If there’s a place for conspicuous tech consumption in education, it’s ISTE. The annual event– named for the association that runs it, the International Society for Technology in Education — is the world’s second-largest edtech conference and trade show, behind Bett in London.
This year’s ISTE was in Philadelphia, drawing more than 20,000 participants. If you’re in or interested in K-12 edtech and didn’t get a chance to walk the ISTE exhibit hall, here are five easily digestible observations. In, of course, tweet form.
I’d hoped to write this as an essay, but time likely won’t permit. So here’s a Twitter thread you might call ‘5 Exhibit Hall Trends You May Have Missed at #ISTE19.’ From which #edtech vendors didn’t show up on the exhibit floor, to the delay of the STEMpocalypse. Illustrated. pic.twitter.com/DDbofMCPQj
— Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) June 30, 2019
1: Size, or showing up, no longer matters. McGraw-Hill, Blackboard and others did not exhibit. Renaissance and still more reduced their booth size. Companies seem to finally realize that with lots of teachers looking for free stuff, this is an awareness show, not a lead gen show. pic.twitter.com/1k7kGP1mMW
— Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) June 30, 2019
2: Crowds indicate nothing, unless it’s not free. Packed booths for free tools are easy. Want to know what’s really trending? Looked for packed booths for fully paid products. (@LEGO_Education was one.) Side note: there were also fewer nice, free promotional items this year. pic.twitter.com/MADwYjhtyT
— Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) June 30, 2019
3: The STEMpocalypse is delayed. #ISTE19 was another year of general emphasis on #STEM, with coding and robots everywhere. High-profile Pi-Top did not exhibit this year, but that was a blip. @MicrosoftEDU had a huge STEM focus, and @NASAEducation even tried VR. pic.twitter.com/SD2x1GDDHZ
— Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) June 30, 2019
4: Amazon attends by proxy and misdirection. @AmazonEdu again didn’t exhibit (2016 photo). But @ACT, @FrontlineEdu & @GetKahoot showed Alexa skills. As ISTE got underway, Amazon tried to gain educator attention by announcing its Amazon Future Engineer program was now in Seattle. pic.twitter.com/i8A6gk1hX8
— Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) June 30, 2019
5: The mascots abide. Cartoony, fuzzy mascots were the levity atop the madness. Thanks to @BrainPOP @CurriculumAssoc @PearsonPreK12 @PearDeck and more for the needed distraction. The only fuzzy part of the human in the photos? The top of my head. See you at @ISTE 2020 in Anaheim. pic.twitter.com/6a91JA0dOn
— Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) June 30, 2019
Yes, ISTE 2020 will be in Anaheim, specifically June 28 through July 1. Expect more tweets. And mascots.