Recently, I was lucky enough to participate in my first ISTE in Pennsylvania as both a participant and presenter. I’ve been looking forward to this experience for months and tried to prepare myself by networking with my PLN on Twitter and Voxer and reading as many blogs on ISTE as possible. The experience was amazing! My long days were filled with learning, networking and collaboration.
What was most memorable about ISTE?
The most memorable parts of attending ISTE were getting to meet as many of the people in my PLN on Twitter and Voxer that I know in a virtual context but have never met in person. It was wonderful to connect face to face with many of the people I follow or network, especially my partner Beverely Ladd whom I presented with at ISTE. Beverely and I have worked collaboratively with each other for two years through Twitter, Voxer and Skype but ISTE was the first time we’ve met in person.
Although I had an initial plan of what sessions to attend, I ended up making many changes to my schedule. I anticipated this based on my personality and the advice I received from PLN. One of the biggest challenges of attending a conference like ISTE is that there are so many wonderful sessions that you want to attend so it is difficult to choose. I really enjoyed the poster sessions since I was able to view many different presentations and ideas during a relatively short period of time.
In addition to the poster sessions, I had a chance to view the ISTE 1 in 3 sessions where I had the opportunity to hear 18 presenters on a variety of topic speak each for 3 minutes on their best technology integration moment. The other sessions I gravitated towards were those with student presenters. There is nothing quite as powerful than student voice when it comes to learning and I was able to hear from students in other countries including a group of students in Mexico who used Book Creator to write a book as a school.
Exhibitor Hall
In addition to the wonderful sessions, the Exhibitor hall was another area I made sure to spend time in. It was overwhelming with over 550 exhibitors and it was full of great freebies and information on new products as well as companies whose products I already use. One of the highlights for me was having a chance to check out the Google Expedition experience which may highlight where technology is headed in the classroom.
Life after ISTE: looking ahead
I am still trying to sort through all the information I obtained at the conference and the conversations continue with my PLN. I was absolutely exhausted for the few days that followed ISTE but it really inspired me to continue to make changes for next school year such as using more STEM in my science program and perhaps creating a Tech Club. I will continue to work on collaborative projects globally with my classroom in the coming year and work with members of my PLN.
I hope to attend ISTE next year and continue the learning as well as meet even more of my PLN. I am also inspired to continue to make changes in my practice around technology and learning, creating innovate environments based on student need and interest.