Giving Compass' Take:

• Authors writing for Education Dive recap the speakers at the annual International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference earlier this week. And they highlight their favorite panel, featuring a group of K-12 district leaders sharing their challenges and best practices in STEM learning. 

• How can donors help support district leaders as technology becomes ubiquitous in education? 

• Read about how to support STEM education for donors. 


The annual International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference kicked off Monday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, but as with many years prior, the K-12 IT mega gathering hit the ground running Sunday night with its opening keynote session.

This year’s conference launched with keynotes from Firefly Worldwide Inc. CEO Cheyenne E. Batista​, Pixar Director of Photography for Lighting Danielle Feinberg and Tomorrow CEO and “Futuretainment” author Mike Walsh.

Walsh began with a joke about how difficult it is to explain what a “futurist” is. But in all seriousness, he said there’s a dilemma of collecting data and using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Students’ content consumption experiences are all algorithmic experiences, collecting data and feeding them recommendations based on that. This, he said, is only a recent development, beginning around 2012.

By 2030, however, the world will be composed of seamlessly orchestrated and personalized experiences made possible by AI platforms, he said — but what does that really mean?

In what's become one of our favorite recurring IT sessions at the annual ISTE conference, Jeremy Shorr of the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM led a group of K-12 district tech leaders through a discussion about their challenges and best practices.

This year's group: Florida Union Free School District (New York) Director of Math, Science and Technology Dana Castine; Richfield Public Schools (Minnesota) Director of Technology Cory Klinge; Hamilton County Educational Service Center (Ohio) Director of Technology Arline Pique; and Scarsdale Public Schools (New York) Director of Instructional Technology and Innovation Jerry Crisci.

Data privacy and cybersecurity were top of mind for the panelists, with about half the conversation revolving around struggles and solutions.

Read the full article about ISTE 2019 by Naaz Modan and Roger Riddell at Education Dive.