ISTE 2010 and a little social networking

  • Article

Hello friends, I'm back from ISTE 2010 and what a trip!

 

  First and foremost Microsoft Education put together a stellar booth presence and show with presentations on all the newest teacher tools that Microsoft has to offer.

 

We even did a little Office 2010, WW Telescope and Surface! We invited educators to join us in our booth and their presence and knowledge was invaluable. Their insight into using these tools in a classroom environment really solidified our commitment to education and an understanding of the needs of educators around the world. The conversations and discussions that I had with the 13,000 attendees really gave me a sense that we're on the right track with our tools and the way that educators can integrate them into the classroom.

                                               

Yes, that's an inflatable planetarium for World Wide Telescope        

      

                            Microsoft Surface in action

When I'm at the school its easy to speak with educators on a daily basis about everything from PD to classroom management, and this conference really reinforced my belief that educators want more than tools, they want guidance and training on how to BETTER integrate them into the classroom. That's why we recently released the Microsoft Learning Suite for educators around the world to discover. The Learning Suite consolidates all of our educator resources into a single DVD, and YOU can create and distribute these DVD's to your schools, educators, and even learners!

 

In order to relay the importance of integration over features, we setup a small classroom in our booth to do hands on training with our guests and to walk them through the Learning Suite.

 

   

 

We've got plenty of examples of our educators integrating technology, but my focus this year will be on finding and connecting other educators who are doing the same. In order to do that I'm going to start regularly posting here on the blog and via twitter (@sotfphilly) , we also have a Facebook page (Philly School of the Future)  for those that want to connect that way and find it more useful.  I think that social media has a place in education, and this year, we're going to utilize it to the extent that we can, to figure out how to connect, create and share education practices across the world.

 

Can you help? Will you join us? That's up to you, but I'm on a crusade to find the most innovative schools in the US that are willing to work with the School of the Future and Microsoft to help share what they've learned, practice what they preach, and create a network of innovative schools that other organizations can go to for ideas and best practices.

 

In the next few weeks I'm going to be taking a trip to Seattle for the MS Institutes then onto DC for the Innovative Teachers Forum, I hope to see you there!!