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ISTE 2014 – A few take-aways

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Loved ISTE 2014! Between the selection of sessions and presenters, connecting with friends before, during, and after sessions, and having my first-ever bison burger (at Ted’s Montana Grill), it was a wonderful four days in Atlanta.

Below are a few of my conference take-aways:

Sunday

Monday

  • Reinvent essay revisions: Using voice, video, and sites to critique – I’ve linked to ISTE’s session details page just to give you an inkling of what an entertaining and outstanding presenter Jon Spike is. I believe this was his first ISTE presentation (he’s only been teaching for a couple of years). I predict he will soon be a much requested presenter at local, state, and national conferences. My main take-away was confirmation on the power of using Kaizena for providing feedback on students’ writing. But I also loved his opening audience survey via Kahoot, which is a new tool for me – one I’ll definitely be sharing with teachers back at my district.
  • Digital Citizenship – Awesome panel discussion led by Mike Ribble, Jason Ohler, Kelly, Mendoza, Marialice BFX Curran, and Frank Gallagher.  Huge take-away: Working with teacher candidates – “it’s everyone’s civic responsibility to engage everyone in the conversation” (Marialice BFX Curran). Note to self: check to see how digital citizenship is woven into my district’s teacher credential program!

Tuesday

  • Tammy Worcester’s Google Spreadsheets – Great tips for all things Google are available on Tammy’s website, including on spreadsheet must-have formula that I knew about for making data easier to read, but had somehow lost/forgotten it: Transpose.
  • The Tomorrow Toolkit – Great to hear presentations from Adam Bellow, Kyle Pace, Michelle Baldwin, and Erin Klein – and to have each of their resources listed on the website. My biggest take-away was Erin Klein’s inspiring demo of how her primary students are exploring and loving augmented reality through Aurasma (another tool I’ve been meaning to play with).  Erin explains Aurasma  as “like taking something 2 D and adding 4D layer. Start with a map on wall, for instance, take a picture and do as overlay on video. Use some kind of sticker on what’s been augmented.” Bonus: Erin’s page includes link to 18-page guide for Aurasma.
  • Google’s Connected Classrooms – Loved ending the conference with my Google Certified Teacher buddy (#gctmtv12) Alice Chen. Besides checking out her slide presentation, I recommend reading her recent blog post on Connected Classrooms. I’m already looking forward to supporting teachers in connecting their classrooms to this powerful, free resource. From now through August, the events are mainly for teacher PD. Come September, you will want to head to g.co/connectedclassrooms to check for upcoming events.Three classrooms are invited to join each event’s Google Hangout. But if your class is not selected, all sessions are recorded, so you can catch and show them at your convenience.

I’m already looking forward to ISTE 2015 in Philadelphia:-)

 

 

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