On Saturday March 13th, the Innovation and Technology Team at AISG hosted their annual free educational technology conference for teachers in international schools in China. This is the 7th year that AISG has hosted this event, with attendees growing from 60 in its first year to 470 this year. Due to the pandemic, the event was hosted online this year where sessions were also recorded and available to view on demand.     

The focus point of the conference was to share and discuss ways that technology and design innovation have been used in classrooms to support education. Topics were broken down into five categories: Technology Integration and Media, Innovation and Change in Learning, Design Thinking and Making, Reflections on Teaching in a Global Pandemic, and Proven and Promising Pedagogies. Teachers shared specific projects, lessons, and activities that they conducted in their classrooms that showcased how they used technology and innovation as a teaching tool.    

This year, due to the conference being online, we had educators from all over the world attend and share their expertise. The conference also featured educators from institutions such as Apple Education Solutions, the United Nations International School, Victoria Shanghai Academy, Keystone Academy, International School of Nanshan, and Microsoft China.    

This year, 11 of our teachers across Elementary School and Secondary School signed up to be presenters, with sessions targeting educators of different ages. From Elementary School, preschool teacher Amy Silverman gave a presentation on documenting learning for preschoolers and kindergarteners. From Secondary School, computer science teacher John Lund discussed how learning animations helps students with their problem-solving skills and strengthens their communication.

Overall, it was a successful and educational event with lots of positive feedback from presenters and attendees. We can't wait for #EdTechGZ2022!