ISTE Conference: Supporting Ed Tech Leadership

By: Eli Kannai
Last month AVI CHAI sponsored 10 Jewish educators at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Philadelphia.  I joined the group for this huge 4 day event, which had about 18,000 people in attendance, including over 1100 presenters and an exhibit floor the size of 5.5 football fields.  AVI CHAI is interested in cultivating day school leaders who are exploring the potential use of technology in their schools. We were pleased to be joined by the PELIE group of fellows who were interested in technology in congregational school settings. Both groups enjoyed the first night dessert reception together sharing ideas and comparing plans for the following days. Our group was also part of the larger group of Jewish educators who were in attendance, which you can read more about in Caren Levine’s post.
A couple of the “overstated” observations from the conference were:
-Email is dead, long live Twitter, which was also noted as the primary vehicle for professional development amongst many ISTE members
-Use student’s mobile devices as interactive response systems in class – no need for a smart board
Those insights and others were discussed at the AVI CHAI group dinners, when each of the educators shared their reflections on the day’s events.  Some of these were tweeted then and there, others are on our educational technology blog.
Here are a few examples from the blog:
Dov Emerson found those educators he follows on twitter who form part of his PLN (personal learning network). Tzvi Pittinsky lists his top ten free educational technology applications from the conference. Rivky Krestt and Mallory Rome wrote about the reasons to use technology in education: “progress for the sake of progress”, or “progress for the sake of learning”.
This is only a sample of what the group shared online, and more posts keep coming – so stay tuned.  As always, your comments and insights are welcome.