Some Final Thoughts...

ISTE 2012 in San Diego was a very good conference. The weather was great, the food was great, and I learned some new things. In addition to the new things learned, I found many things that challenged my thinking or caused me to see from a different frame of reference. Most notably, was Tuesday’s keynote by Dr. Zhao. The whole idea that the true power in the American education system is innovation or creativity was a new perspective for me. It seems strange to me that other nations are trying to duplicate the “innovation” part of our system when all we generally hear about is the failures of our schools. Is it possible that all of this “high stakes assessment” is actually having a negative impact on the thing (innovation) where our students are world leaders? Clearly we need to investigate further so that we can be sure that our instruction has the highest level of rigor AND innovation possible.

Another final thought. I was a little concerned when I set up the blog. I wasn't sure how it would be received or how well it would work in the conference center. Looking back at it now, I’ve got to say… I’m very impressed with how it all came out. Everyone did a great job of blogging about sessions. The comments are also very good. I find that when you look at the blog as a whole, you get a good sense of the themes and value of the ISTE conference. Thanks to everyone for posting.