Day 1 - Monday, June 24th
My ISTE 2019 trip got off to a rough start. Our flight was cancelled and we had to wait a full day before we could catch another (which included a layover). I ended up missing my Sunday sessions, but at least we saved some money by needing one less night at the hotel! And I was able to squeeze in a quick tour of The University of Pennsylvania (and my first time at a Shake Shack, but that isn’t as important)!
After a ~35 minute walk to the convention center, I grabbed my badge and headed to the rehearsal for ISTE Bytes. This session gave presenters a chance to give a short 2-3 minute overview of their session so that people new to attending the event could get a better idea of what was to come. For me, this was an important chance to network with other presenters. After my quick talk, I headed across the street to the Reading Terminal Market for a roast pork sandwich at DiNic’s – it was amazing! Flavorful pork, sharp provolone, and some nice broccoli rabe so it actually felt somewhat healthy.
The first session I attended was “AI in the Hands of Your Students” by Doug Bergman and Dave Parmele from Amazon Web Service Educate. In terms of practicality, this was the highlight of the conference for me. Doug has created a rigorous, well-organized introduction to Artificial Intelligence that utilizes available, accessible resources online. His progression was a paramount example of how to meet students where they are (especially with how many still view computers as these magic devices) and show them the human elements of computer science. Dave Parmele’s addition of resources available from AWS Educate gave the addition of certifications and industry recognition which can help this curriculum get more recognition and esteem early on.
Up next was Hall Davidson‘s talk on how to integrate AI and Machine Learning into the classroom. This talk had a strong focus on how to see the influence of new technology all around us, and more importantly, how to engage students to learn more about these developments. One key idea from this session was how to better use voice assistants in the classroom, and the privacy laws that one needs to be mindful when using one.
My expo goal for the first day was to stop by all the big name booths – Google, Microsoft, Adobe, etc. I also went to any companies I already use in my class like AutoDesk, Unity, and Illuminate. It was nice to find out the latest and greatest from each, though there weren’t as many dramatic improvements like last year’s Classroom classwork tab. Selfishly, the best thing I got from meeting most of these groups was that I am already making the most of what they offer. After a full day at the center I headed back to the hotel, but not before stopping at Goldie for a tahina shake and falafel.
Day 2 - Tuesday, June 25th
The main event of day 2 was my coworker Matt Johnson’s talk on teaching AI to high school students. This was an amazing opportunity to network with like-minded teachers from all over the globe! I met a pair of teachers from Argentina who wanted to integrate AI across their curriculum and some teachers from schools similar to mine that can help us develop a strong model for teaching our advanced students. I am glad this was such a success, if it wasn’t the highlight of my morning would have just been the scrapple and apple dumpling I got from the Dutch Eating Place.
Next I went to an amazingly practical session on building my own Chrome extensions by Wanda Terral and Alison Bogue. Their method involved pulling the raw code from other extensions, editing it for your own needs, and even publishing it. It is something I can see myself doing with my CompSci student or maybe a small club, but district account permissions might get in the way. My final session of the day was a presentation on strategies for AP Computer Science Principles by Douglas Kiang and Crystal Furman. It was well done with lots of helpful strategies (framing projects as The Hero’s Journey was by far my favorite!) but after teaching AP CSP for two years already there was a decent amount of redundancy. Feeling inspired, I went off to get the closest thing I had to a cheese-steak during the trip: the trainwreck with steak, salami, and andoulli from Beck’s before heading back to the hotel.
Day 3 - Wednesday, June 26th
I started off the final day with a fantastic breakfast sandwich and fresh donuts from Federal Donuts. Then I headed off to the most influential talk of the conference was Charlie Reisinger’s presentation on his open-source school district. I have always been driven to make my curriculum and content accessible to all my students by using free and open programs, but he has shown me that it can be taken to the next level. This mindset not only saves his district a significant amount of money (about two full teachers a year!) but it instills a mindset in his students that I can only hope to achieve. Even if I can not get my site to commit to a full open model (transitioning some folks to Drive was hard enough, I can’t imagine a Windows to Linux transition…) I am hoping to add more and more open-source resources to my work – maybe even running a full Linux lab in some future school year.
I had my presentation scheduled for one of the last slots of the convention. Not only that, but the group scheduled to go after me asked to switch spots due to the way their flight was scheduled. Regardless of all this, my talk on creating CompSci CTE pathways was a success mainly for the networking opportunities it opened up. I got to meet other Game Design and IT teachers and find out that my site is still at the forefront of structured CS Education. To wrap up the conference, I went to eat at Pod, a trendy Asian fusion place that had some pretty awesome food!