The Diversity and Equity Movement at ISTE 2016

I’ve attended a few ISTE conferences over the years and this year I was excited to be part of the diversity movement I saw take place more so than any other year I’ve attended. I felt this year the ISTE keynotes represented different ideas, diverse experiences and backgrounds. I, especially enjoyed the keynote, Ruha Benjamin, who talked about equity and encouraged teachers to demand social change from their students. A few groups who spearheaded the diversity movement this year at ISTE included EdSpeakers, the ISTE Digital Equity PLN, EduColor, EduMatch, and PassTheScopeEDU. EdSpeakers is the group I founded with  Rusul Alrubail, Valerie Lewis, Jaison Oliver, Sarah Thomas, Philip Cummings, William Jeffery, and Michael Benavides to help spread diverse voices at education conferences, on podcasts, for trainings, and consulting.