a
virtual
hackathon
in
October
November
this
year.
It's
a
really
test
out
to
see
how
we
can
like
scale
online
collaboration.
That's
it
I,
really
sorry
I
apologize,
I'm,
sweaty
and
little
bit
hungover,
but
you
can
check
us
out.
A
A
We
held
two,
so
we
had
held
inclusive
about
tech,
entrepreneurship
and
then
about
three
weeks
later
we
held
another
one
and
github
was
our
partner
and
so
I
really
love
github
and
they
really
supported
what
we're
doing
at
Black,
Star,
media
and
really
and
the
work
that
we're
doing
to
really
trying
to
improve
online
collaboration.
So
I
wanted
to
give
that
shout
out
to
github
and
yeah.
Thank.