ISTE Conference

The 2008 ISTE NECC conference in San Antonio Texas was a very rewarding experience. More than 19,000 teachers from the USA and 50 other countries came together to share and experience the latest in technology for education. In addition to presentations, student showcases and research posters I attended several vendor and book dealer presentations.

I explored the new NETS for Teachers with a focus on how teachers are designing digital age learning and assessment tools. Several of the posters I attended were from HP Grants in Action and they included such titles as Throw Away the Keyboard- Enhancing Learning with Tablets, Modeling Our World, Math in the Real World: A Virtual Math Community. Math in the real world was abiout Teachers at James River Elementary who used technology to guide students in a journey through the entire 5th grade math curriculum. Students built a virtual math community, highlighting the manner in which the skills they learn will be applied in the professional world. http://tinyurl.com/64vyge
Students experienced real life examples in mathematics outside the classroom and had an unique opportunity to connect with professionals and service providers in our local area. Projects and experiences were shared with the community at an evening "Math in the Real World" Exhibition, as a capstone event for the International Bacclaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP).

One of the more interesting concurrent sessions I attended was Wonderful World of Wikis

This presentation discussed the effective uses of wikis in educational settings. Beginning with fundamental editing and basic principles of using wikis, VP of Wikispaces Adam Frey talked about basic wiki editing principles.

Another interesting session was Blogging Communities in the Classroom: Creating Engaging Learning Experiences. One of the focal areas of the presentation was its emphasis on literacy development and the positive impact of online communities of writers on student literacy skills.