Education leaders, teachers and publishers assembled in Austin in early February for TCEA 2017 to meet, coordinate and learn about new solutions and tactics to transform their classrooms and districts. The Hottopics to be discussed included: How to perfect teacher professional development to translate the digital shift to students? Should our district go with Chromebooks or iPads, or BYOD or a mix? What are successful strategies for implementing Making and do we transform libraries into maker spaces? What are the best tools and partners for computer science and coding implementation—from high school all the way down to middle school levels?

To take you there, and possibly share a few laughs, we’ve created this video to summarize.

Responses to the “what’s hot?” question were diverse, but a few items stood out and were repeated by leaders on the education side and the publisher side:

• Coding and Computer Science
• Making
• Single Sign On Solutions

A less tangible but always hot issue was student engagement. Dr. Greg Gibson, Superintendent from Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District shared his personal experience and thoughts about what technology is doing for students. “I wish these technology tools existed when I was growing up,” stated Dr. Gibson. “As a student I was bored and I was disengaged. But what these teachers and leaders here at TCEA are sharing, are ways and means to keep learning active and help kids be authentically engaged rather than ritualistically engaged. The people here understand the potential of students if you give them what they need.”

The Co-Founder of Nearpod, Mr. Emiliano Abramzon echoed Dr. Gibson’s views, “We’re seeing the confirmation of a trend that started a few years ago with 1:1 deployments and Wi-Fi implementation in the classroom—there is a lot more engagement and participation from students.”