Tech Trends, Snaps and Tweets from ISTE 2015
The International Society of Technology Education (ISTE) hosted its annual convention in Philadelphia from Sunday Jun 28th through July 1st. I will update this blog throughout the week with Tech Trends, Snaps, and top tweets all found below.
Live Snapping will be posted on @jon_rogers on Snapchat. Logo for scanning is below.
DAY 4: Wednesday
Highlights:
FOUR STAR GEMS FROM ISTE
1. Newsela
2. Flocabulary
3. Soundtrap
4. Hootsuite Updated
5. Kahoot Ghost Mode
6. Math Space
7. Flipboard EdU
This morning interviews came from iStudio, Flocabulary, Bretford and a talk with teachers about Newslea.
iStudio is way for teachers to turn their classroom into a broadcast studio or it can also be used as way to run a broadcast program with an assortment of interactive features.
Flocabulary is bringing Hip Hop News to the classroom with links to articles and how-tos on how to make your own hip-hop lyrics. This could be a really great intro activity or featured HIP-HOP news special feature that could really drive traffic.
Newslea was mentioned by several teachers as a great way to incorporate news into a classroom using different lexile levels or reading difficulty levels for students.
Bretford tech furniture has tables with flat screens attached to them called TEAMING TABLES and new ways to incorporate power outlets into tables.
Overall tech trends I observed throughout the week were a real importance on publishing good writing, embracing or challenging social issues with technology, using technology to find good journalism and non-fiction on the web (Flipboard), tech tools to assess students in the real time, changing the face of professional development (Google), and working as collaborative teams to individualize the use of technology for different classrooms. Kahoot and their new Ghost mode was also a popular topic among teachers. There was also an interesting discussion about taking back the teacher’s lounge and changing the conversations so teachers are excited about teaching again.
Snapping an event was also an interesting experience. I enjoy reporters Snapping as it hopefully gave a “real” look at what happened at the conference as well as a way to get fast raw footage from an event. Putting it on this website takes away from the impermanence of how the app actually works, but I wanted to hopefully show those apprehensive of the Snapchat world how some journalists are using it to report.
SNAPS FROM DAY 4
DAY 3: Tuesday
Highlights:
Today began with a session on the importance of publishing student work and creating classrooms where students can share their stories. The presenter found that most students started hating writing in third grade when formal writing practices begin. She also believed the craft of writing can’t be sacrificed just because it is published online.
Exiting the session early, I went to see the winners of the StartUP ISTE challenge. Math Space cleaned up the competition with a new app aimed at getting beyond multiple choice digital math training. Other interesting StartUps included satellites that students can code or program before actually sending into space through ArdUSat.
Canon promoted new lenses and cameras designed to include new wireless and Near Fi sharing systems.
FULL LIST OF StartUps
360 World Atlas, Salt Lake City: the world’s first interactive virtual reality atlas
Allcancode, Delaware, U.S., and Athens, Greece: a game-based learning system for coding designed for primary school kids
Epiphany, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: a secure, easy-to-use, web-based personalized learning application designed to empower learners.
Interactive Cases, Athens, Georgia: interactive cases that relate key science concepts to the real world
Math Space, Strathfield New South Wales, Australia: an adaptive maths program that provides students with guided feedback not once a week, or once a day, but every step of the way
Mosa Mack Science, Brooklyn, NY: award-winning inquiry units that are engaging and easy to use
Propagate, Santa Monica, California: allows teachers to embed vocabulary instruction directly into anything a student is reading digitally – whether at home or for school
SE3D Education, Redwood City, California: provides 3D bioprinter hardware, professional development training and modular content to schools
Youth Digital Enterprise, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: online project-based technology courses for kids 8-14
Zyrobotics, Atlanta, Georgia: smart mobile technologies for accessible use and play
Education Framework, Bend, Oregon: e-signature and student data privacy software made especially for K-12
Dreamborie Learning Studio
DAY 2:
Monday
Highlights:
Below are some of the highlights and links that picked up on the second day of ISTE. Soundtrap provides an interesting cloud based alternative to Garageband and is fresh off winning several tech awards. Panasonic is teaming with JDL to create broadcasting classrooms for schools, Google is unveiling a new professional development models as they site that 70 percent of teachers are stressed due to a lack of good professional development. Google also released Expedition that gives students a virtual reality experience using cardboard glasses that hold an Android phone. The kits have not yet been released or their price point. My Snaps are below, but several interviews and the Poster display room at ISTE were lost due to poor cell phone reception and closing the app. Reporters using Snapchat should make sure not to close the app if Snaps didn’t load and also work on the ten second interview response.
NOTES
-Microsoft pushes drawing on Surface 3 tablets
-Google releases new professional development model and Google Expedition
Expedition pairs with phones and a their “cardboard” viewing device to give viewers a three
dimensional experience of trips to reefs or seeing Romeo and Juliet.
-Lego promotes learning projects for reading, writing and story telling with Legos
-Kahoot unveils Ghost Mode
-Larger and more responsive touch screens are found throughout the exhibits
HP Releases Chromebook 11
Panasonic to team up with JDL to produce Broadcast classrooms for schools. Panasonic also released their White Papers on their classroom of the future.
Soundtrap also released a cloud based competitor to Apple’s Garageband with Podcasting feature.
SNAPS
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DAY 1:
Sunday
IGNITE HIGHLIGHTS
YouTube Channels
Global Nomads
Student Journalists Responsibility to Cover Social Issues
Importance of Listening to Students
Importance of Creation over Absorption
