Five Things To Do After Every Conference.

My life has changed. Whether I admit and recognize it or not I have experienced a large shift in my world. I can feel the change deep in my core. This has happened thanks to ISTE.

It’s not the workshops or the Expo that has changed my life. Those pieces have been profoundly inspirational. I specifically went to gather information and resources. What I walked away with are connections. 

I recently found out I was accepted into the London 2019, #Lon19, Google Innovator cohort. I’m thrilled to have this experience. There is a large number of UK folks in the cohort. Only a handful are from North America. Thanks to ISTE I was able to connect with four of them. 

It’s unusual to have an instant connection with someone. Most meetings and connections are friendly and cordial. However, encountering these members of my cohort was like finding an extended family I never knew I needed. And I use the word “need” because I can’t see moving forward without them. In reality, yes, life goes on, but these connections have enriched so much for me. These connections are not just educational. There is a personal connections sharing stories of families and friends. 

Mindset matters here. We all happened to have a growth mindset and have been excited to connect with each other. This creates a deeper bond. I think it can also be termed as acceptance. We spoke positively and openly with each other. We all have a similar goal in mind which is to change the world. These factors developed a unique and special relationship.

This pre-Academy connection would not be possible without ISTE. The connections extended beyond my cohort members. I met so many people, some fresh faces and others heroes in the world of educational technology. I’m taking away business cards, emails, twitter followers and more. These are the elements I need to continue that human connection. And that human connection is a core of education. 

So what do we do from here? We just had this amazing time connecting and learning. Let’s not leave it there. Keep it going. Those conversations don’t end because the conference ended. Those chats keep going. Here’s some points to help you forge ahead with your goals post conference. 

• Gather your thoughts. What are your take-aways from the event? Jot it down in a digital searchable platform. Don't for get to check and gather all those resources too.

• Connect with those you met. Reach out and Identify yourself in a way that can help them remember. Unless you spent days together there is a high chance not everyone will remember you. Provide a recap of your conversation. 

• Create a plan for yourself. There are likely things you want to accomplish. Build yourself a timeline of when you plan to complete them. 

• Talk to your colleagues that didn’t go. Even a few minutes of cooler talk can help change things for someone else. You may have seen a saving solution for a problem someone has. 

• Implement what you have learned. Use at least one tool or technique within a week of your return. It's definitely hard if you don’t have to opportunity but work to create the opportunity for yourself. 

I’m on a bus home. Those group chats created to find my colleagues are still active. I’ll continue to use them to find shared resources and photos. But I have one group chat with four amazing people I’ll see in two weeks. I’m honestly emotional and teary leaving them after spending three days together. I’m working to change my mindset to recognize that I’m about to meet 30 plus more extended family members in London. This is my love letter to those first four and I’m looking forward to the family growing. 

AI and ML in Education

nVidia's GAUGAN AI image creation

Computer programming as a mandated part of the curriculum began in the UK in 2013. Six years later we are beginning to see other educational regions requiring computer programing in the curriculum. But what about some of the more advanced tool? What about Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)? We live with intelligent tools daily now. Whether you are shopping online or asking Siri for the time you are connecting to intelligent machines. But we aren’t all discussing how to implement it in the classroom. My mission at ISTE 2019 in Philadelphia was to explore what we are doing with AI and education. Here’s what I’ve taken away. 

We have been asking an entire profession to pick up a necessary skill set by tomorrow. And we need them to do it again. Computer programming in the classroom integrated through various courses is very popular now. Many classrooms are drawn to block-based coding like Scratch or Code.org. Much of the content delivery can be done through a video tutorial and try it yourself technique. The educator doesn’t need to know much about computer programing just enough about technology to setup a digital classroom. While this is not the most effective way to educate it can get the job done. We need to begin approaching AI and ML topics in the classroom and this may be the way to get a jumpstart into it. 

AI and ML tasks are accessible now more than ever. Educational resources are out there to begin talking about and trying AI. Google has a number of projects which can spark a classroom conversation and exploration on the topic. One of my favorite tools is a visual training demonstration called Teachable Machine. Students can train the system to recognize objects. The concept of data being routed through neural networks is very clear from the visual layout of the website. It can spark conversation on the differences between sensing and perceiving. The extraction of meaning from the images to say a word, show a gif, or play a sound supports student understanding of the concept of perception. This easily integrates into biology curriculum as the human senses are explored. 

Large datasets can be engaged by our students in various ways. Gapminder provides a visually stunning display of over 100 years of data. We can see populations grow and shrink over time as it’s tracked over 6 variables. This timeline motion chart feature brings something to the classroom we would have to make a 100 page graph paper flip book to replicate in the physical world. While this is a goto dataset there are others to explore with classes. The conversation can be around math or history. It all depends on from what angle you want to look at the material. The life expectancy drops from world wars are very clear. 

The level or AI and ML learning our students need to be at when graduating high school as recommended by AI4K12.org is high. I agree with their guidelines and I’ve been working to educate myself but I still am about the level of a 6th grader.

Educators need more educational opportunities to be able to understand the emerging technology. Curriculum will be generated by the big tech companies but it’s a necessity for educators to have a bit of a deeper knowledge of the tools than the in-the-box materials provided. We need to know what’s possible in order to integrate the learning throughout our curriculum. The work of Dr. Scott Garrigan can be a wonderful place to start. He is an educator whose interest is in cognitive disabilities. He provides professional development on many topics. He understands the pedagogy and can help support in implementing AI and ML through a curriculum. 

While this is not an exhaustive list of resources they do provide places to get started. 

• Scratch AI exploration
• Machine Learning for Kids provides hands-on explorations.
• Teachable Machine perception of objects demonstration
• GAUGAN AI image creation program.
• Breve a genetic machine learning model learning to walk (no longer kept up so may crash)
• TensorFlow Playground a visual representation of what happens under the hood. 
• Calypso for Cosmo software teaches robot logic and behavior. (Cosmo is out of business but the robots are still out there)
• AI-4-all free program for high school students in AI. 
• World Intelligence Competition for Youth compete globally in AI.
• Artificial Intelligence ISTE Course.

We will very quickly approach the point that we won’t be able to tell if a computer is speaking to us or a human. Just last year Google Duplex was demoed and is now released. If this is our reality now what will it be when our students graduate? Shouldn’t we begin making the effort to include AI in our curriculum now? We are seeing a scramble to include coding in the curriculum. AI and ML have coding in them but the concepts can be vastly different. If we wait much longer to push this into our schools we will miss the opportunity and fall behind. 

In light of recent political events I was deeply struck by a quote regarding AI: “Whoever becomes the leader Artificial Intelligence will become the ruler of the world.” -Vladimir Putin, 2017. Looks like educators have some work to do. 

Gaming Education

Is education a game where only some understand and play by the rules? Are others even playing the game? Do they know it even exists? Are educators just proliferating a lie of the system to control the masses?

Let’s face it. If we truly wanted all of our students to be successful we would go back to the foundations of what defines success in education and rewrite it all. Around 30% of students in high school pursue higher education in America. While I’m not a believer that this is the only path to success this is often a good indicator. Are the two thirds just getting and buying into the game of school?

I had the opportunity to discuss the topic an more at Philadelphia’s Hack Education at ISTE this week. The bullet point take aways:

• Shepherds are effective in supporting students.
• Education needs to take in the whole child
• Mindset matters
• The system is broken

One of the points which has crossed my mind and come up in conversations is a bit of a taboo subject in education; education is structured to support governmental management of populations. Even writing about this I find myself hitting a dead-end of thoughts. I have more questions than answers but can clearly see the affect on my students and education as a whole. But really how else do we create a stable society? These are big philosophical questions deserving of long term conversation.

Students need a shepherd to help them through education. For many this is in the form of a parent. But what happens when the parent wasn’t good at the game of school? A Student needs more than a role model. They need some one that can support and help them through the system. Truthfully it’s the system that is broken.

The education game needs to change. I am at ISTE in lectures discussing AI in education and it’s striking how much our students will need to know that they aren’t taught and how much they are being taught that they don’t need to know.

Let’s reimagine what school is. Even the word school. We no longer need to go to a place of learning. Resources are online to help and support us. Perhaps we start to consider education as a personal path to personally defined and coached success. Let’s not define students by a datapoint but recognize that education is more than the core elements we have been teaching.

It’s time for an overhaul of the game. Knowledge is at our fingertips. Our students need the skills to interact and work with the information they can access 24/7. Memorization of facts is no longer a necessity in school.

The idea of a game for school exists because there is a winner; a score. There are rules to the game, though the rules aren’t clearly written down. There are penalties if you break the rules but no one really tells you what they are because they don’t know themselves.

What can education be? How can we measure learning without using a number or scoring? How do we teach with the whole child? How do we heal the wounds education has caused?

Microsoft is supporting schools in transforming education. Gutting what is education  as we know it and redeveloping something else. We need to all pursue an exploration to transform what we know if as education.