The ISTELive conference is an opportunity to bring together educational technology enthusiasts from all walks of life with solution providers looking to make advancements that make the learning process easier for parents, teachers and students alike. It’s a celebration of how far we’ve come with educational technology, with a focused focus on where the future will take us.
However, the night before ISTELive takes off, a group of dedicated educators hosts an old-school board game meetup during which people can connect in a way that predates even the oldest technology.
Bonding through board games
Since ISTELive’s technology focus is the primary reason educators meet, hosting a board game night right beforehand may seem counterintuitive. After all, what do board games have to do with technology?
Eric Curts, technology integration specialist for the Stark Portage Area Computing Consortium, explains how game night became a beloved pre-conference staple.
“This is the second year we’ve done this at ISTE, but we’ve done similar things at other conferences,” Curts says. “Just a bunch of people who said, ‘Hey, this will be fun to do at night. We’re a bunch of nerds and we like board games. Let’s do a board game meetup. ’ And from there we said we should do this at ISTE.”
Last year's inaugural event at ISTE was so well received that there was no question about repeating it.
“The whole point of this is that we just want to have opportunities that fit each person in their situation,” Curts says. “They don’t want to be in a room with loud music and have to shout to talk to someone.”
The difference between a conference room and a board game table can make all the difference when you're trying to get to know someone.
“Some people say, ‘Hey, I’d rather go somewhere tonight where I can meet new people, talk, laugh, have fun, play some games and connect,’” Curts says. “And I love that about board games. It’s an opportunity that can bring people together and connect. They learn from each other and that’s what we’re trying to do. Connect amazing educators with other amazing educators in a place that fosters fun and creative communication.”
<h2 id="pre-iste-pre-technology“>Pre-ISTE = Pre-technology?
Hosting a board game night before an edtech presentation can be disconcerting, given that they are two opposite ends of the spectrum. However, the focus on screen-free gaming is not meant to downplay the emergence of the technology highlighted by ISTELive. Rather, it helps bring together a crowd of traveling educators for an evening of laughing, talking, and connecting over one of the oldest forms of entertainment.
“We’ve had people from South Africa, Canada, and Australia,” says Matt Winters, a Utah State Board of Education specialist and founding participant. “We’ve had board game designers, and we’ve had K-12 and higher education educators. It’s amazing to see people playing a giant version of Jenga and enjoying the craziness of it. I love feeling at home, playing a board game with my friends. But these are friends from all over the world, and I’m just getting to know them now. Hopefully, I’ll have a connection that lasts for years.”
A special kind of connection
Board games, like the people who play them, are diverse by nature, as there is one for almost anyone who wants to play. This diversity was the focus of the pre-ISTE board game gathering, as participants were encouraged to bring a game of their choice to the event. The games that would be present were listed prior to the event date so that attendees would not bring the same game. As Community Region Charter School in Maine’s Director of Design and Innovation Dan Ryder recalls, it was a much smaller game night that gave birth to the idea for this pre-ISTE ritual.
“How did it all start? Playing in Utah and then taking an Uber,” Ryder says. “Both Eric Curts and I were in Utah as featured speakers for an event, thanks to Matt Winters. We both went to a game night, and during the Uber ride from the conference to the airport that Eric and I shared, we said we should do it at ISTE. We laughed, but there was no reason we couldn’t do it. So at ISTE 2023, we were able to find a hotel that had an event hall, we were able to get a handful of sponsors, and we got a small room that could seat maybe 150 people or so. We filled it up.”
With an eye toward inclusivity, Ryder says the event engaged those who were less inclined to the hustle and bustle associated with average social gatherings.
“This is usually an introvert’s paradise and we wanted to have something that was the opposite, as an alternative,” she says. “We had a gentleman come in and said he looked at the table and said those weren’t his games. I told him someone would come in later with more games. He stayed, found a couple games, had a couple conversations. He originally wanted to leave at 6:10 and ended up leaving at 10:30. It just goes to show the power of games, connections, and good people. It’s hard to go wrong there.”
Related:
