Keynote: Dr. Yong Zhao

I'm a fan of Dr. Yong Zhao, he's an engaging speaker and had the audience laughing often. I like his ideas about the problems with standardized testing and how they seem to be negatively correlated to innovation and other useful things.

He talks about how China's education system is admired by many countries, but actually seems to be stifling creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. Instead, he proposes a "future-oriented education starting with each child instead of an authoritative prescription of knowledge and skills." 


In his opinion, things that matter are diversity of talents, creativity, entrepreneurship, passion and confidence.


There were great quote and one liners. I've taken these from Twitter and/or paraphrased them:
"Literacy shouldn't be the national goal; it should be the floor, not the ceiling."
"I would like common core as long as it's not common or the core."
"China has best education system and worst education system combined: High test scores, low creativity/innovation"
"The US education isn't in decline, it has always been bad."
"The problem is, American teachers care more about students than they do about math."
"Our kids are too happy and confident to be good at academics."
"American schools kill creativity less effectively."

Poster and Table Sessions

This afternoon I went to a number of poster sessions and table sessions. I like the concept of poster sessions for topics where you just want some quick information about a topic, or a few minutes to chat with a presenter about a topic. In the time frame of an hour-long session, I was able to have a lot of conversations and get a lot of information about topics I'm interested in, rather than hearing about a single topic.

However I'm not as convinced that the table sessions, for research paper presentations, are as good of an idea. The room was a little small to have seven simultaneous presentations The presenter at my table was trying to play some videos, but even with her little speakers it was very difficult to hear them. On the positive side, though, having about ten people at a table made for a more intimate session and more willingness of participants to ask questions, and I certainly found it valuable to hear about "Gaming in the Classroom: Implicit through Portal 2 Explicit Knowledge".


Some highlights of the poster sessions were:
MCSD Podcast Library
Rubric for Assessing the Quality of Online Environments
Online Roller Coaster Creator for teaching math
Creating Games with eToys

Exhibit Hall at the ISTE Conference

The vendors exposition at this conference is certainly impressive. There are more than 500 vendors, and many of them have big, lavish booths. There's everything from little software or website startups to big well-known hardware vendors. There are things to play with, and many ways to share your contact information so they can get in touch with you and share information about their products and services. Perhaps even more than you'd like them to. There are raffles to enter (see the above comment about sharing your personal information), and swag to collect if you're interested. 

Thankfully unlike events such as E3 and car shows there are no "booth babes", but there are some notable uniforms or costumes that border on inappropriate.


For the most part, though, the exposition hall is worth visiting, especially if there's a particular product or service that you're interested in checking out or talking to someone about. The vendors are all more than happy to talk about their company and how they would be a great fit in your school or school division.

After a quick lunch, though, it's time for me to head back to some sessions. Unfortunately I shouldn't spend the whole day playing with Lego and other toys.

Session: Learn Math and Science with Dr. Mayim Bialik

As much as I don't mind commercials and sponsorship, this session was very on-message with respect to how wonderful Texas Instruments is. I have to agree that I like TI calculators and data collecting instruments, but the Nspire is still a little expensive. I know it's not as costly as an iPad or a decent laptop, but those are devices that you can use in non-math and science classes. Of course a TI calculator will survive a drop off of a desk.

The presenters in the session were very good, though. They were good at highlighting the importance of math and science and talking about things like assessment, empowerment, and fostering student engagement. They also, of course, showed off the features of the calculators, probes, and software.

I also think they did a good job of catering to the fairly diverse audience. They briefly explained the terms that they used, without being pedantic. The Q&A session afterwards with Mayim was good too, she addressed issues such as encouraging girls to pursue STEM, learning styles, time-limited assessments, bridging science and arts, and even bridging math and science.

Kickoff and Keynote

The start of the ISTE 2012 conference has come and gone. I attended the kickoff with Mario Armstrong and others. Fun costumes, a couple of prizes given away, and generally a good event.

Not to complain, though, but I think a number of bad decisions were made regarding the opening keynote. With only an hour and a quarter set aside for it, there was over half an hour of fluffy videos, ISTE representatives and politicians, and Qualcomm Executive Vice President of Global Market Development Peggy Johnson, while Sir Ken Robinson, Marc Prensky, and Dr. Mayim Bialik sat quietly. I understand that ISTE probably spent a lot of money producing the videos, and there are many people who need to welcome us to the conference, but I found it frustrating.


Imagine if things had been reversed, start with the stars and follow them with ISTE leaders and politicians. Many people were leaving while Sir Kin Robinson was still speaking, how many would stay in the room if it were someone they hadn't heard of?

And with respect to the seating, there wasn't nearly enough in the hall, and every second person had to lean forward in order for our shoulders to fit. Nor was there even enough in the "overflow", thankfully they were able to get the video stream up and running soon after things started.
As well, I know that it's hard to have a robust Wi-Fi connection for this many people, and they did a fairly good job, but this is something that can be improved.
The opening keynote event sets the stage for the whole event, and I was disappointed with this one. Hopefully this doesn't reflect poorly on the rest of the conference.


The highlight of my day, though, was Skypeing with my kids and having them show me the artwork that they painted for me today. And they hugged the computer to give me a hug good night.

A day in San Diego before the ISTE conference

As I write this I'm sitting in the window of my hotel room looking at the San Diego city lights and across the bay toward Coronado. The pool below is glowing blue, and the Dole receiving dock lights are shimmering on the water. It's the end of an eventful day of being a tourist around San Diego.

This morning I wandered down to the Gas Lamp quarter in search of breakfast, pancakes, and sun screen. Deciding to forgo a taxi ride to Sea World, and still unsure if I wanted to go, I bought a full-day transit pass and caught the trolley. After changing trolleys downtown, the end of the line was at Old Town San Diego, which seemed as good a destination as any for now. After less than an hour, though, I had decided that I wanted to see Sea World, so I hopped on a bus in that direction.

My first impression of Sea World was that I'd probably be waiting in a lot of lines. There was a line to buy the ticket (a "fun pass" is good for the rest of the year, and it's the same price as a single-day admission), there was a line to get through the security search and into the gate, there were lines to take photos with the people dressed as characters, and there were long lines for the rides. I went on the tower ride first to have a look at the whole park, and see the surrounding area, but didn't go on any other rides today. I did, however, get to see the major shows as well as all of the exhibits. Shamu and the other Orcas are much bigger in real life than I had expected. The sea lions were funny, and the dolphins were amazing, although the dolphin show seemed to be more about human acrobats than animals. In the exhibits, I got to hold a star fish and a horseshoe crab, and pet a turtle. All in all a great experience.

Another trip on public transportation back to the hotel, and I need to get in touch with my family about something that I had forgotten to do for an event that was happening back home, and track down my boss here to get my ticket for the baseball game. After talking to my wife but leaving for my boss, I was going to sit down for some supper when DG found me and invited me to join her and our boss.

The Padres game was a good, I had never been to a professional baseball game before. The stands seemed quite empty, but apparently there were over 30,000 people there. I ducked out for two innings to Skype with my wife and daughters, but I guess I didn't miss anything too exciting. I guess that's why I don't watch baseball on TV.

After the game we took another little walk along the marina to enjoy the view of the bay and the multi-million dollar yacht  parked there. It's clear that I'm not in that socioeconomic class, since I had to look up how to spell the word "yacht".

It's been a great day, and I feel like I've seen a lot of San Diego, but it's hard to be away from home. I miss my wife and I miss my kids already. I love how they give my hugs on Skype, but I'd rather be home with them. Home is where the heart is, and my heart is with them.

First post #iste12

I've safely arrived in San Diego for the ISTE 2012 conference. Air Canada was great, I watched a few movies on the in-flight system and apart from an engine not starting initially on one plane, things went smoothly.

I've checked into a hotel across from the convention center, and already had a swim in the pool. I'm looking forward to some preconference activities, and the start of the official conference on Sunday.