As anyone who has ever asked “What’s your book about?” knows, a direct question doesn’t always elicit the most engaging answers.

So with a nod to the gamification movement, ISTE tapped celebrity ISTE authors who are experts in subjects like flipped learning, cybersafety, digital citizenship and personalized learning to turn the Q&A on its ear.

The result was Hollywood Squares, ISTE style, led by MC Kecia Ray, executive director at the Center for Digital Education and ISTE board chair. Sans the snark of a Paul Lynn but with plenty of laughter, author personalities were in the spotlight as the audience participated to block the other team from completing a tic-tac-toe win.

Experts either told the truth or made up answers to intriguing topics like:

• Is assigning a video as homework a requirement in a flipped classroom?
• Do we need to think of schools as corporations?
• Do all drones have to be registered with the FAA?
• Is it a good use of time to set aside dedicated reading sessions?

Audience participants needed to get their collaboration on to evaluate the answers and vote them up or down.

And the tie-breaking question that stumped even the panel: What is the total number of presenters at ISTE 2016? (It’s 2,440 for those playing along at home.)

Attending ISTE 2016? Stop by ISTE Central to check out all the books by ISTE authors.