As the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference ends and summer begins, Soundtrap provides us with a great learning series. It's called #BestofISTE. Each of the 20 episodes highlights the best of what is taking place at ISTE from the perspective of accomplished leaders at ISTE.
Dr. Jennifer Williams records podcast with Dr. Rod Berger at the Soundtrap booth at #ISTE19
Podcasts include experts discussing topics such as accessible technology, digital equity, digital portfolios, inclusive classrooms, and podcasting with students.
Each episode was taped, edited, and uploaded directly from the Soundtrap booth at ISTE.
I came across a laptop at the International Society for Technology for Education conference that had a sticker on a Discovery Education laptop asking: What's your six word story? I spoke to the Discovery reps about what it meant. They shared that you can use it for anything really. Having students watch a video? Ask them to be ready to report their six word story about it. Wondering about prior knowledge when introducing a topic? Ask participants to share their six word story. Attending ISTE with a bunch of brilliant colleagues? Ask them their six word ISTE story. That is what I did over lunch with some of the #NYCSchoolsTech staff who were attending ISTE. Here are their six word stories in a video.
Six Word Stories from #NYCSchoolsTech educators at #ISTE19
Collaborating to predict the future world.
Perpetually ten minutes from your destination.
- Jenny Foxe
26000 people getting better together.
-Eileen Lennon
Nerdy educators sharing stories in Philly.
Deeper dive into edtech. Infinite possibilities.
-Cindy Wong
An experience that invigorated my being.
Sharing #JackiesShoes yearly at #ISTE19.
-Jackie Patanio
Where serendipitous connections can change everything.
-Lisa Nielsen
Your Turn
This is a cool technique to do at a conference or any event or activity. If you were at ISTE or if you know someone who was, use the six word story technique to share reactions to the experience. It is a fun and meaningful conversation starter.
Innovative educators understand the importance of being in touch with the latest trends in ed tech. Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) helps us by sharing what the organization sees as the next big trends. To bring this to life, he had the global leaders in each area explain what's in store for us.
2019/20: The Year Of...
Artificial Intelligence
Culatta explained that AI is so important that General Motors approached ISTE with their concern that today's students won't graduate prepared to work for them. They need students who are immersed in and knowledgeable about AI on their team. But most teachers aren't doing that.
Fortunately, teachers like April Keck DeGennaro who teaches at Peoples Elementary School in Georgia is. She shared why AI is important in her SCREAM Lab. SCREAM stands for science, computing, robotics, engineering, artificial intelligence, and math. Her students use technology to interact with others around the world to solve real-world problems in their community an beyond. She has used empathy-based engineering and AI to solve these problems. April also was a participant in the ISTE U Artificial Intelligence Course.
Educator Voice
Patricia J. Brown, a tech specialist for Ladue School District explains why we need to start hearing more stories about education from educators. She knows first hand. When she first enlisted in the ISTE and TED masterclass, she didn't know what story she had to offer the world. It didn't take long for her to figure that out and then share her powerful story on the ISTE stage in 2018. You can check it out in the video below.
If you want to find your story to share, check out the ISTE and TED masterclass. You have until July 2 to apply.
Digital Citizenship: Student Style
Dr. Marialice B. F. X. Curran and her twelve year old child, Curran Dee explained the importance of including students in the digital citizenship conversations, lessons, and use even before they are 13 years old.
Dr. Curran explained that she and her son have a joint social media account. They use social media side by side so that when he turns 13 he will have the tools and guidance necessary to be successful.
Curran Dee, Dr. Curran's son, explained that to learn about the digital world, kids need to be in it. He says instead of telling us what not to do, adults should help kids change headlines by turning negatives into positives. Curran provides advice for how kids can be responsible digital citizens by sharing their voice, solving problems and creating solutions, and empowering other kids.
Dr. Curran explained that what should be trending in social media is the learning that happens in the classroom.
Keep an eye out for their upcoming joint campaign with ISTE: #DigCitCommit
Digital Equity
The importance of digital equity was explained by Dr. Nicole R. Howard, assistant professor at the school of education at the University of Redlands and Dr. Sarah Thomas, regional tech coordinator in Prince George's County Public Schools. Both are members of the ISTE digital equity network.
They explained the importance of hearing from the voices that need to be heard and the power we now have to share those voices. A useful resource is the COSN Digital Equity Tookit.
Dr. Thomas shared some strategies to provide digital equity such as:
Homework hotspots
Have a map of internet hotspots around the community
Low-cost broadband programs
Search for ones like EveryoneOn that exist in your community
Mobile hotspots and devices
Search for programs like the 1 Million Project that provide mobile hotspots and devices.
School bus wifi
In communities where students spend a lot of time on a bus, consider using a company like Kajeet to provide internet access during the commute.
Schools as wireless hubs
Some schools are using LTE technology to push internet access to their community.
If you want to know about the next big thing in ed tech, you should know about esports. Here are takeaways from the "Esports in Education: Everything You Wanted to Know" session hosted by Microsoft that took place at #ISTE19.
The Stats
Future ready skills
Improvements in:
Attention
Problem solving
Digital literacy
Technology fluency
Math achievement
School Success
Students who play esports are know to have:
Increased attendance
Increased participation in school activities
Decreased at-home game play
Increased GPA
College Scholarship Opportunities
Hundreds of colleges provide scholarships for esports athletes. Currently there are more than 16 million dollars in scholarships.
STEM Interest
Video game playing is positively correlated with interest in STEM Fields. Esports are STEM.org approved.
There Is A Curriculum
The High School Esports League has a curriculum and you can access it at bit.ly/gamingcurriculum.
Career Readiness
Students learn about platform technologies, databases, big data, and machine learning.
Accessibility and Inclusion
All students can participate unlike traditional sports.
No legs, no hands, no excuses. Always been my motto. No matter what obstacle comes my way I FACE it head on. Win or lose, I'll always try!
— BrolyLegs The Broken @ CEO (@Brolylegs) June 18, 2017
Social Connections
Esports are a great way for students to connect.
Esports is not just about competition! Many students are involved for the social connections! Esports can be the great equalizer and give all students the opportunity to succeed. @Brinkmanship@CDWJoe@InnovativeEdu#ISTE19
Esports or electronic sports are a form of competition that happens when people play video games competitively. Just like football players play football together, esports players play video games together. Just like baseball players fill stadiums, so do esport players. It is a one billion dollar industry with more than 500 million people predicted to watch them in 2020.
Lisa Nielsen in front of the Amazon Inspire booth at ISTE
If you’re attending the International Society for Technology
Education (ISTE) conference, you'll want to be prepared. Here are a few go-to articles and a few takeaways that will help you get the most out of this,
or any learning activity, this summer.
Angela Maiers reminds us that what’s more
important than what it is you plan “to do” is who you want “to be”
at ISTE. She tells us to be...
·prepared
·rememberable
·tactically serendipitous
·reflective
·a sharer
·a question asker
·courageous
·kind
·a learner
·patient
·persistent
What I like the most in her advice is to be
rememberable.
She says:
Each time you introduce
yourself, you are not just handing them your business card; you are telling
them your story. Your introduction is what can make or break a great first
impression, so your story
needs to be brief, bold, and “rememberable.” Leave them wanting to know
more. The key is to stand out for the right reasons; your strengths, your
unique talents, and perspectives.
We should all consider our
introduction.
For this ISTE, I think mine
will be this:
I am working to ensure staff in
NYC schools know how to develop content that is inclusive of everyone,
including the world’s largest minority group: Those with disabilities, as well
as people who speak all languages. Where I work 50% of families speak a
language other than English at home.
This post has helpful tips such
as, attend with intention and work the line after keynotes. My favorite piece
of advice is a tip about business cards Select four intentions or goals i.e. 1)
Accessibility experts 2) Those who use ISTE standards 3) Twitter chat
moderators 4) Podcasters.
Once you’ve selected the four
intentions, have each corner represent an intention. Then after you meet the
person, fold the appropriate corner. It is possible to have none or all corners
folded. This will give you a quick way to visually see and sort your cards. You
should also consider writing a quick note on the back with anything that is
important to remember or follow up actions.
The article points out that 1967 was the year
educational computing was born. It was the year Alan Kay gave birth to the concept of a ‘laptop’ computer
for kids, which he sketched on a flight back to the US after working with Jean
Piaget, Seymour Papert, and some young students. In 1967, Kay wasn’t
simply thinking of his ‘laptop’ as a new medium of expression, or way of doing
things more efficiently. Rather he saw it as a place where young people could
create and explore new, powerful ideas. Where they could do things that were
simply not previously possible, at levels of complexity never before
imaginable. As an instrument whose music is ideas.
The article challenges ISTE attendees to find
more examples of what Kay envisioned and focus less on things like monitoring
students, using tech to test prep or deliver instruction.
Get advice directly from ISTE. Highlights from this article are:
Have learning goals
Use the right hashtag #ISTE19 and handle @ISTE
Dress for comfort (lots of walking) and sometimes cold rooms (bring a sweater)
Your turn
These are some of the
tips and pieces of advice I like to keep in mind before attending summer
learning events like ISTE. What do you think? Are there ideas that resonate
with you? Anything missing?
Haben Girma and Lisa Nielsen Accessibility Expo 2019
Haben Girma, the first deaf-blind student to graduate Harvard Law spoke at an Accessibility Expo to a New York City Department of Education audience about the importance of sharing positive disability stories and services available. At the Expo attendees saw amazing work happening in schools with students. If you did not have the opportunity to attend, you don't have a way to find out about what's happening. That's because schools, districts, government agencies, and those who use their services, often can do a better job of sharing. They forget about sharing their QR codes and hashtags and websites. They forget to celebrate on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. As a result, important stories and services are not widely known. Haben Girma has useful advice for how educators about how they can do a better job of posting positive stories.
If you're posting a video, make sure the video has captions.
If you're posting a photo, add an alt text.
You can learn from Girma directly in the video below. You can also find out how she is able to communicate with hearing person communicate. When you visit the video, turn on the captions. You'll see why they are helpful for people with and without disabilities.
During this month's #NYCSchoolsTechChat we will discuss how what we are going to share and learn at this summer’s #NYCSchoolsTech Summit.
Participants can join us for the chat, then come to our in-person Summit on Wednesday, July 31st.The Summit is free to educators. You can visit the #NYCSchoolsTech Summit site to register and get more information. #NYCSchoolTech teacher Eileen Lennon moderates with me (Lisa) throwing in my two cents. You can prepare for the conversation by thinking about answers to these questions:
Q1 Let’s get newcomers excited. What advice do you have for newbies? What makes the trip worth it? Refresh your memory. See past workshops at tinyurl.com/SummitWorkshops2018 #NYCSchoolsTechChat
Q2 At the #NYCSchoolsTech Summit you get to connect with vendors f2f. Who do you want to talk to? What do you want to learn? #NYCSchoolsTechChat
Q3 What are you most excited about learning at this year’s #NYCSchoolsTech Summit? #NYCSchoolsTechChat
Q4 We want you to submit poster sessions! What are you doing in the classroom that could be a poster session? tinyurl.com/SummitPoster2019 #NYCSchoolsTechChat
Q5 What is something you immediately put into practice after last years #NYCSchoolsTech Summit or hope to learn at this year’s Summit? #NYCSchoolsTechChat
Q6 Go into those archives and share some photos from last year’s #NYCSchoolsTech Summit. #NYCSchoolsTechChat
Chat details are below: Date: Thursday, June 6 Time: 7:00 pm Topic: #NYCSchoolsTech Summit Your Host: @eileen_lennon (@NYCSchools) Co-Host: @InnovativeEdu (@NYCSchools)
Remember to respond using the hashtag #NYCSchoolsTechChat and include the number of the question you are answering in your response i.e. A1 and your answer.
Student art featured at the
NYC DOE Inclusion Expo
Victor Calise, Commissioner at the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities and Haben Girma, the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law, shared several lessons about the world's largest minority group with attendees at the NYC Department of Education's Accessibility Expo. The Expo was held at Brooklyn Law School on May 31st. Don't know what the largest minority group is? It is people with disabilities. They make up about one billion people world-wide.
Lesson's about the world's largest minority group
Innovation
Disability is an opportunity for innovation.
Accessible environments
People with disabilities are not disabled. The only thing that disables people is their environment. If we make the environment (physical, social, digital) accessible, we enable the person.
Special needs
When describing people with disabilities, you may want to rethink the term "special needs." We all have special needs.
Hold the mic
If a microphone is available when you are speaking, use it. Someone may need you to use it so they can hear better. Don't make them ask or stand out.
Employment
75% of people with disabilities are jobless. Communities do a bad job of transitioning disabled youth from school to college or career.
Communities like New York City are getting better at addressing this need with programs such as NYC: AT WORK and Access VR. These programs help match people to jobs.
Overcoming disability
Reconsider thinking about how successful people with disabilities "overcame" their disability. Victor Calise said he would never trade in his disability. His disability is not to be overcome. Instead communities must help to remove digital, attitudinal, and physical barriers so those with disabilities can do whatever they want.
Nothing about us, without us
Do not create, decide, build, name, make policies about something affecting disabled people without their participation and input.
Don't be grateful
Non-disabled people should not feel grateful about not having disabilities. Haben Girma explains that this perpetuates hierarchies of us versus them. This continues the marginalization of people with disabilities.
Just ask
If you are unsure how to refer to someone's disability, ask them.
Want more?
You can watch an amateur Facebook livestream of each speaker. Unfortunately, captions are not automatic on Facebook, so the videos are not completely accessible. However, I did try to capture the sign language interpreter as I captured the videos, so there is some accessibility available.
I came across a laptop at the International Society for Technology for Education conference that had a sticker on a Discovery Education laptop asking: What's your six word story? 
Dr. Marialice B. F. X. Curran and her twelve year old child, Curran Dee explained the importance of including students in the digital citizenship conversations, lessons, and use even before they are 13 years old.
