How a New Black-owned tech ecosystem is teaching tech in Tulsa

 
“Technology has become core to so many different industries, and that’s only going to accelerate,” says Jackson. “The skill set is shifting so that you may not necessarily need a four-year degree in computer science, but you do need some level of technical know-how, and that education has to start early.”
This year, the HP Teaching Fellows program, a partnership between HP and Digital Promise that recognizes teachers using technology in innovative ways, launched a special cohort for educators in Tulsa. The program worked with Black Tech Street to identify teachers for the cohort, with a focus on North Tulsa, an area where one-third of the population is Black.
“It’s all about finding out-of-the-box ways to do things,” says Australia Brown, a first-grade teacher at Mayo Demonstration School in her second year of teaching. “We are teaching them how to work with paper and pencil, but we also want them to have technical knowledge.”
The program includes a combination of professional development workshops, where teachers have a chance to learn from each other (e.g., how to create a podcast or how to use the video discussion app Flip) as well as one-on-one sessions, where teachers can dive deeper into specific areas they want to learn more about. Currently, Brown is exploring new ways her first graders can present information using video editing skills they’ve learned or by creating a PowerPoint presentation. 

“The biggest thing for me, on top of the technology component, is being able to ask other teachers questions about how they do certain things,” Brown says. “That has been very helpful.”
Together, all of the various efforts in Tulsa are paving the way for a new era of Black entrepreneurship in the city and the tech industry as a whole. 

“We’re transforming the narrative of what a tech entrepreneur looks like and of who can succeed in tech,” Billingsley says. “You have to be able to look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m what a tech CEO looks like,’ or ‘I’m what the founder of a billion-dollar company could look like.’” 
 
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