It was awesome to attend and present at the EdTecherTeacher Boston Summit this year. I was featured in this Marketscale article after being interviewed by Sarah Acre. Check out some of the quotes below. I presented on AR creation and consumption tools for the classroom - my presentation resources are posted on my homepage. It's really exciting to share accessible augmented reality tools with great colleagues, and EdTechTeacher summits always attract a great group of innovative educators.

Image source: Marketscale

Several speakers highlighted the growing share of AR and VR tools and apps that teachers have at their disposal for use in the classroom. Robert Kalman, Digital Design Teacher and Tech Integrator at Eric S. Smith Middle School in Ramsey, New Jersey, shared more about why he attended the conference to lead his session “Exploring Augmented Reality in EDU.”

“Over the last couple years, the advancements with the processors in phones and tablets have made AR and VR apps much more accessible. My presentation was kind of broken down into AR consumption and AR creation. The exciting thing is that students now cannot only consume AR and VR experiences, but they can make their own using a bunch of different tools, which is cool” he said.“ That can branch into a variety of projects that bring in different content areas.”

Regarding the role that technology is playing in education, Kalman emphasized that AR and VR are not slated to replace existing teaching methods. Rather, they enhance learning already happening in the classroom by providing context for instructional content and by increasing student engagement.

“EdtechTeacher really tries to focus on not just grasping for what’s the shiny new toy, but [being] more responsible and open-minded in terms of still doing what is pedagogically sound. So, AR and VR give the opportunity for students to experience different things, whether it’s digitally seeing it, or experimenting with it in a different sort of way,” Kalman said. “Definitely the powerful thing is the engagement. If students are engaged, they’ll be more motivated and interested and put forth higher effort and it will ultimately create valuable learning experiences.”

In Ramsey, some 85 miles north of Trenton, teachers were focused on balancing basics and state mandates with experiences for students designed to pique their curiosity and develop critical thinking skills.
At a computer technology class at Smith Middle School, students gathered around high tables where they were introduced to the tools they would use during the class. The eighth graders took turns building projects with snap circuits, creating designs for video games and plugging alligator clips into a lump of Play-Doh to turn it into a controller for an online piano.
The goal, teacher Robert Kalman said, was to get the students to use the tools in a goal-oriented way, to create and build and solve problems. He was there as a “facilitator” helping to guide students as they explored and learned on their own.
Principal Andrew Herre said the school strives to meet state academic mandates while also getting students involved in different subjects and projects. “You’re held accountable to the State of New Jersey, but also to students and parents, so you have to find balance,” he said.

Robert Kalman, an ed tech teacher from NJ, demonstrated a game and code-making product called Bloxels. He illustrated how children could create a digital world using tiny colored blocks, solve problems and tell a story.

'It’s definitely introducing them to coding concepts,' he said. 'It helps the see the connection between the physical and digital world. They learn to be creative. They learn the design process. They can experiment with innovative technologies. It allows them to tell a story in a different sort of medium than they’re used to.'
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– Richard Chang, THE Journal