Hello from ISTE 22: Issue #14 of web3🤝education

Aloha frenz to another week of learning in web3🤝education. I greet you this week from the beautiful city of New Orleans where I am attending the annual ISTE conference, my first ISTE experience! As a board member of the Hawaiʻi chapter of the ISTE organization I am excited to dig in and learn about how "educators around the world use technology to solve tough problems."

If you are not familiar with ISTE, it is a massive education technology conference. According to the ISTE 2019 conference website, 16,000 people attend each year. It's a wide range of people in the education field–classroom teachers, administrators, industry leaders, consultants, policymakers, educational technologists, etc...

Here are some stats for you as it relates to web3. If I enter "web3" in the program search box two sessions appear: "Where Does Education Fit in an Emerging Metaverse?" and "Future Forward, emergent technologies impact in education." If I enter "NFT" four sessions appear. Two of these are the ones I mentioned before, but also "Crypto Art to Support Needy Communities" and "3 Ways That NFTs Will Define the Future of Tech."

Finally searching "metaverse" triggers five sessions, three of which are new–"Ready Player One? Augmenting Digital Game-Based Learning", "What’s Happening to Chinese Edtech? The Online Teaching Ban, Metaverse Hype and More", and "Building the Eduverse: A Metaverse for Education."

If we tally this up, on the search page it says that there are 1,010 total searchable items. With seven sessions that mention web3, NFTs, and or the metaverse this would equate to about .7% of all the programming.

For a quick comparison "augmented reality" has 15 search results. And "virtual reality has 18 search results. Apologies but I didn't have the time to aggregate all of that data to see which sessions are appearing multiple times.

So my question for you as you read through this newsletter is to ask is .7% of all the sessions a good sign? Is it a sign of progress? Is it not enough? I leave that up to decide. In this newsletter, I have some resources to share to complement the sessions happening at ISTE related to web3, NFTs, and the metaverse that might help guide your answer to those questions.

This week you can check out an EdSurge article about what web3 means for education, listen to a podcast with Vriti Saraf about the metaverse in education, or read this New York Times article about AI and music.

There are more detailed descriptions of these resources below. If you’re not subscribed yet, go to my profile and enter your email address to get this newsletter delivered right to your inbox.

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What Could Web3 Mean for Education? — www.edsurge.com

I appreciate the care and consistency EdSurge has put into covering web3 and education. There are a number of articles published about this topic on their website, but this is a good starting point. At ISTE I was able to attend a live podcast recording of an episode with editor Jeffrey Young interviewing two educators in web3–Greg Heiberger and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek.

Two things stood out to me in the discussion. First, edtech companies need to be partnering with research and science to be incorporating best practice into their technology development. And secondly, while cost and accessibility remain an issue with immersive technology, we can focus on the 6 Cs for learning as described in the Brookings Institute article to lay a foundation for when these technologies become readily available.

Breaking Educators into the Metaverse — www.evolvethe.world

It is very exciting to see a strong presence by my Ed3 Educators family here at ISTE. Two of the co-founders Vriti Saraf and Michael Cohen aka The Tech Rabbi are both leading a number of presentations, lightning talks, and panel discussions throughout the week. NFTs and the future of tech, emergent technologies, the metaverse for education, and what is web3 are some of the topics that they are sharing.

In attending a couple of these presentations thus far my impression is that educators are curious and inquisitive about these topics. There is an eagerness to learn more about what this all means and how it can be incorporated into their teaching practice. The discussions I have had with other educators at these sessions have been fulfilling. I am really happy to be here in person connecting with other educators that are so passionate about this topic.

Here is a podcast that will help you understand more about Virti's background and her vision for the Ed3 Educators NFT project and Ed3 DAO.

From Jingles to Pop Hits, A.I. Is Music to Some Ears — www.nytimes.com

My favorite keynote thus far was by artist and storyteller Taryn Southern. I was very intrigued by her story form American Idol participant to YouTube star, to AI musician. Her insights about technology, storytelling, and creativity were refreshing to hear.

In her talk she mentioned this New York Times article about AI music that inspired her own project. As a musician myself I found this topic very fascinating. It also made me imagine how these worlds of AI, web3, AR/VR/XR, the metaverse are all collapsing into one thing that we will just call "the internet."

I envision that we look back at the text based internet of the late 80s and early 90s as being archaic and absolute. This emerging internet will combine experiences, narrative, and interoperability to create something that is beyond what our limited imagination can currently perceive. And I am for it!!

Thank you for stopping by for another issue of my web3🤝education newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here or if you’re on LinkedIn go check out a version of this newsletter on my LinkedIn and give me a follow.

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