Ten Technology ‘Takeaways’ from the 2016 ISTE Conference
Author: Rick Phelan
Published: 07.06.16
Over 14,000 educators gathered in Denver, Colorado from June 26 to June 29 at the 2016 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference. Featuring hands-on workshops, keynote speakers, poster sessions, interest group meetings, technology playgrounds and vendor exhibits, representatives from 72 countries were present along with seven educators from Sonoma County: Patricia Amend-Ehn, Bob Bales, Patrick Daniels, John Magnoli, Rick Phelan, Christy Riddell, and Tracy Whitaker. This post shares my view of 10 significant themes with resources for follow-up from the 2016 ISTE conference.
1- Learning Needs to Focus on the Future: Keynote speaker Michio Kaku stated that “... education needs to prepare students for the future; not the world of the past.” The new wave of innovation involves concepts and principles not memorization of facts and details. Kaku said educators should think of a future where humans have advantages over computers & machines. He echoed ideas from MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee encouraging the development of human abilities in ideation, large frame pattern recognition and complex communication.
2- Art & technology play well together: Australian educator, Cathy Hunt, offered dynamic ideas for using iPads to integrate art at one of the conference keynotes. She considered ways digital tool can create opportunities for students to engage with tasks that were previously difficult and time consuming in the classroom environment. Hunt provided suggestions for iPad apps here. Projects and sample ideas are offered here.
3- Google applications continue to evolve for K-12 education: Google announced a number of new tools and enhancements for K-12 students and teachers. Synergyse is a free virtual extension for education that provides interactive training for core Google apps. Google Project Bloks represent a research project aimed at creating an open hardware platform to help developers, designers, and researchers build the next generation of tangible programming experiences for students. Google Cast is a free Chrome app that allows students and teachers to share their screens wirelessly from anywhere in the classroom. Teachers run the Cast for Education app, and students can share their screens through the Cast feature in Chrome.
4- Activators & summarizers support student engagement: Librarian Kathy Schrock encouraged educators to be strategic designing student learning experiences. She described techniques with technology to activate students’ prior knowledge as well as the use of summarizers- activities to promote the retention of knowledge through the use of engaging strategies designed to rehearse and practice skills for the purpose of moving knowledge into long-term memory. Schrock’s presentation is offered here. Her Activators & Summarizers resource page is here.
5- New applications for Chromebooks: Chromebook users will find some new applications available when they come back to school in the Fall. The popular multimedia tablet app, “Explain Everything,” is now available for Chromebooks. Chromebook users can now animate, record, annotate, collaborate, and explore ideas, knowledge and understanding through the Explain Everything Chromebook app. Another new option for Chromebooks is a programming app for Lego Mindstorm robots. The app offers basic programming features and functions for beginning users; it helps schools who may lack PCs and laptops.
6- Microsoft Supports Maker Education & STEAM: Microsoft has assembled a resource notebook for teachers with lessons, materials and activities to bring STEAM education to students. The resource is setup in a Microsoft One Note format with investigations about electricity, astronomy, energy, habitats, geography, and city planning. Get the Microsoft Maker-Space Project Notebook here.
7- Robots offer physical models for engineering & mathematics: K-12 students encouraged exploration and experimentation from conference participants at the ISTE robotics playgrounds. Primary age students were present demonstrating beginning programming with Bee Bots and Cubelets. Upper elementary and middle school students provided examples of input and output functions with We Do, Dash, Sphero and Lego Mindstorms robots. High school students demonstrated options for design and programming with Vex creations and FIRST robot league competition entries. The message to educators was clear: robots are dynamic elements for STEAM education.
8- Updated student technology standards: ISTE’s K-12 student technology standards are frequently cited in district technology plans as to what students should know and be able to do with technology. This year’s ISTE conference unveiled a "refresh" on K-12 student technology standards. ISTE spent more than a year, involving more than 2,700 people (including 295 students) from 52 countries. The result is a new focus: leading with instruction, instead of leading with a tool. The revised ISTE standards don't mention any specific technologies or tools that students should be using. Instead, they focus on the skills and qualities that young people need in order to develop the following identities:
- Empowered learners, who use technology to shape and choose their own learning paths.
- Digital citizens, who "recognize the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world."
- Knowledge constructors, who draw on a mix of digital tools and resources to actively explore real-world issues.
- Innovative designers, with the ability to "identify and solve problems by creating new, useful, or imaginative solutions."
- Computational thinkers, who can use technology to develop and test solutions.
- Creative communicators, who can express themselves "for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals."
- Global collaborators, who can work with others using digital tools.
9- Teaching, Learning & Making with Raspberry Pi: The Raspberry Pi is a low cost ($35), credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It enables students of different ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages such as Scratch and Python. It’s capable of doing everything you’d expect a desktop computer to do, from browsing the internet and playing high-definition video, to making spreadsheets, word-processing, and playing games. Educators and students were encouraged to explore resources for using Raspberry Pi here.
10- When teachers connect they change the world: The closing keynote from Michelle Cordy inspired educators to recognize the value of their work. Cordy encouraged teachers to, “... see schools and districts as ecosystems-- ecosystems don’t break. But we do need to take care of them.” Cordy believes teachers need to experiment with different variables to insure the best learning for all of their students. She went on to say, “...we are ‘applied researchers’ who have the ability to network with colleagues around the world through technology to learn and grow. In the end, all the pieces are in place for education to work well. But these pieces may need to be assembled in a different way if we want it to work better... the bottom line is that the students need you, and they need you to refuse to leave, refuse to give up.” Michelle Cordy’s blog, Hack the Classroom- Adventures in Transforming Education, is here.
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