ISTE: A Brief Reflection

Over the last four days, Rose Mary, Kim, Paul, Lauren, and I learned (and ate... and walked) a lot in Philadelphia at the 2015 ISTE conference. Below are some conference-inspired ideas and tools that will shape the work of my classroom this fall, and perhaps be useful to others as we all engage in this journey together:

1. Engaging with PBL: In short, PBL (or project-based learning) provides opportunities for students to engage in rigorous, relevant, and authentic learning experiences that promote student agency, voice, and choice.  One session focused on helping teachers identify an entry point within existing curriculum for designing a unit (or portion of a unit) that leverages the principles of PBL, without a wholesale rewrite of existing practices.  The presenters – both from the Buck Institute, a pioneer in the field – also described the eight key design principles for teachers interested in embedding PBL within their work, and some easy next steps for making that work a reality.  The notes from this session, plus a terrific collection of links to resources on PBL, can be accessed here.
2. Flipping the classroom: As we continue to close the digital divide and remove barriers to access by rolling out web-connected devices to each of our students, we have new opportunities to experiment with what “traditional” classroom instruction can look like.  To “flip a class” means to have students access direct instruction/lecture outside of the classroom (typically through video content, though not always), while using class time to engage in higher-order thinking (usually by applying the knowledge/skills developed through direct instruction through analysis, evaluation, and creation).  The pioneers of flipped instruction – and authors of many books on the topic - Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, shared twenty best practices and considerations for flipping a classroom.  Notes from that session, as well as a link to their website which is a portal for a wealth of flipped resources, are available here.
3. Some edtech tools: The sessions and expo hall also offered a glimpse of plenty of edtech tools that may be useful this fall.  Here are two that stood out:
1. EDpuzzle: while not new, EDpuzzle may be more useful now that our students will have more consistent and reliable access to video content outside of the classroom.  This tool allows teachers to embed multiple choice and open-ended questions – as well as other formative assessment items – within a video and track student progress through some sophisticated analytics.  My hope is to use EDpuzzle more extensively as I experiment with flipping my classroom this fall.
2.  MasteryConnect: while also not new, MasteryConnect has grown in some important ways over the past few years.  The platform allows teachers to create standards-aligned formative and summative assessments and then have those assessments automatically graded when administered online.  Teachers opting to administer the assessments through pen-and-paper can still take advantage of the scantron-like technology built into the app.  In addition to providing instantaneous feedback to students about their performance, all of the data is compiled and tagged to standards, to help facilitate true data-driven instruction.