With ISTE (the International Society for Technology in Education) just around the corner, the time to plan is now! This year is shaping up to be an excellent one for the convention, which runs from June 25-28th, with a number of exciting keynote speakers and workshops to visit. This blog will serve as an unofficial guide to ISTE to help you to navigate through the many opportunities provided at the conference and expo!
1. Attend a Keynote Speaker
One of the best parts of ISTE is listening to the highly engaging keynote speakers at the event. All 3 speakers this year come from very diverse backgrounds in the industry and will provide different takeaways. Jad Abumrad, the creator of the award winning “RadioLab” radio program, will speak first on June 25th, followed by Jennie Magiera, the chief innovation officer at Des Plaines public schools, on the 27th. Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, will close the event on June 28th, which is sure to be one you won’t want to miss! Her vast experience in the industry as well as her fantastic speaking abilities outlined in her viral TED Talk “Teach Girls Bravery, Not Perfection” make her our top pick to see!
2. Attend FREE Workshops To Learn and Build Skills
ISTE offers a variety of workshops and lectures which provide educators with the opportunity to “engage, connect, explore, create, listen, learn, participate, and share”. Different workshops will provide you with the opportunity to try these activities. We found that the “Learn and listen” sessions were the most valuable as many of them are free of charge and cover a variety of interesting topics. We suggest you check out the following workshops:
- “From Ideas to Innovation with Google tools” on Monday, June 26th, 10:30-11:30am
- “Welcome to Education in the Age of Disrupted Learning” on Tuesday, June 27th, 12:15-1:15pm
- “Bring the World to Your Students with Skype in the Classroom!” on Wednesday, June 28th, 11:30am-12:30pm
From using Chromebooks to enable creative ways to teach, to an overall look at the changing education landscape, to taking virtual field trips on Skype, this selection of events is sure to give a diverse look at technology’s impact on education.
3. Visit the Exhibition Hall
See an interesting piece of technology in action at one of your workshops but want to learn more about it? Visit the Exhibition Hall to see a showcase of hundreds of pieces of technology used to aid education. Free samples will be offered in abundance here, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to bring equipment back home to your school or district! Make sure to stop by ThinkWrite’s booth #1360 for free giveaways and daily raffles of classroom headsets! We are proud to be attending ISTE for our 4th year in a row and hope that you will include us in your experience.
