Several teachers and administrators from the Lafayette County School District got together last month to attend the 2017 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference that was held in San Antonio.

The trip was paid for using title funds the district receives in order to better their abilities to incorporate technology in the classroom. A total of 12 people from the district attended the conference, two from each building on campus plus a handful of administrators.

There were more than 21,000 educators from around the country at the conference. In addition to the keynote speakers, there were thousands of booths set up throughout the convention center. At each booth were technology professionals representing a company or product or system and showing educators the many different ways in which different products could be used to enrich the classroom experience.

Pretty much anything and everything in technology education was highlight there, said Assistant Superintendent Patrick Robinson. They had a couple of neat things like a technology playground where teachers could walk through and do a lot of hands-on activities with the vendors. This way they could actually see how the products worked. There were probably over 1,000 plus vendors out there on the expo floor.

Teachers who attended the convention are being asked to prepare a presentation to share with their colleagues later in the fall. The district wants to make sure all teachers in the school benefit from the trip.

High school biology teacher Deborah Jones said that she was very much looking forward to incorporating some of what she learned at the conference into her everyday classroom style of teaching.

I am incredibly excited to incorporate Project Based Learning and a Genius Hour into my 9th grade Biology I course in order to provide students the opportunity to explore current science research and test their ideas to solve current technological problems, she said in an email. This years LHS Science Fair will surely showcase the original ideas of our great students.

Spanish teacher Scott Jimenez was more excited about the different platforms he was able to learn about at the conference. There were several apps aimed at both teachers and administrators that would improve their workplace and the student experience.

My class focuses on storytelling in Spanish, Jimenez said. With some of the technology from ISTE, my students will not only be able to digitize their stories but also publish them through different social media platforms that are secure and moderated by me. Im most excited about students turning their stories into self-designed video games that they and their peers can play through the BloxelsBuilder app.

Robinson said that everyone who went on the trip really enjoyed themselves and learned a lot. The field of education is changing every day as technology advances and people find more ways for it to be incorporated in the classroom. Robinson said it is quite the experience to learn about some of those advancements firsthand.

Being on the expo floor was probably my favorite part of the whole convention, Robinson said.

You got to go hear from companies like Scholastic and lean about all the exciting things they have going on. The booths, which is an understatement, the things were huge, were so neat. Apples booth was probably half the size of our middle school library. They brought all the bells and whistles for this.

Robinson said that most of all, he wants to see technology bettering the educational process for students. He wants them using it more often, becoming better at it and learning how to use it to improve their overall educational experience.

We want teachers to get past the idea that showing a PowerPoint to students is an example of technology in the classroom," Robinson said. "Its not. We want to get students using more technology, not just more teachers using it as an instructional tool.

"How can we get our kids using technology in their assignments and in their learning process? Thats what we hoped to have gained. All of our teachers walked away with a great understanding of how to implement technology in their lessons.

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Lafayette County teachers learn about technology in the classroom - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal