Top ISTE 2017 Takeaways

Phew! ISTE 2017 has come and gone. We are reflecting on and digesting the amazing ideas and information we gathered throughout the four-day conference. Check out our top takeaways from the world’s largest Ed Tech gathering!

Think Outside the Box with Google Tools

BVSD students and employees have access to a powerful suite of Google tools. How these tools can be implemented in instruction are limited only by your creativity. Challenge yourself and your students to think of new ways of using existing tools!  For example:

• Consider using Google Slides to design posters (hint: change document size in the File menu)
• Collect GPS data in Google Sheets and create custom Google Maps to plot your findings, then publish in Sites (Example: Maple Project)
• Use Google Drawings and Slides to prototype app designs (templates here & here).

Technology can Help us Shatter the Single Story

In her keynote speech Jennie Magiera, Chief Innovation Officer in Des Plaines, IL, encouraged us to give students more of a voice. She gave examples from her own childhood and others to illustrate the danger in seeing students as a “single story”. According to Magiera, “it’s a teacher’s job to amplify the untold story of our students’ potential.” Online video can be a powerful platform for giving students a platform and an audience for them to share their full stories. Don’t miss your opportunity to learn from Magiera when she keynotes at the Colorado Summit on November 4.

Early Coding: One Way to Close the Innovation and Tech Gender Gap

Reshma Saujani, the founder of GirlsWhoCode.org, shared research and findings from her own efforts to demonstrate the gender inequality in technology. There is a tremendous opportunity for growth in this area, and Saujani is trying to accelerate this by supporting the founding of thousands of “Girls Who Code” clubs across the US. If you are interested in starting a Girls Who Code club at your school, you can start the process by visiting this link.

Formative Assessment Has Never Been So Fun!

Checking for student understanding during a lesson or unit has never been so easy or fun! Monica Burns of classtechtips.com encouraged us to make sure our formative assessments are meaningful, sustainable, and scalable. Here are some of our favorite formative assessment tools:

a) Spark Post is a simple graphic design tool that students can use to creatively demonstrate understanding

b) Recap is a service that encourages student reflection through the use of video

c) Kahoot is developing a new mobile app that allows students to also see the question on their screen, thus enabling “homework challenges” that can be assigned

d) Padlet is like a virtual wall of sticky-notes to which students can post text, images, and more to show understanding.

New ISTE Standards Create Empowered Learners

ISTE’s standards for students, educators, and administrators have evolved significantly over the years. Think not of things to do, but ways to be. At this year’s conference, the latest iteration of these standards was unveiled. Check out the detailed standards here:

STUDENTS  | EDUCATORS | ADMINISTRATORS

Augmented and Virtual Reality are Everywhere!

As soon as we entered the conference hall lobby we were greeted by a big sign advertising the ISTE 2017 Augmented Reality game, encouraging attendees to search for and scan various hidden clues throughout the venue. The presence of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) was hard to miss this year. Microsoft demonstrated its Hololens headset by having participants analyze historic artifacts. Google demoed the latest version of its Expeditions software which uses AR to let you look inside Rome’s Colosseum, for example. Multiple sessions and playgrounds were available to conference attendees looking to try out the latest experiences. You will be seeing a lot more of this in the next couple of years, and there will surely be many interesting educational applications.

Let Students Take the Lead

On the heels of the latest ISTE standards with a focus on empowered learning, many schools are already taking steps to let students take the lead with technology. We met students from a school in Texas who had organized a half-day tech conference for students, by students. Sessions ranging from document design to virtual reality were offered to the student body, with additional networking opportunities built into the schedule. How are we providing opportunities like this for our students?

What Were Your Takeaways?

Comment below with what inspired, challenged, or amazed you about #ISTE17 and mark your calendars for next year’s conference in Chicago June 24-27, 2018.

Summer Learnin' Part Two

Let’s review the awesome conferences we have available to us this summer in Summer Learnin' Part One.

Learning at home, from your couch, or the beach? Dive in with these options...

• Twitter
• #innovateBVSD
• #InnEdCO17
• #ISTE17
• Books- check out upcoming keynote speakers for local conferences
• OverDrive OverDrive Teacher's Lounge Professional Development Collection
• All BVSD educators can access our growing collection of professional development ebook titles via the OverDriveTeacher's Lounge. Many of the titles include an audio format- listen while driving to and from work. You will be prompted to login to OverDrive with your Google credentials (e.g. user name: john.smith and password).
• Library Extension
• Become a Google Certified Educator

Click on each educational leader’s name to connect to them on Twitter!

Educational Leader/ Keynote Speaker	Where will they be?	Book(s)- on OverDrive?
Scott McLeod	Innovate@BVSD keynote June 7 InnEdCO Leadership Academy June 12	What School Leaders Need to Know about Digital Technologies and Social Media
Ken Shelton	InnEdCO Google Academy June 12	OD: Learn Like a Leader
Rusul Alrubail	InnEdCO Opening keynote June 13	Digital Writing for English Language Learners
Bill Latham	InnEdCO Featured Speaker June 14	OD: Humanizing the Education Machine
Shannon Miller	InnEdCO Featured Speaker June 15	Blog: The Library Voice
Jad Abumrad	ISTE keynote June 25	Podcast: Radiolab
Jennie Magiera	ISTE keynote June 27 GAFE keynote Nov. 2017	OD: Courageous Edventures
Reshma Saujani	ISTE keynote June 28	Women Who Don’t Wait in Line

Summer Learnin' Part One

If you are a planner, you may already be checking your calendar for summer conferences and professional development. If you are more spontaneous, you can always bookmark this as a resource to use in June when you have a moment to catch your breath! Either way, this post will highlight how to have fun learning in your own backyard and/or on your personal device of choice!

Innovate@BVSD

You do not have to travel far for the first opportunity coming in June! Innovate@BVSD is coming back to Monarch High School June 7 & 8. Join educators from around the area to explore digital tools, resources, lessons, and innovative furniture designs that can help us create future-ready learning environments that will positively impact our learning communities!

This year’s Innovate will feature a Pop-up Maker Expo, an opportunity for Innovate@BVSD attendees to connect with members of the Maker community and learn about the resources they provide to help students tinker, play, explore, create, and make.

The Pop-up Maker Expo will be open to students and parents so they can connect with maker communities that offer makerspaces, tools, expertise, classes, and workshops, or may belong to a maker community and want to share their making stories.

InnEdCO

Only a little further west, in Keystone, is our Colorado-based conference InnEdCO June 12-15. The organization, Innovative Education Colorado (InnEdCO), is back hosting a leadership academy, Google in Education learning academy and conference focusing on the increasing role technology plays in education. Join educators from all corners of Colorado and beyond for energetic learning and relationship-building! There will also be 24 presentations from BVSD educators!  

ISTE

If travel is more your style, then this conference offers all of the above with a global reach. The International Society of Education (ISTE) is hosting their annual conference in San Antonio June 25-28. With over 1,000 sessions and 15,000 educators, this conference brings like-minded educators together from all over the world.

Why spend the money, time, and energy traveling to these conferences IRL (in real life)? The benefits can be best described in some of our favorite blog posts such as ISTE Reflection Guest Blog from Tracy Stegall, Principal @Aspen Creek K8, ISTE2016: Our Recap & Experiences and 12 Reasons You Should Attend Conferences.

If you are unable to attend conferences this summer, no worries! Your learning can continue as well! Come back to this blog in April for Summer Learnin' Part Two with how to use Twitter, OverDrive, and more for various learning opportunities.

ISTE Reflection Guest Blog from Tracy Stegall, Principal @Aspen Creek K8

Many educators from Boulder Valley School District attended the ISTE Annual Conference in Denver, CO this past summer. From this group, a few of educators have chosen to share their stories and reflections from this experience as guest bloggers. 

We're excited to share the following reflection from Tracy Stegall, Principal @Aspen Creek K8.

From the Director of Learning, Fun, and Safety at Aspen Creek-- Thoughts on ISTE and more...

“Hey, Tracy!  Do you have a minute?”

“Could I talk to you?  It’ll only be a minute!”

“Do you have a minute?”

“Can I have a minute?”

“I need to talk to Ms. Stegall.”

“Ms. Stegall, can I talk to you?”

“Ms. Stegall!  Watch me swing!  Read my paper!  Hug me!  Love me!”

And then…

Silent hallways… dark offices… and the true belief in ghosts.

Late June comes into the office of the PK-8 Principal like mist rises in the early morning.  Everything is covered with a layer of nobody and you have to believe the sides of your eyes to see the students.  They’re the ghosts at the end of June when you’re the only one in the building.  You find evidence of their existence in the form of unfiled discipline sheets… memories of laughter and learning... or in the strange confiscated slingshot made from a paperclip in your desk drawer.  

As the Principal of a school that spans 10 grades, my time goes to supporting the learning and growth of everyone else during the school year.  Most of workshops and conferences and meetings I go to focus specifically on helping other people get better at what they do.  This is by design; it’s a high leverage strategy for increasing student achievement.  Great… except what about me?  

Over the last 12 years in school administration, I’ve had to develop the skills and practices to consciously CHOOSE into my own development.   As a guest blogger here, I was asked  to reflect on my trip to ISTE.  It feels more pertinent to me to offer some of my biggest a-hah’s and learnings not just from ISTE but also from the collegiality that has grown across schools as a result of the Ed Tech Leadership Cohort and the unyielding support of the Ed Tech team to anyone who reaches out!  We are SO lucky to work in BVSD!

Once a month during the 2015-2016 school year, I stepped away from the clawing arms and voices of those “needing a piece of me” and purposefully clawed and grabbed at myself, my growing skills, my heart and attended the Ed Tech Leadership Cohort.   I said to myself, “Tracy- you NEED these minutes for YOU.”  (And...shhhhh…. It’s a secret… I TOOK them! Minutes for ME.  For MY learning.)  I pushed away the Guilt Monster; I covered his gaping mouth so he couldn’t tell me what I SHOULD do.  I covered his eyes so I could enjoy learning for me without feeding his voyeuristic pleasure.  I said, “YES,” to me and my own learning.  I framed my technology work over the last year with a couple of simple questions:

-- How can I use social media in a way that showcases the work we’re doing at Aspen Creek?

-- How can I work smarter, not harder, and capitalize on the time that my staff has face to face?

Here are some highlights from ISTE and beyond!  Over the course of the last year, I...

-learned what in the world Twitter was about, why I should care, and built a personal Twitter Account.  At ISTE, my focus was learning more about Twitter.  Over my time there, I ended up creating another Twitter account and now I use HootSuite on my phone to easily Tweet from both!  Follow me: @stegalltj or follow our ATeam @ACPK8ATeam!  Through Twitter, I’ve found endless resources to share with teachers as they work tirelessly to hone their practice.

-fell in love with Screencastify and used it to flip content in faculty meetings.  Here’s one example as we prepared for a big discussion about restructuring in the spring.  The feedback I received included, “Wow!  I loved that!  I listened to it as I traveled back from another building I’m assigned to…” and “That was too long.  I didn’t like it.”  Of course, I loved the first comment… and the second comment gave me important information about how to move forward.   Screencastifies (plural?) I’ve created this year include a step by step way for a new technology user to share a Google Doc with someone… a reminder for staff on how to finalize their growth plan in My Passport, and “how to” videos for a Schoology course I’m co-facilitating with other administrators in the district.  The applications are endless!

-experimented with video (which required a fairly good sized amount of work around getting over myself and how I look on screen).  Screencastify helped me step into this realm… and then I messed around with video in Schoology… and then, thanks to Erika Morreale from the BVSD Ed Tech, I was introduced to WeVideo!  She met me for breakfast at 6:30AM in early August (because the time that I have for my own learning typically only happens in the dark of the early morning or late night)!  I made a video for Back to School night in lieu of loading over 1000 parents into a hot, sweaty gym.  This allowed me to roam and talk, and it also standardized important information that I wanted my whole community to have (not just the people who chose to come to the evening event).  

-co-created, along with my amazing staff, an In-House Tech Conference to kick off the year.  We have such a wealth of knowledge at Aspen Creek and teachers in my building love learning from and with one another!

And now… it’s fall and I’m back at it, this crazy business of Principalling (verb).  My minutes are consumed with helping other people improve and grow at every turn.  My own growth comes in fits and starts… and yet, here I am.  I’ve pulled myself away from the clawing Guilt Monster and stepped into a cafe’ (shhhh… during the school day!), grabbed at my own heart (shhh… I chose to put chocolate in my chai), and LET myself be in my own learning and reflecting.  Yes.  I can.  I should.   I am.

ISTE is Coming to Denver

The International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) is bringing its high-energy, content-packed conference to Denver this summer!  On June 26-29, Colorado is fortunate to host this nationally renowned conference and have the opportunity to connect with educators and experts from around the world.

Want more information about what ISTE is? Check out ISTE 2015 highlights and the BVSD Ed Tech ‘What is ISTE’ blog.

Why Should I Attend?

“Be a change agent. Differentiate your learning. Think creativity. Learn differently.”

ISTE conferences provide an electric atmosphere, with inspirational keynotes and session choices for every educator to find the right learning at the right time. It’s a great chance to visit face to face with the people you follow on twitter or read their Ed Tech blogs.

Some session options include;

• ‘Bring Your Own Device’ session; (one ticketed event per day)
• Interactive lecture - engage and ask your own questions
• ‘playground’ experience with hands-on activities and conversations.

With over 900 sessions to choose from, you will surely find a topic that will further your quest for knowledge to innovate. Go to the ISTE Denver 2016 Program Guide for more details.

Along with the powerful learning sessions and opportunities to meet other passionate leaders, ISTE hosts an Expo hall featuring more than 500 companies demonstrating their products and ready to answer questions about their tools that can impact the classroom learning environment.

Forming Friendships and Staying Connected

Oh the connections you will make! Through session attendance, you will meet leaders and colleagues across the country. The learning goes beyond the sessions; ISTE is setting up a network for attendees to stay connected before, during and after the event. Last, sign up for event notices in ISTE’s ‘stay connected’ links!

Can’t attend ISTE this year? 

Never fear! Stay in touch through social media tools such as Twitter; follow ISTE @isteconnects. You can also search for the hashtag #ISTE2016 to connect with others as they converse about the ISTE experience.

Last, sign up for event notices in ISTE’s ‘stay connected’ links!

How Do I Sign Up?

Register on the ISTE attendees page; use our BVSD group code to secure the super-early bird pricing of $309(members)/$434(non-members) regardless of when you register! To get the BVSD group code contact elene.medicraft@bvsd.org or a member of the Ed Tech team. Teachers have found funding assistance through their school or PTA groups, and you can find funding ideas from ISTE here.