Highlights and insights from my personal adventures at the epicenter of edtech.
UNPACKING EDTECH | by Mark Gura
Once again—out of the cab, through the revolving entrance doors, into line behind the seemingly endless mass riding up the escalator.
Sports sandals firmly planted on the moving stairs.
Coffee cup grasped in left hand.
Smartphone in the right.
Illuminating faces intent on the day’s schedule.
From every corner, of every stripe:
We’re here.
Again.
The ultimate Professional Learning Network.
We’ve arrived.
It’s ISTE 2018.
What follows here, of course, fellow travelers—are some of the most interesting, inspiring, and encouraging things this ISTE veteran saw and experienced.
“What follows here, of course, fellow travelers—are some of the most interesting, inspiring, and encouraging things this ISTE veteran saw and experienced.”
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But first…
It won’t do to simply report on all the cool stuff that took place: the
- networking
- posters
- exhibits
- events
and more.
And all the new resources and programs—that first saw the light of day at this conference that amounts to: education’s maternity delivery room for next-level instructional tools.
On the contrary, ISTE literally re-sets the context that all of this happens in—not only reflecting the state of edtech—but also, defining the trajectory that the field of education will travel in.
So which direction and destination emerged from the din of this year’s convocation?
In EdTech Digest’s inaugural, annual special report, The State of EdTech (January 2018), I shared what I saw as the most important trends in education currently unfolding.
I was gratified to see that one of these:
Realizing Student and Teacher Creativity
…turned out to be the ISTE 2018 take-away that most strongly coalesced from the ion storm of ideas and information radiating from the conference content and the body heat of 20,000+ assembled educators.
An important shift
Creativity occupies the space at the top of pyramidal representations of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
But while “Bloom’s”—a perennial conceptual representation of the varieties of learning, is featured in every teacher education course—it has long been held as a ‘someday goal’, a sort of always-out-of-reach Holy Grail of Teaching and Learning.
Startlingly, it took on a new identity at ISTE as simply, “What we’re up to now,” and did so, big time!
This is an important shift.
To finally be conceiving the highest form of learning—the one we all acknowledge is the most essential now—as fully attainable through today’s tools and the conceptual frameworks they are aligned with?
That’s an important leap!
The Age we are moving into—and how we’ll get through
There was evidence in abundance, at ISTE 2018, that we are moving fully into The Innovation Age.
It is increasingly clear that we won’t be able to simply effort our way past the Sword of Damocles hanging overhead, a body of seemingly impossible-to-solve, severe problems:
– ecological
– economic
– health
…and others.
Equally clear is that we’ll have to create our way to the next phase of human prosperity.
And our schools are where we must prepare the disruptors, innovators, and creators on whom we’ll depend.
Top of Mind. Representation of Bloom’s New Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain from the book Make, Learn, Succeed: Creating a Culture of Creativity in Your Classroom (ISTE 2018).
Okay.
Having gotten that off my chest and onto the page, now it’s time to talk about how this long-awaited, next-level of education revealed itself at ISTE—as well as some of the things that make it so clear that the support needed for the journey is in place, too.
“And our schools are where we must prepare the disruptors, innovators, and creators on whom we’ll depend.”
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This next-level direction
Apple positively captures the spirit of this next-level direction through the release of a new program it calls, “Everyone Can Create” (subtitle: “A new curriculum that brings creative expression to every subject”.)
In my mind, this is just where a major force in edtech should be:
Providing guidance, resources, and support for a crucial facet of education that is on the cusp of becoming a dominant mainstream instructional focus.
Among some of the important body of thought and offerings to be had at https://www.apple.com/education/ is the following:
“Every child is born full of creativity.
“Nurturing it is one of the most important things educators do.
“Creativity makes your students better communicators and problem solvers.
“It prepares them to thrive in today’s world — and to shape tomorrow’s.”
Apple points out that Everyone Can Create is designed to take advantage of the new 9.7-inch iPad and Apple Pencil, intended to enable schools to put powerful creativity tools into students’ hands—not as separate, discreet items—but among the many ways these flexible resources can support students across the curriculum.
This strikes me as groundbreaking, as it extends the function of personal devices from supporting anywhere/anytime learning to ‘anywhere/anytime creating’, a term I just coined that I think I love already!
By the way, Apple now has an Everyone Can Code offering, too.
I’ll add that, their explanation of what coding is and why it should be part of the instructional program—is one of the very best I’ve ever seen.
When you think about it, the marriage of fostering student creativity by encouraging kids to reach for code as naturally as they would a box of crayons is very much the, as yet, unexplored educational territory we are inevitably heading for.
Running underneath all of this top-of-Bloom’s-pyramid stuff from Apple is a great body of support.
I got a look at the new iPad 6, priced for practical school acquisition, which impressed me with the ability to put a very flexible and elegant device and series of interfaces in the hands of the average student.
And supporting that, Apple offers:
New versions of:
– Pages (add colors and images to backgrounds in page layout documents. Track text changes in text boxes and shapes, etc).
– Numbers (add mathematical equations using LaTeX or MathML notation, etc), and
– Keynote on iOS and Mac are now available as a free software update (iOS 11 or later, or macOS Sierra or later required) (edit existing or create new master slides, and export a presentation as a movie or images).
– An iWork update that includes helpful new Drawing and Smart Annotation enhancements including easier controls (to switch between the two) and the ability for annotation marks to stretch and wrap to text as one edits.
Users can now also record, edit and play audio directly in Pages, Numbers and Keynote documents and books and in Keynote on iOS.
And much more.
And who else but…
Microsoft truly impressed and inspired me with a very ‘out of the box’ (yeah, a cliché, but more than apt in this case) program called Hacking Stem.
The series of activities that’s part of this, to which members of Microsoft’s Education Workshop team treated me (thanks, Karon!), is titled: Bring Oceans Exploration to Your Classroom created in partnership with BBC Learning.
What I experienced is truly a deep body of learning that goes far beyond merely engaging students in activities to learn about STEM themes.
This one engages kids in defining—for themselves—crucial elements of such learning.
Things like:
Measurement—part of the very bedrock of science.
In this program, the learning happens as students are drawn into real-world inquiries that require insight into measurement.
Further, they innovate their own tools to carry out these measurement-dependent inquiries.
Astoundingly, while Microsoft was one of the seminal companies that brought technology into schools, much of this program’s activities are (as one working teacher team member described it) “analog” pre-digital technology—with kids building things out of cardboard boxes.
And springs.
And very basic materials.
But as this demonstrating teacher explained, this is a stepping stone into the world of digital—which becomes a clear extension of the analog items.
For an edtech company to advocate the value of non-digital this way, yet relate it to a broader whole, reveals what I see as true maturity.
What’s underneath all of this, plus something new
Clearly, what’s underneath all of this is a commitment to education that’s beyond tech, providing opportunities for young students to explore, yes.
But also to express themselves, define and shape the queries on which they make their discoveries, and ultimately—to succeed by making , learning, and creating.
New this year at ISTE was the Literacy Network’s Playground, “Where Literacy, Coding, and Makerspace Collide.”
The event was comprised of six poster-session-like presentation/demonstrations, including:
– Build a Better Book: Storytelling Through “Making”
– Using Scratch Jr. for Reading and Writing Instruction: Ideas to Meet and Support the Standards in Literacy with Computer Coding,
– Coding Literacy: How Hands-on Coding is Impacting Reading and Writing,
– Activate, Support, and Reveal student thinking while reading with Actively Learn, and
– Ozobots for Phonics and Phonemic Awareness.
In my visit to the playground, I was especially taken with the presentation:
“Making in Language Arts with Wixie & Other STEM Tools”
…provided by the group Tech4Learning, in which I saw up close how teachers can take advantage of how students need and want to practice reading and writing in real-world situations.
On view were creative fostering digital tools that let students demonstrate understanding and share ideas by creating products they see in the world around them and sharing them with an audience beyond the classroom. Ah ha!
Michele Haiken, who organized the event, relates:
“Creativity needs to be taught, it’s not innate.
“It was about six years ago that Sir Ken Robinson stated in a TED Talk, ‘Schools Kill Creativity’—and since then, there has been the ‘Makerspace Movement’ and ‘Genius Hour’.
“Our students are in school preparing for jobs that have not been invented yet and for world problems that need solutions.
“We need students to be creative thinkers and problem solvers to help repair our world and the growing problems—social, emotional, economical, and scientific, including health and environmental.
“Teachers can foster creativity in the classroom by including play, problem based, and project based learning that are meaningful and authentic.”
This can be in the form of Maker Space, Genius Hour, Computer Science and coding—to gamification and quest-based learning.
Technology is a catalyst for creativity that makes the input and output of information more accessible for all learners.
Pressing onward
In the press room, I attended ISTE CEO Richard Culatta’s State of ISTE at ISTE 2018 media-only breakfast. He revealed some exciting and encouraging things to come from ISTE—actually great things!
ISTE clearly is taking the controls by wrapping its collective intelligence around understanding what education needs now.
And will need in the actionable future.
And providing it in carefully planned, formalized ways guaranteed to offer the kind of support that will launch many next-level classrooms.
And, in turn, future innovators.
Here’s a list of some of the items of which he spoke:
– Smaller and easier-to-navigate ISTE events centered not on the entire field of education, but on areas within in it of high interest and need for a conference of their own, like computer science.
Those things that merited the full press release treatment, and that gave me that adrenaline rush I come to the conference for, include:
– ISTE U, created to provide vetted, high-quality online learning experiences focused on critical topics that today’s teachers and education leaders need and that are not available elsewhere.
– ISTE affiliations with TED
– Edtech Advisor, a new platform (LearnPlatform is the partner who built the technology for ISTE) for educators to use to share reviews of tech tools.
The resource will allow educators to confidently
- find and share information about tech tools they use,
- discover new ones, and
- access reviews, ratings and input from a trusted community of tech-savvy colleagues.
And of course, Richard spoke about the new ISTE Standards for Education Leaders.
These new standards target the competencies and mindset required for leaders to leverage technology to transform how we learn, teach, and lead.
“These new standards target the competencies and mindset required for leaders to leverage technology to transform how we learn, teach, and lead.”
—
They are focused on some of the most timely, yet enduring, topics in education today: equity, digital citizenship, team and systems building, continuous improvement and professional growth.
More than a learning community and network
My colleague, Rachelle Dene Poth, who sat on one of the conference panels focused on Creativity and Problem Solving along with Adobe Education, Nearpod and Education.com, shared:
“By really focusing in on the interests of the ISTE community members, the ISTE team is bringing about a whole new array of offerings to prepare educators for the future of learning.
“ISTE is clearly committed to creating more than just a learning community and network, but creating innovative learning experiences that will lead to not only student empowerment, but educator empowerment as well.
“Looking at the ISTE U offerings to date, great topics, emerging tech and several that I would be interested in: the self-paced feature is a plus, and ISTE knows that educators need to be able to access PD they want and when they can, so this is a perfect solution for educators. I personally am very interested in the AI course.”
But beyond Richard’s detailed announcements about specific initiatives, what emerged most truly is the role ISTE sees for itself.
Something that goes way beyond a conference.
Even one that rivals a black hole in scope and impact (I like hyperbole, I know).
The role is:
As the interpreting-guiding institution—in place and ready to map education’s trajectory and to help educators travel the territory and find their destinations.
Richard also called on us media types to produce more stories that relate the good work and good results of rank-and-file educators as they reinvent education in their classrooms, schools, and districts.
And it was, indeed, a pleasure to hang with some good folks in the press room who do just that.
ISTE is one place where so many of the storytellers come from a background in which they’ve long walked the walk before taking on talking the talk.
Some of the people I had a chance to chat with over pressroom coffee were:
Don Wettrick (StartEdUp)
Tom Whitby (Edchat Interactive)
Larry Jacobs (Education Talk Radio)
Claudio Zavala, Jr. (I Am Claudius)
Jonathan Bergmann (Flipped Learning Global Initiative)
Of course, Victor Rivero (EdTech Digest)
And Vickie Davis—who many will know from her ever-more popular Cool Cat Teacher blog, an offering that often highlights the good work that teachers do as a matter of their everyday job, their creativity in doing it, as well as offering information that others might use to follow suit.
Cool Cats. With Vicki Davis, well known ‘Cool Cat Teacher’ blogger and podcaster
A most curious cross-curriculum approach
Student Robotics has always struck me as one of the very most-perfect approaches to learning across the curriculum.
When it come to creativity, I’ve long felt the FIRST LEGO League organization’s annual challenges (bodies of real-world-based problems to be solved by collaborative teams of students following established creativity protocols like the Engineering Process) provide the perfect model.
It truly doesn’t get any better than this.
At least, not yet.
This year saw the full flowering of Student Robotics at the conference, with a great many resource providers entering the robotics space.
And the variety of robotics materials, as well as the approaches to applying them to learning, is expanding at a dizzying pace.
“The variety of robotics materials, as well as the approaches to applying them to learning, is expanding at a dizzying pace.”
—
It’s clear to me that we are rapidly moving past the unfortunate situation of most schools having an afterschool Robotics Club or team that involves just a very few students out of the full student body—to a situation in which robotics is offered as part of the central instructional focus in subjects across the curriculum—and all students are given a rich STEAM experience through it.
LEGO Education, of course, had a very visible presence, both at its exhibit as well as through the use of its materials in many educator presentations throughout the conference.
I didn’t see anything major added to the materials this time, but there were some interesting things underway, like the partnership with Microsoft in which LEGO’s NXT/Mindstorms materials students use Microsoft’s Make Code platform to program their robots.
I was treated to a demonstration of the wonderful KUBO Robotics kit, offered in affiliation with the very well established company, Pitsco Education.
KUBO Robotics fills a serious gap we hardly even know we have:
A robotics platform for very young (K-2, early elementary) children.
The centerpiece is KUBO, a pre-built robot that is very friendly to little, little hands.
Most interesting is that KUBO is designed to teach programming ‘screen free’, without the use of a computer.
Kids program by arranging small, tile-like objects, each with an icon on it.
Students come to understand the concepts that underlie programming, hands-on, by trial and error, gaining insight and mastery as they have fun and progress with these simple yet sophisticated materials.
The KUBO Robot reads the program ’tiles’ as it moves over them, saves the program temporarily in its circuits—and then carries out the program on a small, table mat-like map.
There’s more, of course.
There’s teacher support through KUBO Education, which offers a downloadable Quick Start Guide, Teachers Manual and Cheat Sheet for everything needed to start using KUBO.
Student can earn KUBO’s Coding License, designed to give students aged four to 10 a strong foundational understanding of coding.
The license consists of 12+ hours of lesson plans, introducing movements and routes, sequences, functions, subroutines, and loops.
It is beginner-friendly and gets progressively harder as students develop their understanding of programming.
There’s even a downloadable diploma.
In other words:
This is a very well thought out program, not only in the extraordinary foundational instruction planned for, but in the teacher support, as well.
I think KUBO is introducing exactly what education needs:
A vehicle by which the crux of 21st-century learning is inculcated and learned before students arrive at their upper elementary and middle school experience.
My mind races at the thought of where such easy, early preparation will take us, the creativity that will emerge from students who have already mastered the basic ideas and skills and who are liberated to work on how to apply them!
On the exhibit floor, a newcomer
Out on the exhibit floor I was captivated by the displays of a newcomer in the field, UBTECH Education, which was created in early 2018 by its parent company, UBTECH, an industry leader in humanoid robotics.
The company states that its purpose is:
To support teachers with powerful digital tools and resources to help prepare all students for STEM careers through active engagement with robotics and rigorous NGSS-based curriculum.
But from where I stand, the variety of learning offered goes beyond career destination.
It’s stuff that greatly enriches one’s understanding of the world that is unfolding all around us—something much broader—and dare I say it, even more important than STEM in isolation.
The programming interface for the UBTECH robots I saw is elegant and offers several modes of view including block programming, and an arresting ‘avatar’ view, in which on the screen of the device used (a student-grade tablet for my demo), a beautifully and faithfully- rendered drawing-like representation of the robot appears—showing important information about how the robot will behave even before the program is tested out with the real robot.
Obviously, there are some deep classroom management advantages to this.
I also got a look at an augmented reality interface in which the robot is seen in a virtual reality setting provided by UBTECH, thus giving students the ability not just to see the robot they are programming on a desktop or classroom floor, but say, on the moon—through the view this interface offers.
The student robotics space is a dimension of education that is already 30 years old and showing it, in the offerings of other companies.
But UBTECH strongly freshens it up by bringing some very sophisticated and up-to-the-minute technological innovations into what they have to offer.
They offer a Family of Educational Products, including
- UKITS on the Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced levels;
- Jimu Robot Educational Bundles (e.g. AstroBot, BuzzBot, MuttBot, etc.); and
- YANSHEE for high school and college students—something worth special mention here, as it is one of the 2 or 3 most robust, sophisticated, and appealing robots I’ve seen, intended for student hands.
As if robot personality in abundance wasn’t enough.
This one has, to name just a few of its remarkable features:
- facial recognition
- voice recognition, and
- gesture recognition.
In other words:
Cutting-edge robotics for the classroom.
A category unto itself
In what strikes me as a category unto itself, another very attractive student offering I spent some quality time with is Microduino, which describes itself as:
(Take a deep breath.)
‘Stackable electronic building blocks, related accessories and peripherals, and in-class science STEM learning systems which encourage and enhance inventors’ creativity, imagination, and ingenuity through project-based learning.’
Microduino offers a range of kits and materials that start with basic concepts, like circuitry for young kids—to far more complex and sophisticated kits that feature its ‘m-cookie’ building blocks, based on the Arduino processor.
The flyer I picked up boasts, “these materials are highly flexible”, are “compatible with LEGO products”, and “help bring LEGO to life” and further, “…enable creators to bring their inspirational and pioneering concepts to life.”
I walked away wanting to spend more time with Microduino down the road!
An eye-opening half hour
A quick mention, too, about ROBOKIND, which showed me a student robotics program intended for use with autistic students.
I sat for an eye-opening half hour with MILO, a robot that is so uncannily lifelike and appealing that describing it as:
“a socially advanced robot, whose proven effectiveness with learners with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is over 80 percent as opposed to the 3 percent for traditional therapy”
…rang true—strongly.
It was just one of numerous ‘ah ha’ moments I had at ISTE that has me ever more enthusiastic about the new horizons for educational success that technology continues to bring us at an accelerating pace.
“It was just one of numerous ‘ah ha’ moments I had at ISTE that has me ever more enthusiastic about the new horizons for educational success that technology continues to bring us at an accelerating pace.”
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On A Roll. Having a STEM laugh with the old Toilet Paper Dispenser Robot—this version displayed as a possible student project by Robobloq, a Chinese student robotics material provider on the exhibit hall floor.
Que Viva STEM!
So wonderful to see that at ISTE, educators experience a few days beyond the petty political small mindedness that plagues the rest of the world.
Every year there is a large contingent of Mexican schools participating at ISTE, quite a few of whom provide elaborate poster session displays.
Paying It Forward. Student, Isabela Ocaña (right) and teacher Dr. Aksa Eguia from the Oxford School in Mexico City with a robot made from recycled materials.
I was much taken this year with the work of Isabela Ocaña, a high school student at the Oxford School in Mexico City and her teacher, Dr. Aksa Eguia, who were displaying a robot constructed from recycled materials and digital components at their poster session, “RRR: Recycle, Reduce and Reuse to Create a Robot”
Keynotes
This year’s keynote presentations were attended by extraordinary crowds.
As my colleague Rachelle felt:
“There was a larger theme on creativity this year.
“The emphasis seemed to be on the power of choice and creativity in learning.
“In the keynotes, Katie Martin asks educators to ‘spark creativity, ignite passion and unleash genius.
Rabbi Rapport. Hanging with keynote speaker Michael Cohen, a.k.a., “The Tech Rabbi,” a designer, educator and creativity instigator.
“Rabbi Michael Cohen said, ‘…creativity starts with belief and doesn’t end with failure.’
“And Nadia Lopez urged, “give them space to be creative.
“There was definitely a message focused on the power of giving students the opportunity to be creative.
“And the first step is in giving students more control in the classroom and fostering curiosity in learning and creating opportunities for students to problem solve.”
Neuroscientist David Eagleman, Ph.D., a bestselling author, inventor, and adviser, spoke of how you can change your own thinking and find more creativity in your daily life.
Art and Tech. Congratulating Tim Needles, art teacher, on winning the “Arts and Technology Network Creativity Award”. Tim is media and art teacher at Smithtown Central School District in Sound Beach, New York.
Making IT happen
Among those who received the prestigious Making IT Happen Award for outstanding educators and leaders who demonstrate extraordinary commitment, leadership, courage and persistence in improving digital learning opportunities for students was Mitch Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab.
Mitch is responsible for the visual programming language, SCRATCH and other tools that strongly focus kids on their creativity and support them in developing it.
Also there: Tim Needles, high school Visual Art teacher who received the new ISTE Creativity Award from the Arts & Technology network.
Tim shared his opinion that:
“Creativity seemed to be a major focus of this year’s ISTE conference. I was excited to see the focus evolve from exploring new technologies in years past, to: exciting approaches to meaningful uses of new technology to engage 21st Century learning skills such as: creative thinking, problem solving, and innovation.
“I suspect the maker revolution in schools had helped creativity, invention, and innovation find their way to the forefront of so many of ISTE’s sessions and playgrounds this year.
“It was a central theme in the keynotes of author Andy Weir and educator Michael Cohen—an ever-present element in many sessions and playground presentations—and even illustrated in the major vendors presentations such as Apple’s #EveryoneCanCreate Interactive Mural.
“As an art educator and advocate for creativity in the classroom, it’s no surprise that it was also at the core of my session at the arts and technology playground focused on fun and creative approaches to digital drawing, augmented reality, and 3D printing using tools like the Morphi app and 53’s pencil and paper app.”
Keeping things fresh
One group I enjoy visiting with every ISTE, is Follett.
One of the places in our schools in which the transformation of learning has been taking place—strongly—is the school library, now, more accurately: the digital media center.
Follett, an old (145-years-old, to be exact) company, has established itself as an important player in supporting this movement.
School media centers offer things like student robotics and maker-based learning as they take on the role of one of the most creativity-nourishing hotspots within our schools.
As makerspaces continue to gain momentum in the K-12 library world to encourage students’ inquiry and exploration through hands-on production, Follett answered a clear and prominent need by offering its Makerspace Bundles, age-level-specific bundles that are individually tailored for elementary, middle and high school grades, and include a diverse variety of materials, that includes books, building supplies, and robotic kits.
The bundles are designed to:
- save time and take the guesswork out of starting a makerspace, and
- allow librarians to get started offering students maker opportunities without doing all of the curation work themselves.
Follett has also partnered with LEGO Education solutions.
These will be offered by Follett specifically for school librarians in the U.S. who are interested in establishing a makerspace in their library.
Nader Qaimari, President, Follett School Solutions, explained that:
“The LEGO Education solutions are a perfect fit for librarians to further promote STEM and 21st-century learning no matter what stage they are at with their makerspaces.”
The school library/media center no doubt will continue to distinguish itself as a place that offers a broad gamut of content to inform and inspire.
And Follett’s educational tool, Collections by Destiny®, will allow for collaborative ways for librarians, teachers, and curriculum staff to share free or purchased resources (including across the district, schools or between users.
Follett officials told me at ISTE they are poised to make an announcement next week about how the company plans to deliver personalized learning in school classrooms through adaptive learning and artificial intelligence.
Okay, please; bring it on!
Above all, what the conference was
For me the conference, above all, was a gathering of like-minded souls—many of who see the world through the lens of fostering student creativity and innovation.
I had an inspiring discussion about all of this with Chris Besse of Edgemakers, an organization that believes:
“Young Innovators Can Change the World”
And I walked away even more deeply convinced and committed to this particular mission within the world of education.
Further, I very much appreciate hearing the eloquent ways that others express ideas that are near and dear.
And I appreciate Edgemakers contention that innovation can be taught—if the learning is:
– Practice-based through relevant, hands-on projects and activities;
– Purpose-driven: focusing on the “wicked” problems students feel passionate about solving; and involves
– 21st Century Skills: to build creative confidence, use critical thinking to solve problems, collaborate with diverse groups and communicate their ideas clearly.
A good acknowledgment, and the work we are up to
I want to share that, when visiting the ISTE Central book store, I was informed by the head of ISTE Books that my own book, Make, Learn, Succeed: Creating a Culture of Creativity in Your School had just been ordered in bulk by one of the United States’ largest school systems.
It’s nice to be acknowledged.
But beyond that, it’s clear that some of those in charge — who’ve established what Sir Ken Robinson has called “Education’s Death Valley” (in his runaway popular YouTube videos, Do Schools Kill Creativity?) — are beginning to take this challenge to heart.
They understand that this is the work that we educators are up to—
Now that we have the tools.
And the conceptual frameworks.
And the opportunity.
And the need—
To take this work on.
Education has moved up to the top of the pyramid to the realm of creativity—as ISTE 2018 made abundantly clear!
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In addition to being a member of ISTE, Mark Gura is an Advisory Board Member and Contributing Editor of EdTech Digest and the author of Make, Learn, Succeed: Building a Culture of Creativity in Your School published by ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). Mark is a longtime judge for The EdTech Awards—recognizing edtech’s best and brightest innovators, leaders, and trendsetters (click here to enter).
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