Last Day at ISTE

It was the last day at ISTE--- but the learning and discovering continues



We were out and going by 8:30.  We checked out of the hotel put our bags in hotel storage and off we went.  We told ourselves we cannot  pick up anything more as we had no more room to bring it back. Well of course that did not happen. We ended up shipping treasures home via FedEx, which just happened to be in the hotel.


Our first session was an IKEA Makerspaces presentation.  You might be asking yourself or not what is a Makerspace.  Well in a nut shell it is spot in your room to create or have a learning station.  She was giving ideas what you could purchase at IKEA to put in your classroom to use every square inch of space to  be creative.  So the next time you go to IKEA think how can I use this in my classroom as a learning stations aka Makerspace.

We then went to the Expo Hall to finish up exploring.  We used Prodigy Math which is FREE, last year  but found that it was way to hard for our kids.  We told them at the booth. They told us did you know you can override it and just have it for your grade level?  No, we did not know that.  They are willing to help us on their end to help us when we go back to learn the secrets to the program. This math program could be used with ELearning  in the coming school year. It is not  just for primary grades it  goes all the way up!

Everywhere we went there was mention of Flipgrid which is FREE.  It is a way for students to create and post videos of projects or activities that they are doing in  class.  It is a place for students to collaborate too.   Again, this could be used for ELearning for them to make a short video of them responding to a question or problem you have given.  They had a special FlipGrid tent that could be used for the recording station in the classroom. It was an awesome green tent which we wanted but you had to win it. 
You may want to make yourself an account this summer to have it ready to go.  Both Jeanine and I have made an account and are going explore how we could use this with first graders.  We both use SEESAW which is free too as a platform to share the kids work.

So back to the green tent...
 We were sitting in the hotel before going to the airport at the end of the day.  They came through the Lobby giving them away.  Jeanine and I both scored one!   I got one and Jeanine emailed them and they are sending her one.  They did not want to carry them back home so we scored one.

Merge cube was also super hot item at the conference. It is a augmented reality trigger.  You can use CoSpaces to created virtual tours or you could use it make a Merge Cube book review, using google slides to create a six sided template for the students to use. Again CoSpaces is something new to both of us. There is a fee for using CoSpaces.  I am putting in a link to a 10 minute podcast of some suggestions for you to get your creative ideas going  especially for the older kids. 

You could use your Apple TV to share the students projects from the Merge cube.  You could upload their project to Flipgrid for sharing too.  As you can make a video of the project via the cube save it then share it. 

Merge cube ideas

There is a lot more out there in ISTE which we will sleuth around this summer.  You could sleuth around too by going to # NOTATISTE. This is a site in which lots of educators use as a link to great ideas that were happening.  I have included a link to this below.  (I opened this page and there is a how to for Flipgrid included there too!)

  Not at ISTE

We hope that you have found something that sparks your interest in our blog. Our brains are on overload.  There was a ribbon you could put on your badge MY BRAIN HURTS!  "DITTO"


  Enjoy the rest of your summer!