Excited to be participating in and sharing from #ISTE19 this week!
Some notes from Day 1:
- Esports is the real deal! I listened to a great panel discussion today that helped explain the why. Students learn a great number of skills, including video editing, branding/marketing, perseverance, collaboration, leadership, SEL, strategy and last but not least, digital citizenship. While most adults assume that students are interested in only the gaming mechanics involved, there are also learning mechanics involved too. While many might ignore Esports altogether because they question whether students will get into trouble, school rules still apply! Now I’m thinking about how to get started at the elementary level.
- One of my favorite stories of the day came from Main Stage Keynote speaker Cheyenne Batista, who shared a picture of her speaking from behind a microphone to an empty stadium at her graduation. As she detailed, her father used to make her practice speaking whenever she had the chance, telling her, “You have a voice. It will be heard.” She reminded all of us that we need to keep repeating this to students. You have a VOICE. It will be heard.
- While visiting poster sessions featuring a number of students (including my daughter!!!) sharing in global collaboration projects, I recognized the need to keep pursuing authentic audiences and projects with students. Every child that I talked to spoke passionately about the project that he or she worked on. In most cases, the project allowed them to share with an authentic audience around the world. To remember it simply, authenticity = powerful connections!
- And now some much needed rest before Day 2!!!
Rich (@RACzyz)