This entry is a little ahead of itself. The session hasn't happened yet: it is on the SXSW EDU 2027 schedule in Austin, March 13–16, 2027. But getting there was a story of its own, and it ended on October 21, 2026, when the email arrived. Teach It Like You Stream It: Broadcast Teaching for $0 had been accepted.
Almost didn't apply
Dr. E only learned about SXSW EDU while working to take Teach It Like You Stream It beyond California and the Philippines. SXSW has been around for decades, and the more he researched — the forms, the selection process, the low acceptance rate — the less likely it looked. He was hesitant to apply at all, convinced he wasn't good enough for that stage.
A video audition from the Philippine tour
He applied anyway. He recorded his "video audition" for SXSW's PanelPicker in the middle of the Teach It Like You Stream It tour of the Philippines, the same summer as De La Salle, Our Lady of Fatima and Ateneo, and sent in the application. That video is at the top of this page.
The community vote
Then came the part he had dreaded most. PanelPicker includes a community vote, and asking friends and followers to vote for him was nearly the reason he didn't pursue it. Voting isn't a single heart button, either: each voter fills out SXSW's own form and verifies an account, more than five minutes of back-and-forth for one vote.
Lo and behold, people did it anyway. Friends and the community around Numberbender went through the whole process, and that was when the movement started to feel like it was really flying. The people casting those votes had to go out of their way to do it, which says how much they wanted to help.
Being an advocate for yourself is not easy. This SXSW journey made me realize that I have been doing this since 2012, and I should not doubt my abilities in pushing my passion: encouraging educators to be even better teachers in the age of social media, where the teaching platform is not just the classroom but people's phones and mobile devices.
Every day in October
SXSW doesn't publish a decision date; the word is only that results usually come in October. So for weeks he kept checking, and every day in October he opened his email. On October 21, the acceptance letter arrived — the most exciting email in all his years of creating content and presenting Teach It Like You Stream It.
What the SXSW journey taught him
- Apply before you feel ready. The doubt was loudest right before the application that worked.
- Your community is part of the proposal. Every five-minute vote was someone choosing to stand behind the work.
- Advocate for yourself. Years of doing the work since 2012 are a case worth making out loud.
Where it started, and where it's going
Teach It Like You Stream It began 2026 with an acceptance to SITE in Philadelphia. Since then it has traveled to OTC in Anaheim, three Philippine universities and EDUCAUSE, carried by more than 20 years of teaching and a YouTube channel that began in 2012. It has met a lot of people along the way. SXSW EDU is the next stop.
In Austin, the session will show educators how to teach like a broadcaster for $0, using free, browser-based tools like Numberbender Studio. Watch the SXSW EDU schedule for the session time. After March, this page becomes the full recap.