What I Learned on Day 3 (Tuesday) at ISTE 2026 #ISTELive #notatISTE

I got up early so I could get downstairs to the Greek yogurt. It’s awesome. Don’t judge me — a conference runs on small joys and that yogurt is one of them.

And then I saw him. A man in a shirt for a printer named Eddie. Eddie prints edible ink. I wanted to chase him down right there, but I behaved myself (I sent my son after him later in the expo hall — more on that). I did, however, text my sister about a whole new way to eat my words. You could eat your words. You could put your foot in your mouth. The possibilities are endless. Oh yes, I love it. But I digress!

Then I headed to the lazy river for a few quiet minutes — alongside my new antagonist, Napoleon the short squirrel, who is unafraid of humans. I named him. I think he likes it. He wouldn’t tell me. He’s too busy plotting how to take over the little island in the middle of the lazy river. He doesn’t know it’s actually called Elba. Probably not the best place for a Napoleon to set up camp, but I’m not going to be the one to tell him. OK. I digress yet again. This is supposed to be about ISTE, not about an ancient emperor who took over the world.

Yet, we’re talking about a new trend taking over the world. AI. Is it a tyrant? Is it the greatest assistant ever invented? Does anyone even know? No. But we do know that kids are struggling to learn because this “helper” ain’t helping. At least not in the form it is in now.

So I headed over to learn, to grow, and to interview some pretty remarkable people. You never know where you’ll find the amazing stories. They are everywhere. Even inside the conference center after you just made the hot walk from the Hilton.

A professor from Nebraska and the power of shorts

One of those stories found me before the day even really started. I met a remarkable professor from Nebraska — Evi Wusk, EdD at Nebraska Wesleyan. Evi is using short-form video to engage her students in learning. (I always go up to people with presenter badges and ask what they’re presenting about. It is like a personal interview. We got to talking and I knew right away. I’m booking her for the show.)

That’s ISTE for you. The best connections are not on the schedule!

A deep dive into Renaissance Intelligence with Todd Brekhus

Then I headed to the media center for a real deep dive into Renaissance Intelligence with Todd Brekhus, Chief Product Officer at Renaissance and General Manager of Nearpod. We both got started in the 1990’s helping people learn how to use the Internet. Ok, this is cool, he actually worked at MCI along with Vint Cerf. That Vint Cerf. The one who helped invent the Internet. I’ve always wondered, shouldn’t it have been that we Cerf the Internet? OK, again, you can hear me. I digress.

Disclosure: I’m doing some work for Renaissance at ISTE this year. I’ve used Nearpod for years and always do my class presentations with it. I like to do formative assessment every eight minutes. That’s my goal anyway.

As I’m writing this, Renaissance Intelligence has just gone live. Everything – all of their tools -are pulled into one place. It is really exciting. I had a person demo it at the booth and it is really remarkable. I do recommend if you use any of their products to take a look at the demo on their site. It also integrates all of the testing data with how teachers can assign content.

They are focusing with the AI on the teacher side first. Keep the teacher in the middle. That is great.

Brandie Wright and the keynote on curiosity

I got to sit down with Brandie Wright, who gave the ISTE main-stage keynote on curiosity. She teaches at YELLOWHAB, the tuition-free micro-school Pharrell Williams founded in Norfolk. She talked at the mainstage on Sunday. She told the story of a student who was sitting right there with his dad on the front row.

Oddly enough, I hate to admit. I wondered if the story wasn’t real but was about a generic kid and AI generated. When, before the interview, I asked her, she admitted that quite a few people have been asking if the student was real.

Are you kidding? What is wrong with us? Are we so frustrated with AI that we now all think a perfectly believable teacher needs to make up a story about some generic kid to tell us? Are we that cynical? Am I that cynical?

So, I know I’ve “fallen for” those fake AI stories that are all over facebook. Well, I don’t like it this way either. To mistake a real human for AI is so insulting to the human. (The side of AI detection nobody talks about enough, me thinks.)

Tony Frontier: stop being the AI police

And that is what Tony Frontier talked about. There are kids who never touched AI and got a false positive. Then, they started using AI so that they could see if a false positive would happen and are REWRITING their papers to make it not be flagged as AI? Do we see what we’re doing??? Seriously. The games we’re playing.

So I sat down for a delightful conversation Tony Frontier, PhD, author of the best selling book, AI with Intention (and the earlier Five Levers to Improve Learning). He has been running focus groups with students all over the country. He says that they’re using AI for between a quarter and 40% of their school work. Most of them are receiving no guidance from adults. They’re figuring it out. But they are alone.

Hear that. Alone. Like do we want that?

Tony talks about integrity, transparency, and explainability. We have to have integrity. We need to be transparent about AI use. And can we explain the learning behind anything and everything we create and share and turn in?

He says this “AI police” thing is not good. He says the arms race to detect AI cheating is one we can’t win. Instead, the real question isn’t did you use AI, it’s does this work represent what you actually know.

I would rather have learning detectors than AI detectors any day. I’ve got a lot to learn from Tony — and John Hattie said his book is the best one out there on productively using AI for learning. Wow. That’s some education cred right there for me. He’s my next read.

The BBC Learning Hub — free and awesome

The BBC Learning Hub has a pile of free resources that are genuinely wonderful — Bluey, Walking with Dinosaurs, amazing digital field trips. So many cool things, and free for teachers. This is a fantastic free resource and their booth has been super busy. I’ll be sharing more about them as well. I love their resources!

Disclosure: the BBC is one of the sponsors of my work at ISTE this year. As always, I tell you when there’s a relationship — and I only point you to things I actually love.

Where I Was On Wednesday

I had two sessions today. I was going to post this Wednesday morning. It didn’t happen but for posterity, here they are. I’ll write more about it on my Wednesday recap.

• 🎬 Empowering Digital Storytelling from Pitch to Publish (with AI) — 10:00–11:00 a.m., Room W206BC (also streamed). My son John is co-presenting this one with me. We’ll take you from idea to finished story using AI at every step — pitch, produce, publish — plus the gear, the gadgets, and the projects I use to teach it.
• 🧰 50+ AI/Edtech Tools and Teaching Tips to Transform Your Classroom — 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Room W312AB. A practical rundown organized by the teaching job each tool helps you do — assessment, creativity, coding, productivity — with the pedagogy to match. This one isn’t streamed, so you have to be in the room for the goodies. Resources: bit.ly/50AI-EdtechCCT.

How the day ended

It was a full day, and we ended it with sushi. Oh yes. Sushi.

My son John — aka Cameraman, aka Producer, aka the guy I send into the expo hall to track down Eddie the edible-ink printer — reports back that yes, it prints on Rice Krispies. Anything flat, apparently. Which got me wondering about Mochi. (I’d never had it before this trip. I think I’d print “yum” right on the outside.)

I’ll never forget that John’s whole life changed in tenth grade when a teacher assigned him to record a podcast. And that teacher’s life changed too — because now he’s my editor. We sure do have fun together. Wednesday he co-presented the digital storytelling session with me. He knows more about it now than I do.

I have to wonder what would have happened if John had not had a teacher willing to let him tell stories digitally. Would he be working for me now? Would I be talking about digital storytelling today?

Well, it thundered and rained like crazy as Tuesday came to a close. I figure Napoleon got to plot his takeover of Elba island in the middle of the Lazy River somewhere in his snug nest. I hope that today, as I write this on Wednesday, that I’ll get to interact with this little feller one more time. If you wonder – yes, in the South we name animals all the time. Especially ones with odd little quirks. In my family, they have always been historical names. The last Napolean I knew was Napoleon Bone a Bark and his nemesis was a little puppy named Lady Astor. They didn’t like each other but somehow made us laugh. Sometimes history repeats itself. I wonder if Napoleon the squirrel has secretly named me Lady Astor. I hope not. The original Lady Astor didn’t seem so nice.

It has been an amazing conference. The tools are cool. The people are remarkable. And the squirrel is short.

I was about to post this post on Wednesday morning before everything began but someone came up to me. He is awesome. I am posting after I’m back in my room but I do think posting matters. Conversations matter. Thoughts matter. You matter. (Hat tip to my friend Angela.) OK, I’m not so sure about squirrels. But I digress. Time for a nap.

See you later, educator.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, and Renaissance and the BBC are among the sponsors of my ISTE coverage this year. If you buy through an affiliate link, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — it helps support this blog. I always tell you when there’s a relationship, and I only recommend what I actually use and love.