ISTE 2017

28 can’t-miss edtech innovations from ISTE 2017


Couldn't attend ISTE? No problem--we're rounding up the top conference news.

This year’s ISTE Conference was all about technology-charged learning–and from the keynotes and sessions to the fast-paced exhibit hall, the conference’s more than 20,000 attendees (15,000 educators plus expo hall staff) were immersed in just that.

In all, ISTE 2017 produced 159,000 tweets from people across the U.S. and 72 countries. The most popular topics, based on number of sessions, focused on creativity and productivity tools (113), innovative learning environments (108), online tools and resources (82), constructivist learning and the maker movement (77), and programming and robotics (70).

But if you couldn’t make it to San Antonio this year, don’t worry–we’ve got a round-up of some of the newest products and announcements from companies dedicated to tech-enabled learning.

(Next page: 28 products from ISTE 2017)

1. Acer gave educators the chance to win swag, including a TravelMate B117 laptop. The B117 notebook is made specifically for the education market and is powered by Windows 10 Pro. It’s the first notebook to support the Acer TeachSmart solution, which enables new ways of classroom interaction, and empowers teachers with tools and cloud-based services to distribute class materials and collect assignments digitally.

2. AT&T was one of the Start-Up Pavilion sponsors at ISTE. Conference attendees spent an average of six hours exploring the Expo Hall, and this year, the Edtech Start-Up Pavilion featured 42 unique start-up companies.

3. Bloomz, a parent-teacher communication provider, has partnered with the Arizona Technology in Education Association (AZTEA) to cultivate the connective and collaborative power of educational technology for educators and parents. As part of the partnership, Bloomz will invite its Arizona users to join the AZTEA, and will create a forum on the Bloomz app that promotes AZTEA’s mission to connect educators in order to leverage their collective knowledge and expertise.

4. In the face of ongoing education technology transformations, CD players have remained a staple for K-12 listening activities. To improve the use of this established tool, Califone International announced the release of the CD360.

5. New apps, digital resources, and subscriptions abound in classrooms. Yet, district administrators are left with a limited picture of actual technology usage. CatchOn is addressing this disconnect by introducing its proprietary iOS solution, which provides the first-ever visibility into native app usage.

6. CodeMonkey, a game-based learning platform for teaching students code, launched the Game Builder platform as an additional feature to the series of basic coding courses. The Game Builder is geared to advance students from learning code literacy to become digital creators by building and designing their own online games.

7. Discovery Education announced a renewal of its 17-year partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB). This collaboration, which provides all educators across Georgia access to dynamic digital content has delivered almost 43 million digital learning objects to teachers and students across the state. It also announced a number of new features will be added to its Discovery Education Streaming services in the coming weeks in order to serve a new generation of teachers and students with resources they can immediately use to deepen students’ engagement in learning and develop pupils’ critical thinking, collaboration, and reasoning skills.

8. Epson introduced several new display solutions for the rental and staging, corporate, education, and installation markets. The BrightLink® Pro 1470Ui, BrightLink 710Ui and PowerLite® 700U ultra short-throw laser displays and the latest Pro L-Series projectors leverage Epson’s proprietary 3LCD technology and integrated laser light source to deliver spectacular image quality, durability and reliability. The BrightLink Pro 1470Ui and BrightLink 710Ui are the world’s first 3LCD interactive laser projectors.

9. Changes in leadership in the White House and the FCC have raised questions regarding the promise of the E-rate program to deliver safe and proper broadband connections to students in the U.S. In an effort to understand how the largest federally funded education program serves schools and libraries, Funds For Learning has conducted its annual E-rate applicant survey to gather important insights about the 2017 filing window. According to initial feedback, E-rate recipients continue to rely on E-rate funding to provide connectivity for schools and libraries across the nation.

10. The Google for Education team highlighted new tools and programs built to empower students to explore, build and think critically as active learners. The team focused on students as inventors and explorers, as critical thinkers and responsible digital citizens, and the team also shared seven new Impact Portraits of school success with Chromebooks and G Suite.

11. Hoonuit, the catalyst for education excellence through data analytics and professional development, made a call for educators to join its network of Learning Ambassadors at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference. The purpose of the program is to a build a community of educators who will collaborate and grow through the support and mentorship of fellow members.

12. Impero Software, a provider of classroom management, network management and online safety software, announced a number of developments designed to help schools manage and monitor devices in a BYOD or 1:1 environment, including a mobile device management solution.

13. Kahoot!, the game-based learning platform, previewed its new mobile app at ISTE 2017. The new app, designed for iOS and Android, brings the magic of game-based learning outside the classroom: teachers can send after-class challenges to students as homework, and learners can continue playing for revision and fun wherever they are.

14. To plan for, create, and sustain a successful school culture, many schools and districts across Indiana are turning to the Kickboard school culture system. Kickboard is a combination of technology and personalized leadership coaching that provides a sustainable, data-driven framework for leading culture change in K-12 districts and schools.

15. Learning.com launched Digital Literacy Assessments for fifth and eighth graders, a dynamic new set of tools to measure students’ proficiency with digital devices. This easy-to-use, high-quality assessment tool allows educators to pinpoint and close critical gaps in students’ digital literacy skills.

16. Lightspeed unveiled its new logo and corporate identity, along with its new Activate instructional audio and video platform. Lightspeed is expanding its focus to helping educators effectively use instructional audio and video systems to enhance the learning environment and improve student achievement in the areas of whole-classroom instruction, group learning, and collaboration.

17. Burnet Consolidated Independent School District in Burnet, Texas is seeing a leap in student engagement after its successful installation of new transformational learning spaces with the help of leading educational services partner MeTEOR Education. A new MeTEOR survey reveals the great extent to which students believe their physical environment impacts their learning.

18. ISTE and Microsoft Corp. announced they plan to combine and expand a host of their world-class initiatives to ensure educators and school leaders around the world have access to school planning and professional development resources. This collaboration stems from a shared belief that technology has the power to transform learning, and can do so most effectively when it’s embedded in how a school or educator thinks about and drives new learning opportunities.

19. At ISTE 2017, Mimio Boxlight‘s four STEM-focused sessions showed teachers how to integrate assessment and collaboration with hands-on experiments through the use of interactive tools. Three mini-sessions taught attendees how to use various Mimio tools to foster collaboration, as well as quick and seamless assessment, for the entire class.

20. Netsupport demonstrated NetSupport DNA, which provides IT asset management, classroom management and internet safety tools in one solution, helping teachers, technicians and school counsellors to meet ISTE requirements effectively.

21. Pai Technology, providers of engaging STEAM products using augmented reality for PreK-6 classrooms, announced at the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference the debut of Augie, a robot that pairs coding with augmented reality.

22. pi-top, the makers of a Raspberry Pi based computer, launched pi-topPULSE. The HAT compatible, pi-top add-on board functions as a high-end Raspberry Pi Speaker, features a vivid LED matrix and includes an inbuilt microphone that integrates to give you your very own interactive Raspberry Pi assistant.

23. Did you know that a spacesuit weighs approximately 280 pounds —without the astronaut in it — and that it can protect astronauts in temperatures as cold as minus 250 degrees or as hot as 250 degrees Fahrenheit? At ISTE 2017, educators had the opportunity to engineer a spacesuit, don an actual NASA spacesuit, and engage in hands-on STEM learning with PASCO Scientific.

24. SchoolDude by Dude Solutions, provider of operations management solutions, launched Help Desk, a new and innovative IT help desk management solution that simplifies the entire help desk process for K-12 and higher education institutions.

25. Today’s digital learning environment requires students to stay connected beyond the walls of the classroom. To protect students as they use school-issued devices to access the internet off campus, Smoothwall, a provider of internet security and content filtering solutions, announced a new cloud-based, remote filtering tool for the Chrome browser.

26. StudySync, powered by BookheadEd Learning, LLC, and McGraw-Hill Education, announced a new addition to the repertoire of tools and resources that make up its comprehensive blended ELA (English Language Arts)/ELL (English Language Learner) program for grades 6-12. The new Unit Creator tool allows teachers to create their own unique, specialized units from scratch.

27. Vernier Software & Technology will provide high school and college physics students with interactive videos of real scientific phenomena through the distribution of Pivot Interactives. Unlike animated simulations, these high-resolution videos incorporate authentic experiences and data to help students learn physics. These classroom-ready, student-driven, open-ended investigations provide teachers with experiments that would otherwise be impossible, unsafe, impractical, or time consuming to set up for hands-on student instruction. l

28. Workbench has partnered with ed-tech companies Dremel, Pai Technology and Robolink to launch online communities for project based learning; the company announced a school district partnership too–it’s helping Baltimore County Public Schools expand its project-based learning initiative; and it announced new tools for the Workbench Platform that will help kids learn to code.

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Laura Ascione

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