Transforming Education at ISTE Live + ASCD Annual 2026 in Orlando
A Look Back at ISTE Live + ASCD Annual 2026 in Orlando
Every summer, thousands of educators, curriculum directors, and technology leaders gather for ISTE Live + ASCD Annual, one of the largest education conferences in the country. This year's event ran June 28 through July 1 in Orlando, and Activate Learning was there at Booth #2461 with product demos, K-12 science curriculum previews, and an exciting announcement: the Activate Learning Digital Platform had just earned the ISTE Seal. If you couldn't make it to Florida for the annual conference, here's a look at what happened.
New Recognition: The ISTE Seal
Just before the conference started, the Activate Learning Digital Platform received the ISTE Seal from the International Society for Transforming Education (ISTE). The seal requires an extensive review in which trained evaluators score a product against the ISTE Standards for Students across five areas: user interface and agency, learning design, digital pedagogy, inclusivity, and assessment and data. A product has to meet the bar in every category, not just one or two.
The review found that the platform supports all six ISTE Standards for Students and highlighted a few specifics: reflection prompts that help students revisit and revise their thinking, structured tools that guide problem-solving from data collection through testing, and accessibility features such as text-to-speech and translation in more than 140 languages.
At the Trailblazer Base Camp: Virtual Investigations® and Coding in OpenSciEd
On Tuesday, June 30, Activate Learning hosted a session at the Discovery Station in Trailblazer Base Camp featuring Activate Learning Virtual Investigations® and Coding in OpenSciEd. David Robertshaw, Joy Reynolds, and Lisa Sheean introduced the new Activate Learning Virtual Investigations®, a set of interactive digital labs built for OpenSciEd Middle School and High School Science that align directly with OpenSciEd content and run inside the Activate Learning Digital Platform, the same platform now carrying the ISTE Seal.
The team’s presentation also introduced a new computer science curriculum in development that integrates programming, computational thinking, and engineering design into phenomenon-based science investigations rather than teaching them as separate subjects. Attendees stopped by the station throughout the session to see the tools in action and ask questions.
Highlights from Booth #2461
At Booth #2461, visitors could explore the full Activate Learning lineup of NGSS-aligned K-12 curriculum programs and digital products. Two tools from the Digital Platform were the main focus: Activate Learning Virtual Investigations® and Insight™. The team shared how teachers use Virtual Investigations® when hands-on materials are not available, to help an absent student catch up on a missed lab, as a review or reinforcement tool before an assessment, or as an at-home extension of an in-class lab.
Insight™ rounds out the digital platform with hundreds of pre-made middle and high school science assessments, aligned to NGSS Performance Expectations and Disciplinary Core Ideas. The assessments include automatic scoring for multiple choice questions and AI-assisted scoring and feedback for constructed response items, which saves teachers time on grading. New Insight™ Guided Practice activities also give students structured opportunities to build understanding of key concepts through direct interaction with the content.
The booth also featured the rest of the OpenSciEd K-12 suite, including certified science kits, printed books, and full-implementation professional learning. Plus, two high school programs: Active Integrated Physics and Chemistry, an NGSS-aligned, project-based physics and chemistry program, and the newly updated EarthComm 4th Edition, which centers sustainability and Earth systems in its approach to Earth science
Thank You, Orlando!
We came home from Orlando full of energy, thanks to the educators we spent the week with. That drive to help students succeed and to keep improving science education never stops inspiring to us. If you swung by Booth #2461, sat in on our Discovery Station session, or simply introduced yourself along the way, thank you. Moments like those are exactly why we do this work. And if our paths didn't cross in Orlando but you'd like to learn more about what Activate Learning can bring to your school or district, we'd welcome the conversation. Reach out to our team, we're happy to help!
