ISTE Reflection

After four days of inspiration at ISTE, the country's largest Edtech conference, I'd like to share my 3 big takeaways.

1. Indigestion

I mean, check out that cheese whiz...

But seriously, here are my takeaways:

1. Everyone in the building needs to be invested in making our 1:1 deployment work. This conversation needs to start with providing a reason for change that everyone can latch onto. We are not changing because computers are cool or because of some larger initiative, we are changing in order to advance students' learning. What teacher, staff member, or parent can say no to that? Aside from adults being invested, students need to feel a personal investment. Many presenters spoke about the success of student-run "genius bars" or help desks to aide in tech triage. How empowering could it be if our students were the ones responsible for the care and upkeep of our devices?

2. Teacher learning needs to reflect our ideas for student learning. If our vision is "anytime, anywhere" learning, teachers need to have access to professional development resources so that they can learn at their own pace, place, time, and path. One-time professional development sessions on the latest and greatest apps do not support teacher learning because, just like students, teachers need repeated chances to learn new material. I am excited to work on a professional development plan through training modules that meet teachers' immediate and long-term needs.

3.  We need to celebrate teacher learning, just like we celebrate student learning. We all know and love the idea of teaching students towards mastery of specific standards. In fact, standards are what drive our instruction and assessment. If we as teachers are to be models of life-long learners, why shouldn't we be striving to demonstrate growth towards specific competencies. In one practical session, district edtech coaches shared the competencies of teachers as digital learners. While this document is several pages long, they asked teachers to create goals for their continued growth along any two competencies. Most importantly, as teachers demonstrated growth and mastery, the coaches offered rewards in the form of digital badges and recognition on the district blog. Needless to say, as you all demonstrate digital learning, expect some recognition on this very blog!