ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education, is undoubtedly one of the biggest EdTech events of the year. The ISTE2016 Conference is going on now, and although I am not in attendance, I am learning so much from the EdTech community. If you log on to Twitter, you can follow the hashtags #ISTE2016 or even #NotAtISTE2016 to see what others are learning, watch for announcements, and even connect with colleagues who are there.
While sitting here in Menifee, I have been able to follow some major announcements from Google Education and ISTE.

Google Education has announced several new education tools.

Cast for Education allows students to project their screen to their teacher’s computer, which could be connected to the projector. Check out the Cast for Education video. Cast for Education is currently in Beta, but will be ready for Back to School 2016.

Google Forms now has built in capability to do quizzes. While many teachers have been using Google Forms Add-ons to create self-grading quizzes for some time now, Forms just added the capability to create quizzes from inside the App. Here is a fun quiz I just created.  

MUSD has long used tools such as PORTS to take students on virtual field trips. Google Expeditions is an App that will let you take your students underwater to see the Great Barrier Reef, to Machu Pichu, or even explore the work environment of a Product Engineer. As of June 2016, Expeditions is available for Android phones and tablets. An iOS app is expected to be available soon.

Finally, ISTE announced new standards for students. The ISTE Standards for Students have evolved from standards that addressed how students learn technology, to learning with technology, and now focus on transformative learning with technology. The 2016 Student Standards include:

1. Empowered Learner

2. Digital Citizen

3. Knowledge Constructor

4. Innovative Designer

5. Computational Thinker

6. Creative Communicator

7. Global Collaborator

Credit: 2016 ISTE Standards for Students, ©2016, ISTE® (International Society for Technology in Education), iste.org. All rights reserved.