Day 2 at ISTE
The traditional arc of a story starts with the exposition in which the characters are introduced and the scene is set. That was day one of ISTE. Day two was definitely the rising action stage because today was like a non-stop rollercoaster. Scary, fun, exciting, exhausting, and truly memorable.
No Starbucks, but definitely Star-power
Somehow I got out of bed early to catch CoffeeEDU at the Spoke and Bird on 18th street at 6 o’please go back to bed. I mean “in the morning.” I walked about 4 blocks from the hotel just in time to meet up with Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) and some other early birds for free muffins, coffee, and conversations about everything education and technology. We followed an “un-conference” style in which we all just sat outside with strangers and introduced ourselves, where we call home, and what’s on our minds regarding teaching and learning. My table had folks from Connecticut, Iowa, and Virginia. As we talked about our schools and struggles, I noticed some other familiar faces filter in, namely Kasey Bell, author of Shake Up Learning — book and blog — and Holly Clarke, author of The Google Infused Classroom. The plot thickens. They were so gracious with their time and advice as we all wanted pictures and a few words with them, including me. I knew if I saw them at the conference, they wouldn’t have time for such an exclusive chat! As the great poet, Napolean Dynamite, would say, “LUCKY!!”
Then I locked myself out
Still groggy from the early start and late for my first session of the day, I rushed back up to the hotel, grabbed my laptop and rushed out the door . . . . with my key card still inside. Deep breath. Deep breath. Stay calm. Get to the desk, get a new key card, get going. After hustling past the “Posters” area in which various presenters cover a variety of topics from robotics to _______, I got to a session about Google apps, tips, tricks. Finally a session with music playing and a very animated presenter. Learned some new extensions apps like Chrome Sign Builder to build and display digital signs (think restaurant menus or kiosk signs) and the Draw.io add-on for diagramming in Google Drive with boxes, images, arrow connectors and more.
I left a little early to get in line for Kasey Bell’s “Dynamic Learning with G Suite” session. Not only did I want to hear the content of her presentation, but also to observe how she conducts it. After all, as an instructional coach, I need to be able to sell the tools and techniques that I present to the teachers at my school or they won’t use them. Just like her blog, Kasey’s slides were very visually appealing with bright colors, simple images, and little text. She went into detail about the differences between dynamic and static learning including lots of helpful examples. Her pace was fast but manageable and she used great metaphors to help the audience grasp the concepts such as getting students off the “conveyer belt” or Google Slides is the “Swiss Army Knife” of G Suite for Education. She passionately advocated for the purposeful use of digital tools to promote new teaching methods (vision boards, stop motion, choice boards, comics, hyperdocs) rather than simply using them to replicate old methods (worksheets, packets, textbooks). Throughout the presentation she weaved in anecdotal stories of student agency, voice and choice, and ownership to hammer home her points. Great session!
Another setback . . . Oh GOOGLE!
I speed walked past Kasey to my next line for a coaching teachers session by Google. Oddly, it was a half-hour session rather than the typical one hour, the room had carpeting and Google colored chairs, and it was surprisingly easy to get in. The presenter started talking about a paid application to facilitate staff professional development. I checked the schedule on my ISTE app and realized I was just a little early. But when the session ended, I was shocked when the Google staff made everyone leave the room and get back in line for the next session, the coaching session! Of course, THAT line was now 250 people deep and I knew that I had no chance. I couldn’t believe it. I got there too early! Anyhow, I took some more deep breaths and lined up for the next session on creative apps on Chromebooks.
In the interest of reading time, I’ll skip to my final session which was on virtual math manipulatives, specifically Desmos and Geogebra. Did your eyes glaze over when you read this was a “math” session? I hope not because this isn’t your grandfather’s math class. Desmos and Geogebra have some amazing interactive games and tools that truly make math visual and attainable for anyone. The presenters did an efficient demonstration of the tools and encouraged us to play upon which I promised to do so later.
What can I say. I wanted some swag from the expo booths.
The expo area is massive and a complete assault on the senses. There are mini-presentations/demonstrations/giveaways every where you look. Some booths are more catered to coordinators and administrators who make system-wide purchases for things like device carts, web-filtering and security software, and large flat panel displays. After walking a few aisles, I shuttled between the EdTechTeam booth and the Google for Education booth. Sitting down for a Google presentation on a Chromebook, two Englishmen (from London) told me about some amazing updates to Google Classroom and Google Forms. Classroom is getting a new option to organize work in the stream. Drag assignments in any order so that the stream can be used for discussion without assignments getting lost in the scroll. The introduction to the Google Forms lock browser feature to securely conduct quizzes was climactic! Finally, teachers can be reassured that students won’t be able to cheat so easily by opening a new tab to search for answers during a quiz. That was big. I also learned some Google Sheets tricks and how to use the Jamboard app (alert: you don’t need a Jamboard to use it) on a Chromebook and the Google Tour Creator site. Amazing stuff. Mind blown! Just when you think you know everything about G Suite, you realize there is always something more.
Finally, the EdTechTeam had some great information as well including appearance from Eric Curts (@ericcurts), Holly Clark (@HollyClarkEDU), and sketchnote guru Sylvia Duckworth (@SylviaDuckworth) who participated in a demo slam. Great information about making learning visible via Socrative and Flipgrid (thanks Holly Clark), making music and rap videos with Incredibox + Screencastify (thanks Sylvia Duckworth) and using the Equatio extension to finally make complex math equations digital. I will take all of these phenomenal tools and implementation ideas back to my colleagues so they can make student learning more visible and dynamic rather than hidden and static. Hey, that rhymed!
Hitting the wall
Definitely felt a little dazed and confused at times today. Thank goodness I had a spare key card to my room when I got back to the hotel! I’ll try to do better tomorrow. I guess that’s the resolution to this story. Day 2 in the books.
All posts in this ISTE series
Day 1 at ISTE
Day 2 at ISTE
Day 3 at ISTE
Day 4 at ISTE
Top 5 Lessons Learned from Attending ISTE 2018