Reflections from ISTE 2017 - Perspectives from an International Educator

So after travelling for a couple of months during the summer break, I finally have time to sit down and process my experience at ISTE 2017. So for those that do not know the ISTE Conference & Expo is recognized globally as the most comprehensive educational technology conference in the world. The ISTE conference is designed to engage attendees in hands-on learning, exchanging ideas and networking with like-minded thinkers seeking to transform learning and teaching.

This year the annual event was held in San Antonio, Texas and attracted over 23,000 attendees and industry representatives, including teachers, technology coordinators, administrators, library media specialists, teacher educators and policymakers. So what were the main thoughts I took away from the conference?

#1 – Sometimes ISTE forgets there is an I in their name.

One of the first sessions I attended was on global collaboration. What really surprised me was the emphasis this collaboration took from the perspective of the US teachers. After listening to the speakers and then sitting down in small groups with attendees who were collaborating globally, I was amazed at the view of these educators that the reason to collaborate was not to learn new approaches from international educators but so the US educators could enlighten the world on the best pedagogical techniques they had to offer! 

This frustrated and shocked me as I always see collaboration as a two-way street where both can learn from the experience, but did introduce me to a mind set of some of the educators, in that there was a strong belief the US had the best education system in the world.

In saying this I also managed to connect with the passionate global educators of the #ISTEglobalpln. In particular, the amazing Tara Linney and Amanda Rogers who were great to bounce ideas off in the global setting and allow me to challenge others conceptions around global collaboration.

#2 – It Is Important To Grow Your PLN

So on day one, I have to be honest and say I found the size of ISTE 2017 intimidating. How was I going to be able to go to all these keynotes and seminars? I have always been a big proponent of connecting with other educators in order to help ourselves grow both as learners and as teachers. So that is what I did, I changed my focus on meeting with other amazing and talented educators. So I spent most of my time tracking down educators I wanted to meet. Case in point is Jaime Donally whom I had met online but wanted to meet in person. She is the guru of augmented reality in the classroom and we spent an entire morning exploring virtual and augmented reality in the exhibition hall. 

Another great group of exciting educators I got to meet were the Flipgrid family including Andrea Tolley and Curran who is an amazing student advocate. Flipgrid is a video response platform that allows educators to host video based discussions with students. Educators create topic grids and students respond with recorded videos to discuss, reflect, and share via a device. I was lucky enough to attend their ambassador dinner and got to see first hand the enthusiasm of these group of educators.

Finally, I got time to spend with the New Zealand Microsoft Innovative Education Experts. Living in China apart from the monthly connections calls it is difficult to actually discuss education from a NZ perspective. So it was great catching up with Nicki and Keith and be there to celebrate NZ winning the Americas Cup!

It was also an opportunity to be part of #hacktheclassroom live where I can envisage see the benefits of 3D paint in my chemistry classroom in developing molecular models of chemical reactions in three dimensions. It was fascinating to see the exciting innovations other educators are implementing world wide.

#3 – Poster Sessions Are Some Of The Best Parts

Finally, also as part of my networking endeavours, I made sure to spend some time in each of the poster sessions at ISTE.  While there were some sessions I had to make sure to go to, I found that you can learn a lot in a short amount of time at the poster sessions. I also got a better chance to ask questions and make connections when I was in a more informal setting than during a full 50-minute session.  There was a common theme during each poster session and I could get a large number of resources while having a few conversations along the way. As an example, I look forward to connecting with a Mexican biology class when I get back to China.

The biggest piece of advice that I would give to anyone who attends ISTE is to make sure you are focused on being a learner. My hope is that anyone who attends a conference will take the time to share their learnings with their colleagues. The best way we can improve learning for our students is to share what we learn with others.  It is much better to learn together than to go it alone.