ISTE 2018 Takeaways

It's been over a month since ISTE 2018 ended and I left Chicago (and over two months since I posted here!) and I finally feel like I have been able to digest a small part of what happened there. For me, there were three major pillars to the value that ISTE provided. Every year I go, and this is my fourth year, I've enjoyed a big jump in my outlook, skills, abilities and connections, and this year was perhaps the biggest jump for me - though it's still quite a task to figure things. I'll do my best to simplify a complex few days. If I wrote everything that comes to mind, you'd be reading a novel, not a blog post.

He Tangata, He Tangata, He Tangata
There is a Māori saying, asking what the most important thing is and the answer is the people, not once, not twice, but three times. By far the most important part of ISTE is the people, and if it weren't for the people, there would be no point in me going.

One of the difficult things about being an educator and trying to do innovative things is that not everyone is on board. Many people don't have trust in you and often work against progress. It is at events such as ISTE where I find my tribe. These are the people that give me the energy to fight for what I believe is best for the learners in my care. These are the people that inspire me to be a better me. These are the people who make me question the things I do and the practices I preach. They give meaning not only to my career, but also to my life. The five days I spent at ISTE each year help me through the tough times in the other 360.

This was my first year at ISTE as an Innovator and I was lucky to connect with a group of other Innovators, especially the ones from Canada.

Oh Canada! Love the preparation for the final work of art. #GoogleEI pic.twitter.com/J2RUSNymVv

— Sandra Chow (@watnunu) June 24, 2018

This group of people were so inspiring to me and took me under their wing, making the week so much more special. I also had the opportunity to connect with some friends from NZ:

Representing @OrmPS and @OSC_Ormiston in Chicago #iste2018 @michaelteacher pic.twitter.com/Bsy55hKmHA

— Subash Chandar K (@elsubash) June 26, 2018

To make a long story short, I felt at home amongst the people in Chicago and that is so important when you're trying to do great things.

The New(ish) Tools
I've put tools in the middle of my three takeaways as it's probably the least important, but it's also the most practical. The two main themes I noticed this year througout the week were Geo Tools and AR and what better way to show them, but talking about Tour Creator, which is a combination of the two. If you've ever wanted to create your own Google Expedition, this is how you do it. It's super simple and in the week I had to try this with children, almost all of them completed a short tour and every child was super engaged - especially when we pulled out the Google Cardboard to have a look at them. There are loads of other Geo Tools that can be used (and I've seen them around for a while and every conference or summit always has a steady diet of session on the topic), including Tour Builder (not the same thing, though easily confused), MyMaps, Expeditions (now with AR!) and others.

The other tool that I saw a lot was VR, and specifically I looked at CoSpaces (and Merge Cube) a bit. It's quite easy to fall down a rabbit hole when you start looking at VR creation, so be careful. I also learned a little bit about Unity, which, when I tried it with year 5 and 6 children was a bit tricky - though the accessibility of tools like this is promising and is definitely something to think about if you've got older children.

One of the small things that I saw was that there is now a chrome extension that will allow you to add audio to Google Slides! It's aptly called Audio Player for Slides. Definitely worth checking it out if you've ever wanted to add audio to a slide deck.

I have also developed quite a nice appreciation for sketchnoting, especially after taking a quick lesson from a couple of my new Canadian friends. I'm not really one for taking notes, either written or sketched, but I personally find the sketches much easier to follow and more fun. So I'm going to do my best to get more people doing them so that I can have access to more sketch notes. I don't think its too difficult though. I just want to get a device that can do it all (it's funny the things you don't know about).

This is what @sylviaduckworth & @VirtualGiff showed me how to do! #GoogleEI #ISTE18 #ISTE2018 pic.twitter.com/rIJbBzyy2G

— Michael Davidson (@michaelteacher) June 23, 2018

Obviously there were more tools showcased (including a new Sphero, which I'm not sure if I'm even allowed to talk about here, but if you're going to get new Spheros, I'd wait a few months), but these were the biggest takeaways when it came to tools.

The Possibilities
ISTE fundamentally changed me this year. A byproduct of hanging out with a group of people who have done amazing things is that doing amazing things becomes the norm. When you hear people talk of writing their books, it becomes the normal thing to do. What I realized - and I mean really realized - is that there is practically no difference between myself and those people other than the fact that they've already done something really big.

How did this happen? Well, the Innovator program (and to a slightly lesser extent, the Trainer Program) has opened up many doors for me. I've probably been trying to go through more of them than I possibly could go through, but there was a convergence of a lot of these things at ISTE that made me feel empowered to do practically anything. The first was that I was given the opportunity to work at several booths in the Expo Hall and join in on other presentations. Spending time doing these things only helped further connections to others and plant a lot of seeds of ideas in my head. The Innovator Energizer, too was amazing. Just being in a room with so many inspiring people (and feeling Imposter Syndrome) was an amazing start, but then learning about Project Culture Shift (and joining in on the fun) was something else.

It was also a chance to start some conversations with people about collaborations, and things I've wanted to do for a while. But now those thing are starting to become a reality.

To put it simply: I've got plans. Lots of plans. Whether they come to fruition depends on how much time and effort I have and am willing to spend on them, and on getting others on board. Big things don't just happen on their own or by one person.

So here's to looking forward. Here's to new connections that haven't even been made yet. And here's to changing the world for better.

ISTE is an amazing experience for anyone, though I'm not sure if everyone takes advantage of its opportunities the way I have and will continue to do so. This is the start of something big. Watch this space for updates in the near and far future. But for now, my advice to anyone reading this: go to ISTE 2019. I'll see you there!

Pen Pals: Connecting Across Oceans

This past term, after a few years of saying I will do it, I finally got some learners to write letters to children in another country AND sent the letters. Two things happened in June that made this possible, three months later: 1) I met some very willing partners at ISTE (hey, there is a theme going through a few of these posts, isn't there?) and 2) My team back in New Zealand also wanted to connect with other schools. Having the support on both sides proved crucial in getting this off the ground.

Part of the reason I wanted to do this was that all too often, writing is done for the sake of writing. I wanted to give my learners a chance to write for a purpose (in this case, communicating with someone and fostering a long-distance friendship, maybe), and to connect with children around the world.

So as a whole habitat, we did a lesson early in the term on writing letters and all of our children wrote a draft (albeit, none of them actually had set buddies at the time). I was able to work out through one of my ISTE connections 11 learners in the US (North Dakota to be exact) who could receive letters. So a week or so ago, I had my 11 learners write their good drafts, filled an envelope and sent them off. I've gotten word that they arrived (thank goodness my handwriting wasn't TOO bad!) and the responses will come back shortly. I'm pretty excited for that. Here are the letters that my learners have written:

One of the biggest difficulties in this whole thing was arranging buddies. Some of my fellow learning coaches had some schools to write to, and some of them fell through. I was only able to (currently) connect with one other classroom (though I am still in talks with some others at a school in North Carolina). I think though, that I'm going to continue to be persistent. I'm still looking for some buddies, so if anyone is looking for some pen pal buddies (anywhere in the world), leave a comment here or a DM on twitter and I'll get back to you!

International Dot Day

One of the connections that I made at ISTE 2017 was with the Global Collaboration Network and some of its members (thanks to a night of karaoke). A few weeks ago I was sent this tweet:

@Doctor_Harves @michaelteacher @mrnamvas @GruntledChalkie @edutinker join in this week & more. Global connection https://t.co/tsxyMcHn6D pic.twitter.com/s93rckXPet

— Amanda Rogers (@TheEdsaneT) September 9, 2017

I was interested in making some more global connections, so I clicked on the link. Having heard a lot about Flipgrid recently but not really being sure of what it was, I decided to give this one a go and changed up my reading plan last minute to read the book (by watching the video below) and having my learners respond to it.

To be honest, while I really liked the book and its message, I was a bit confused as to what my learners were meant to do. Being in New Zealand, we had started looking at this on Monday, which is Sunday in the US, so there had not yet been any entries to the flipgrid yet. So we bumbled about what we were doing for a few days. I had the children make a picture about how they would make their mark in the world. What was interesting was that even though I didn't really give them that great instructions, they all interpreted differently and had some really interesting things to say:

The actual use of Flipgrid was interesting. Essentially there was an online board setup where anyone could post videos (though many of the other videos had a lot of filters on them, which didn't really seem useful) and respond to the videos with videos of their own. My impression beforehand was that this was a tool for flipping a classroom, but obviously the potential of this is far beyond that. Some of my learners did receive some feedback from others and while it wasn't necessarily very deep, it was interesting to see them connect with others around the globe. I like this idea and perhaps I can use it with some upcoming projects I'm trying to plan with some schools overseas. It definitely has the potential to help learners connect with each other.

It is not a completely free resource (though it does have a free version), so I have to do some checking to see if I can get by with the free version, but certainly it is something worth checking out. Global Collaboration, on the other hand, is something I definitely recommend!

ISTE (Round 3)

So once again I made the trip across the Pacific to the US of A to ISTE. After the first time over, it was hard not to make the trek again. There simply is nothing like it (at least that I've been to) over on this side of the world. This year, I felt like a veteran, knowing the best way to get the most for my time in San Antonio. I wanted to avoid wasting time listening to people talk at me and make some real connections with real people doing amazing things. I also had a long list of ISTE friends to reconnect with. A lot of people go to conferences to hear the latest new thing (and I definitely like learning about that stuff), but connections are more valuable to me, with some really innovative, off the wall ideas thrown in there.

There were some clear themes throughout the conference this year.  The most obvious thing that (it seems) everyone is doing is VR. So many different presentations and poster sessions included it. In particular, I did visit the CoSpaces booth and was quite impressed with the ability to create your own 3D environments. I'll definitely be watching their website for the educator and school accounts (I could be a bit off on the names, though). There's also some really cool new AR stuff coming from Google

I also had a lot of good conversations and got some good ideas from a lot of the big robotics companies: SpheroEdu, Wonder Workshop, Ozobots and a few others. They all have some pretty helpful STEAM activities and other lesson plan ideas that can be used. 

The same goes for some other companies that produce other technology things: OSMO, Little Bits and Bloxels stood out, as well as Microduino. There was a company that made some neat little robots called SAM robots, though I can't seem to find a website or pictures of those. As always, a visit to the Lego Education booth was one of the highlights (if I had a million dollars, I'd get two of everything!)

Though it was not as prevalent as years past, there were still lots of ideas for using Makey Makeys, both with the good people at the booth and with presenters. I did learn that you can have an output (eg, make a light flash), so that was kind of cool. Plus seeing what some learners have done with it was helpful to see how it could be used.

All of the above are definitely on my wishlist and would be super helpful in creating a fun and STEAMy classroom that engages my learners. Over the next few weeks/months, I'm going to look at how I can use what I've got to do these things, but also at ways of obtaining some more of these things.

But by far the most important thing from ISTE, as I mentioned above, was the people. Last year I met Shannon while we were each making our own binary bracelets on the first day. We then ran into each other multiple times over the course of the conference. Last year we said we would collaborate on something, but then never did. This year, if you can believe it, we ran into each other once again on the first day, and once again making binary bracelets (why both of us needed another one this year, I'm not sure). We caught up briefly and visited each others' presentations. Now, we've been talking about doing some sort of global collaboration project with each other this year and co-presenting at ISTE next year. So that's kind of cool. And hopefully putting it up here will also help me not forget to do it this year!

I've also made another handful of contacts of educators in the US who want penpals (have actually made contact with one, and planning on one or two more right after this blog post).  Furthermore, saw my friends from Kiva again and will be wanting to perhaps get some more things going on with them.

One of the big things that has come up in EdTech in recent years is the idea of ambassadors for certain companies. I'm definitely looking into a few as many companies do not have educators from New Zealand working with them that closely yet. Hopefully within the next few months I'll be on here writing about all the new connections I have (as well as my global collaborations).

To anyone who has never been to ISTE, my advice to you is GO! Chicago next year is a wonderful city and ISTE is an amazing experience. The incredibly inventive things you'll see and the inspiring people you'll meet (and in turn inspire yourself) is definitely worth the cost of getting there (and as an added bonus for NZ educators, you get a week of summer in the middle of winter). If you're interested in coming along next year, let me know and we can meet there! The site for Chicago is here. Calls for presenters open in less than a month!

ISTE 2016!

It has taken me a few weeks (almost a month, in fact) to fully come to grips with my ISTE 2016 experience. To sum it up in word: Amazing! But obviously there were some really good takeaways that came from the experience. I'll try my best to share all of what I learned, but no doubt some good stuff will get left out.

edit: Now it's almost two whole months after ISTE! But still thinking lots about it. Some of this may be repetitive because of the time between when I started writing and when I finished, but I think the tone that will likely be consistent throughout will convince you of the value this experience had for me and could have for you in the future.

People, People, People

The first place you need to start when dealing with ISTE is the people. I'm not talking about the sheer number (though that is staggering on its own). What I'm talking about is the people you meet. The biggest draw for something like ISTE is to meet lots and lots of like-minded and incredible people. And don't get me wrong, EVERYONE at ISTE is incredible. When I told one of the people I met that "I'm just a classroom teacher," she responded by saying that nobody is "Just" anything. We all have something to offer, no matter the title or experience. Though I did realize this before, it was interesting to see how our language can affect our perceptions (and the perceptions we create in others). Later on that day, I met someone who said pretty much the same thing about being "just" something. I was spurred on to share my new perspective.

There are also countless opportunities to meet and connect with educators around the world (well, mostly the US). There is so much value in this for all of us and our students who will benefit from these connections. I made a concerted and deliberate effort to seek out new people and talk to some who I wouldn't have otherwise spoken with - including the CEO of ISTE! I made several great connections which will help me make further connections in the future. It's all about the people. If that were the only result of the week in Denver it would have been worth it completely.

On top of meeting people at official conference events (probably the best source of that was the Global Ed Day - a great group of people to connect with, if you're looking), there were several social events which turned out to be just as valuable. I had made it my mission to find the "seedy underbelly of ISTE" this year, and while it definitely wasn't seedy, it made the conference that much more impactful. My only regret is that I didn't find more events to go to. In all, I attended events put on by Wonder Workshop (happy hour at a restaurant), the Ed Tech Team & Symbaloo (Karaoke), Gaggle (a party) and OSMO (a Sneak Peak event). All of those events, helping to strengthen my PLN (personal learning network for the uninitiated). I was able to build on some of the connections I made a year prior and hopefully will be able to build on these ones in 2017 (because yes, I'm going).

New Things and Old Things with More Pizazz

Having been at ISTE last year, I found that there were a lot of things repeated, but with more development. There were literally tons of resources (if you weighed them all together, there is no doubt of this) showing how makerspaces and making can be used in the classroom. Many people were sharing how they've been using their robots (many of which I bought last year after ISTE) and other cool gadgets in the classroom. For example, there were many people sharing what they've done with paper circuits (a shout out to Chibitronics & Spark Fun who both gave me some free samples to use in my classroom) as well as robots (guess who won a free kit from Hummingbird?) One really cool startup that was sharing in the expo was Hyperduino which had some really simple applications with their custom built arduino boards. They ran out of free samples by the time I got to their booth, but I may pony up the dough to get one.

It seemed like everyone had a Dash & Dot, Sphero & Ollie and Ozobots. Not to mention Makersaces. Perhaps this, too, was one of my big takeaways from the conference, and (since it's taking me forever to write this reflection) one of the things I've been most active promoting since I've returned. While I'm fully trying to gear up my classroom's Makerspace, ISTE this year has planted the seed of a big idea in my head. I'm working now to start #MakerEdNZ, a community of schools and teachers who are using Makerspaces in their classrooms. I'll write a long post about it later, but for now, just know that ISTE inspired me.

Global Connections

The only actual planned event I went to at ISTE was the Global Ed Day 2016. What a great group of people. Again, this is something I want to explore in much greater detail. Yes, we've done Twitter chats and Mystery Hangouts, but those connections are only on the surface (but again, much, much better than no connections at all). A lot of the talk around the Global Ed Day was starting collaborative projects between schools on different continents. This is another area for leadership within New Zealand, I feel, and something that is many people are primed for. We'll see what comes out of this, but perhaps someone reading this will take the call to arms and run with it. I only ask that you please include me.

Things I've Been Using

So it has taken me 2 months to get this far in my reflection. But that provides a great opportunity to reflect upon how those new things are going. Probably the most immediate thing I tried was Seesaw. For anyone who hasn't heard of this before, I urge you to have a look at it. I was lucky enough to have it explained to me by a teacher at the Seesaw booth in the expo. It's basically like Facebook for schools. Using the app (on tablets, phones or chromebooks) my students can take pictures or videos of their work, record an explanation over top of it, tag themselves in it and just generally share their amazing ideas. They can like each others' work and make comments - both written and oral! And I've only scratched the surface of what I can do with it. So far my students have found it super easy and have enjoyed sharing.

I also re-met my good friends at Kiva, which got me back to teaching the Kiva U curriculum (in the small amount of time that I can fit it in).'

I've also given my students focus with the Student Blogging Challenge. Though we may have been a few months late, meeting some of the people who have set this up, got me intrigued. My students have had some ups and downs with it (some of them spent a whole week or writing time making an avatar, not saving it, then making a new one), but overall it has helped teach them about blogging a bit more.

Another, practical thing I saw at ISTE and brought back to use were all the paper circuits that were being shown. I was extremely lucky to have been given those starter kits from Chibitronics AND Sparkfun, so I had a go with that at school AND at some educamps. It was interesting to say the least and something I want to look more into.  I was also given the chance to make a wearable circuit with some Lilypad Arduino components:

One of the sessions I went to was actually done as a walk around Downtown Denver. The presenter was telling us that we should be getting our students more active in class, and building movement into every activity. I had previously had swiss balls in my class but had given them up because of some behaviour issues. However, he inspired me to pump them back up and get my students moving more often. A small thing, but I think it's something that's important.

Conclusions

I could go on for pages and pages talking about how ISTE has changed me and my practice, but my biggest advice is: Go next year to San Antonio! It will change so many things about how you see teaching and give you so many ideas to help you do so. It will give you connections that will change your idea of teacher-teacher relationships and the way our profession should interact. It was honestly the best four days of the last year for me. Unlike a lot of the New Zealand based conferences that I've been to, ISTE has made me feel that we lone nuts are much stronger in numbers. It's nice to have our smallish group here, but expanding beyond our shores, in my opinion, is never a bad thing. Being part of something so big, is truly empowering. Meeting so many genuine people who only want the best for their students is inspiring. So, I urge all of you Kiwi teachers (and why not all my Canadian teacher friends as well, I belong to two countries), come with me next year! Come join my tribe!

Passion Projects v2.0

What is it?
Passion Projects (also know as Genius Hour or 20% Time) is a concept where students (or employees at a company) are given a sizeable chunk of their time to explore ideas and learn about things that interest them. Many tech companies do this and some amazing innovations have come out of this. Schools have also been doing this a lot lately, allowing students more choice in what they learn (which, if you haven't figured out by now, is one of main themes driving the transformation of my teaching practice). Most are underpinned by three main rules, or ideas: 1) Everything must be driven by a question or questions, 2) Research must be involved and 3) Results must be shared.

My F(irst)A(ttempt)I(n)L(earning)ure
Last year, after seeing a lot of people discuss and share how Genius Hour worked in their classroom while at ISTE, I decided that I would try this with my year 2 students. I took a lot of the advice from the teachers that I heard and found a lot of resources. We made an attempt. My students came up with some topics that they wanted to learn about and then they chose groups to be in. We thought about what we already knew about those things and then tried to find out new things. But the enthusiasm died out. The children didn't seem to get anywhere and due to lots of other things going on, the projects were all forgotten and abandoned. I didn't give up, but at the time, I was unsure of how to move forward.

GAFE Summit
At the GAFE summit in Auckland this year, one of the first presentations was about Genius Hour, or 20% Time. Seeing as I had tried this before I thought I should go along. I'm glad I did. It helped me see some of the mistakes I made in my first iteration: not properly setting up driving questions, overly planning things, allowing students to be less accountable/responsible for their learning. So I made some changes before I tried it the second time.

Version 2.0
This time around, we discussed questions a lot more in depth. We didn't start with a topic, but rather, I had students ask lots and lots of questions. We worked on phrasing these as open ended questions. I also stole may ideas from Simon Ashby's presentation at GAFE: having children display their questions in class, on their blog, etc, having students fill out a slide to keep track of their weekly progress and the aforementioned time spent on what he called ideation. I have also been trying to not give templates or much direction to students beyond telling them they need to record what they do and keep track of what they learn. A further addition from the presentation was that a fourth thing was needed for all of the projects: A purpose. So why are the students wanting to answer this question.

So far, I have had a lot of success with the initial stages for my students. They have spent a good amount of time making questions that are big and that need to be researched. Here are some of their driving questions:

There is already quite a lot of buy in and the students all seem genuinely excited. I've had some interesting conversations with some students and it has actually led to real-world applications of things they need to learn (for example, one group wants to test which car shape is the best and that has led to a discussion of what a fair test is, and no doubt, we will be discussing whether or not their test was fair as they progress). So I'm quite pleased. This has also opened up the door for some other types of learning (for example, some students will be contacting some experts and I will work with them on their letter writing skills).

More Information
I'm obviously not the only one advocating for student choice. I've done some very quick digging and found some other articles online that discuss the benefits and give some advice. There are many more and I'll share them as I share how this process goes. Try these for starters, but if you know any others, please share).

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/04/14/how-giving-students-choice-during-the-day-can-create-unstoppable-learning/

http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/genius-hour-design-cycle-process-planning/

On Not Being Selected...

For a while now, I've been wanting to find a way to get to the Google Innovator Academy. A few years ago, a colleague of mine was selected to be a part of one of the cohorts in Sydney. I was intrigued about the whole thing and over time I got into the mindset that I wanted to be an Innovator (since I feel like an innovator anyway). I did my Google Level 1 and 2 certifications and waited. I tried new things, and continue to try new things. I'm not satisfied when anyone tells me: "This is the best way to do it." I believe we live in a constantly changing world, which requires constantly changing attitudes and ideas.

I didn't apply for the first academy (in California, in February) because I was just starting at a new school (though in retrospect, perhaps the experience would have helped), but when the second one was announced for Colorado at the end of ISTE 2016 (where I am presenting) I thought, why not? I almost didn't apply and left the actual application until the last weekend.

I didn't really think much of my chances, since there would likely be a lot of applicants (apparently there were 900 videos on YouTube) and lots of people who, like me, had been waiting for a long while for this.

So it wasn't a massive surprise when I woke up this morning to find that I had indeed, not been selected. Looking at the map of selected individuals, I'm not really that dismayed. There were only four people selected outside of North America. I'm glad that I at least tried. Seeing some reactions of the people selected on twitter, did make me feel better (it's hard not to be disappointed when you put yourself out there and are rejected). At least two tweeters referenced the fact that they had gotten in on their third application. AND there will be another academy announced in July.

On one hand, I can look at this rejection as a good thing. It gives me time to innovate more in my class (directives from above notwithstanding), it gives me more time to work out what I actually want to change and accomplish (admittedly, it's still pretty rough, and maybe not the most clear vision at the moment), but it also (and, yes, this is important) allows me to take a little break after ISTE on my way back to New Zealand - I don't have to cancel my mini 2 day/1 night vacation in San Francisco. So lots of positives.

It does sting a bit, because I was in the need of a pick-me-up at the moment, but at least I know and I have 35 successful videos and projects that I can check. It gives me time to improve. If I would hazard a bet, I'd say I was in the younger range of applicants, so there is time.

What this rejection will NOT do is stop me from wanting to change. My efforts have been cast in doubt lately (and this has lead to a lot of self doubt), but at the end of the day, I am doing all of this for my students and to give them an opportunity to control their destinies.

This tweet was particularly relevant to me today:

New #GoogleEI? It means nothing if you don't make your world better.

Didn't get accepted? It means nothing if you make your world better.

— John Stevens (@Jstevens009) May 20, 2016

Find my slide deck and video below. I'm open to any constructive criticism (though I have my own thoughts about what I need to fix) to help me get there next time.

So here's to second chances and that the next academy will be a bit closer to New Zealand (Sydney anyone?)