Paget’s Three Big Observations from ISTE:

1. Industry Partnerships – New and existing edtech partnerships continue to flourish in the education industry. This applies to educators, publishers, start-ups, innovators, hardware companies, and software companies.  These partnerships are creating products and services that serve the needs of teachers and students in our continuously evolving education marketplace. And technology and software are working together – for example, Google with IWBs, with devices, with online learning content, all connected to LMS’s and assessment. Software is working on many hardware platforms to assist in instruction and be more flexible to the needs of schools, teachers, and students. The possibilities and benefits of the industry’s collaboration are endless, and they’ll help us all provide better learning environments for our students for the future.
   
   
2.  It takes a village – I spoke to many educators, from all parts of the education ecosystem. They told me that every single person now has a voice in the choices that are being made in schools and districts for educational technology solutions. While only a few hold the final responsibility for the purchasing decisions, all educators have a voice that is being heard. At the grassroots, teachers are telling their peers at the district level what works and what doesn’t, and what edtech solutions they prefer to use to educate their students. This grassroots influence has gained strength in tandem with the acceptance of edtech as an important and ubiquitous part of the mainstream fabric of education. Technology has become integrated into the everyday aspect of teaching, and is now just a normal component of the teaching day. This is very exciting to see.
   
   
3.  Mimio is so much more than a vendor – For us at Mimio, the resounding theme was that we are continuing to provide the most flexible, innovative, consistent, reliable, and easy-to-use classroom technology – technology that continues to be affordable. The educators I spoke to were very appreciative of the fairness of our pricing structures, as well as our commitment to them as partners, not simply customers.

 Dan's Top Three Observations:

1. Large HD flat-panel displays are becoming more affordable, which makes them a more realistic option for the classroom. These displays seemed to be the theme of the show. We released our own version with the MimioDisplay™ touch display, and people were really excited about the possibilities for collaboration and engagement these displays offer.

2. The yet-to-be-released Google Classroom received a lot of attention. Most presentations where it was shown or talked about were completely booked, with people standing around the edges trying to see what it was all about. Educators are so eager to learn about what’s next, and about how it will contribute to the ways they are teaching.
   
   
3. Our customers’ excitement and dedication to Mimio. We had a lot of new people come to the booth, but we also had a ton of existing customers, who just wanted to see what’s new, check out our presentations, or even just say hi. It’s great to have the chance to connect with new and old customers in that way; it’s one of my favorite things about attending ISTE.

Travis’s Key Takeaways:

1. People still love the ease of use, portability, and functionality of the MimioTeach™ interactive whiteboard. They still are amazed when you show them you can put the MimioTeach bar up on any flat surface, add a projector, and you have an IWB.
   
   
2. People were blown away by the MimioMobile™ app and what it makes possible for Collaboration, Assessment, and Control. The fact that they can leverage the mobile devices they already have and do all of this really excites educators, and gets them thinking about where their school’s investments should go.
   
   
3. There was much excitement around the MimioDisplay touch display. While they are a higher-priced option, they are becoming more affordable, and it seems to be a general trend that schools want to get away from projectors and bulb replacement and head towards interactive displays.
   
   
4. Teachers love it that they don’t have to start from scratch creating lessons – they can bring in the lesson resources they already use, even if they have other IWB products in their schools or are making the switch. 
   
   
5. They simply love Mimio!