Saturday
As a veteran of a large multi-day music festival like Bonnaroo, I can honestly say that the ISTE conference is comparable in size and scope to Bonnaroo. It is overwhelming on every level for anyone that has not attended. With over 1500 speakers, exhibits and events, it was difficult to figure out where to start. Strategy and pace are essential to getting the most out of the experience.
I arrived late in the afternoon on Saturday hoping to get a feel for the Georgia World Congress Center. I also wanted to hear the opening keynote address from Ashley Judd. There was a lot of confusion and congestion around the escalators, but after entering the keynote hall it became clear just how big this convention was. There were 14,000 people gathered for the opening address. A live jazz band from New Orleans created a uptempo vibe that made the whole thing feel more like a party than a convention. Enormous projection screens flanked either side of the stage to give everyone a clear view of the evening's speakers. Ashley Judd's keynote, while heartfelt, seemed slightly off topic at several points. Following the keynote, I wandered Building B to get familiar with the meeting rooms and got a sneak peak of the Expo Hall. I decided to make it an early night, so that I could be prepared for the next day.
Sunday
I spent over two hours wandering the rows of the Expo Hall on Sunday morning. I narrowed my focus to vendors that offered robots, gameification, 3D printing, programming, iPad resources and anything associated with the Maker Movement. Highlights included GameStar Mechanic, LightCube, Hummingbird, Autodesk, Makerbot, Next Engine, Griffin, 2Simple, and Filament Learning. Of course, companies like Google, Samsung, Scholastic, Edmodo, Pearson, Panasonic were also present. I was more interested in finding smaller companies and products that I hadn't heard of before.
I don't know if wandering the Expo Hall for two hours was the best strategy to start my day because my head was spinning from sensory overload by 11:30 AM. However, I'm not sure if I can imagine trying to see everything after spending a morning in sessions either. I tweeted "EdTech vendors as far as the eye can see".
In the gigantic glass and concrete "hallway" of Building B, there were two Playgrounds set up with mini-sessions and hands-on demos for different themes. Little Learners, technologies, and big learning was set up on level 3. I had the opportunity to play with two different robots Play-i and KinderLab Robotics. The Play-i robots (Bo and Yana) featured iOS and Android based programming tools to control the robot. While I was familiar with Play-i, it was great to see a prototype in action. Bo and Yana will begin shipping in the fall. I was more encouraged by their development of a tablet based simulator. Play-I's apps will be free. Even if classrooms or students don't own a Bo or Yana, they can practice programming in the simulator on their tablet device. There may also be the ability to store code in a cloud.
KinderLab Robotic's Kibo, takes a different approach. Kibo is programmed by linking wooden blocks together that have scannable barcodes. Users then take Kibo's barcode reader and scan each block in sequence to execute a specific command. Kibo seems very Pre-K and kindergarten friendly.
Next I attended Full STEAM Ahead, Cultivating connections with the Arts with Kyle Pace and Michelle Baldwin. This well attended session focussed on integrating STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) with traditional and arts classrooms. The session emphasized that all students are creative but in different ways. STEAM education, when done correctly, gives every student voice and choice. A highlight of the session was the creation of a selfie that integrated math, pattern, shadow, and reflection. My collaborative project is below.
Coding for the Future: Engaging student interest in Programming was the first and only session of which I shut out. Many sessions at ISTE are ticketed by preregistration. Otherwise, you have to wait in the stand-by line. I lined up 20 minutes early and still got shut out. Needless to say, CODING IS HOT!
I wandered back the Murphy Ballroom to see the father of the flipped classroom, John Bergmann present Flip your Classroom: The Intersection of Content, Curiosity, and Relationships. While I've been quite familiar with flipped classroom, I haven't entirely implemented it into my own class. I tweeted my key takeaway, "If you can be replaced by a YouTube video, you should be".
My last stop of the day was in the Murphy Ballroom Galleria to visit the American School of Bombay's poster session on Designing your Makerspace. I shared my teaching situation with Karishma Galani who then spent the next ten minutes talking to me about strategies for moving forward with my own classroom. Their session also gave away copies of Future Forwards: Exploring Frontiers in Education.
By 6 PM, it was time to call it a day. I had an even busier day scheduled for Monday.
The Monday morning Playground featured Build Your World: Makerspace at the Mobile Learning Playground. I listened and met with Trish Cloud who was doing amazing things with Minecraft Pocket Edition and her elementary school students. I watched a MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printer in action, played with Bee-Bot and spent some more time learning about the application of Augmented Reality to the classroom.
My first session of the day was called Thousands of Tiny Robots which featured ModRobotic's cube shaped robots called Cubelets. These simple building blocks give young students the opportunity to explore robotics without coding. What I appreciated about this session was their focus on educational benefit of teaching robotics. Specifically, they addressed issues like scientific method, computational thinking, design thinking and life science.
Josh Caldwell immediately followed with an incredible presentation on the application of Arduino to his middle school technology classroom. I've been reluctant to get involved with Arduino because it seemed too advanced for my K-4 students. However, Caldwell's expert knowledge of this technology showed me otherwise. Arduino is an essential physical computing tool.
Back in the Murphy Ballroom Galleria, I met Christopher Michaud who was presenting the Georgia Tech developed Earsketch. This web-based audio production tool gives users the ability to produce a song by using Python to code each instrument and track. It seemed like a very musically engaging way to learn Python. Michaud explained that he had taught Earsketch to students as young as 3rd grade.
In the Murphy Ballroom, I had my first experience with Google Glass. This technology is not something that seemed to have much application to my professional or personal life. However, after watching Christine DePaulo and Christian Penny's presentation, I started to think differently. I even had the opportunity to try a set on. I took a picture and a 10 second video. Unfortunately, the $1500 price tag will probably keep Google Glass out of my reach for a while.
I headed over to the Sidney Marcus Auditorium next and was disappointed to find out that I missed Make Magazine founder Dale Dougherty. However, I did catch Guy Hoffman's EdTekTalk about the humanity of robots. Hoffman explores robotic body language to promote creativity in humans. His work has even been featured comedically on the Colbert Report. He shared a great article from The Economist and has created robots that can improvise jazz music.
I ended my day with Gamification, Makerspaces and Minecraft with Douglas Kiang. With only a small bit of experience in Minecraft, I was very interested learning more about how to use it as a teaching tool. Douglas Kiang did a brilliant job of addressing the issues of curriculum, classroom, and community in the 21st century classroom. He then related those issues to the virtual worlds created in Minecraft. His students created stunning recreations and redesigns of their school campus in Minecraft.. The student's work was beautiful and Douglas Kiang's delivery was uplifting. My most significant takeaway was the relation of Minecraft to the book Andrew Henry's Meadow by Doris Burn.
Monday evening brought the opportunity to mix and mingle with other educators. After attending Tennessee Education Technology Association's mixer, I made my way to the Tabernacle Music Hall for EdTech Karaoke. While I've never been a fan of karaoke, it was great to network with other passionate educators.
Tuesday
By Tuesday morning, I felt that I was running on empty. I had only planned to stay half a day before returning home. I attended Learn How to Use a 3D Printer-Right Now! with Shawn and Stephanie Grimes from the Digital Harbor Foundation. It was exciting to see a Printrbot 3D printer in action. They showed the process of design and printing using mostly free tools. Shawn and Stephanie's presentation made this technology even more accessible to anyone just getting their feet wet with 3D printing.
All the technologies that I had read about on Twitter and blogs became more accessible through the conference. It was inspiring to hear so many well-informed professionals talk about 21st century tools for learning. The ISTE conference is world-class professional development that will motivate and inspire any teacher. It was also a great way to expand your professional learning network. It is a truly exciting time to be an educator.
No comments:
Post a Comment