Sharing our Passion for Student-Led Global Education: TIGed goes to ISTE

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) held their annual conference in Philadelphia this year from June 28th to July 1st. TakingITGlobal was thrilled to participate for our 12th year in this amazing event that attracted more than 18,000 attendees and industry representatives. We had the opportunity to participate in various ways from presentations to workshops, poster sessions to lots of great connections made at our partner booth.

TakingITGlobal’s co-founder Michael Furdyk (centre) with Terry Godwaldt from Edmonton Public Schools and Mali Bickley from Simcoe County District School Board

On Sunday June 28th, TIG members attended and presented at the Steve Hargadon and Lucy Grey’s Global Education Day event that was taking place within the ISTE conference. Our good friends and inspiring educators Terry Godwaldt and Mali Bickley gave inspiring Ignite Talks on how they are incorporating global citizenship in classrooms and education.

Terry demonstrated his passion for connecting students to global issues and motivating them to action. He outlined the Global Encounters program and how it allows young people to collaborate to address the world’s greatest challenges. As he put it: “The world wants to hear from our students. Here is one way of facilitating that conversation.”

The world is looking to hear from our kids. #globaled15 #ISTE2015 @takingitglobal @tgodwaldt pic.twitter.com/qP0fUy4sZS

— Ronit Schwabe (@ronitschwabe) June 28, 2015

Mali took us through how she incorporated TakingITGlobal’s initiative, DeforestACTION, into her primary school classroom to engage students in conversations of environmental stewardship. She used DeforestACTION to connect her students in the global movement towards preserving  the world’s rainforests. To learn more about how you can get involved, visit: http://dfa.tigweb.org/.

Some of our favourite TIG tools were highlighted during the Cool Tools Duel! These included our Commit2Act app ( http://commit2act.tigweb.org) where you can join a community of global changemakers to take actions and become inspired, our free online educational games resource (https://www.tigweb.org/games/), and the section of our website outlining International Days (http://days.tigweb.org) with related links and action items.

In the evening, TIG hosted two Poster Sessions. We focused on making education fun in our “Taking Online Gaming Global!” poster session. The other poster session was “Middle East in Transition: Exploring the Arab Spring Through Videoconferencing” and highlighted some of the videoconferencing events that we host through our Global Encounters program. It was a successful (and packed) first day at ISTE!

#ISTE2015 @tgodwaldt @mfurdyk #takingITglobal http://t.co/N46v358Ncu is a great resources for raising awareness! THANKS4 your presentation!

— Will Bennett (@willbennettva) June 29, 2015

Despite our busy first day, we had an early start on Monday June 29th. We began the day on a high note with our 8:30 am session on “Bringing the Environment to Life in Your Classroom!”. That was followed by a workshop that we conducted in the afternoon on how to “Take Your Classroom Global: Strategies for Student Engagement and Global Impact”.

Listening to @mfurdyk inspire teachers to use TIGed tools to bring the world to their classroom pic.twitter.com/lSNCASPsiD

— Terry Godwaldt (@tgodwaldt) June 29, 2015

We maintained our enthusiasm throughout the day and ended strongly with a workshop on “Fostering Environmental Stewardship in a Digital World” where we shared our many environmental programs and resources with a number of attendees involved in environmental education.

On Tuesday June 30th, we were very excited to run our anticipated half-day workshop on “Global Project-Based Learning in Technology-Enabled Classrooms”, where we helped participants understand the essential elements of Project-based Learning. We also showcased many resources provided by TakingITGlobal to help them deliver effective global projects, particularly an authentic audience through resources like our Global Gallery and Panorama Blogs.

In the midst of our Global Project Based Learning in a Technology Enabled Classroom workshop! #ISTE2015 #globaled pic.twitter.com/FHP72QqK6T

— TIGed (@TIGed) June 30, 2015

Our final session for the conference was on the last day where we focused in on our Global Encounters program. Our focus was on “Bringing Students Face to Face with the World.”

Fascinating session on encouraging students to take their learning to the global level @mfurdyk @TIGEducation @dreamteam51 #EDTSparks

— Nolan Sullivan (@nolansully1) July 1, 2015

Throughout the conference, our booth was bubbling with conversations with educators, teachers, and administrators from around the world. The resources that TIG has to offer and the exciting work that we are a part of in terms of global citizenship, environmental stewardship, and student voice has sparked a great deal of interest and action.

Let's talk about taking classrooms global! Stop by our booth at #ISTE2015 pic.twitter.com/2DUfDBg1EU

— TIGed (@TIGed) June 29, 2015

We are pleased with all the new connections we created and the familiar faces that we were able to reconnect with. The atmosphere at ISTE was energizing and it was incredibly encouraging to see all the excitement around global education and inspired learning. We look forward to harnessing all of this energy into our upcoming projects here at TIG, and can’t wait to follow-up with all the educators we connected with in September!

Thanks to our friends at ISTE for valuing our contributions and work enough to approve a record number of our session proposals, and for the ongoing partnership that we’ve been building for over a decade that brings the promise of technology to drive student outcomes to life.