July 4, 2013

#iste13 - Sessions

This was my 3rd ISTE conference. San Diego in 2006, Atlanta in 2007.
San Diego was overwhelming but I loved the feeling. I didn't know anyone and was by myself most of the time. i attended as many sessions I could take the cold rooms.
I got a lot of great ideas for the time, but those have faded as I didn't revisit them

Atlanta was great because I had a close co-worker, Penny to go with.  
We touched base throughout the day. She even scored extra tickets to sold out sessions so I could join her.
I have a few more educational items from Atlanta than San Diego, but still not enough for me.

Meanwhile social media explodes. I join Twitter and Facebook, watch online streaming of webinars in Canada, UK, connect with Aussies, and conduct global collaborative activities.

Confession time:
I attended 2 sessions all of #iste13. Yes, 2.
I registered for 4 sessions, but just couldn't get to three of them.
What got in the way? The people.  Read it and let me know if you need clarification.

I went to the session Who needs 100 apps? 
The presenter, Melissa Herring, shared 10 apps with VPP and regular prices, how it could be used in classrooms, and how they were used in classrooms.
Great step toward content-focused tool use. I like how she had pictures of actual student work.
I will make sure I have more student examples.
The other aspect I liked was the backchannel for questions and comments. It was pretty robust, when I was connected. There was a mentioned mediator. Essential to keep some boundaries.
She also gave another list of apps that have similar features. These were mentioned in the backchannel so I know she did her homework beforehand.

Improvements I suggest

  • Share fewer apps, 
  • Give time to download and explore, 
  • Share what they found might work in their classrooms/schools
  • Make it a hand-on session.

I understand that all sessions can't be hands-on, but why not?
If we are gathering information, data, tools to use back at home, why not have time to use it with those who have curated it for me?

The other session I attended was the Conference Welcome and Opening Ignite presentations.
I've done several Ignite sessions thanks to Tony Vincent's push and most of these were better than mine.
The passion, time, and flow were spot on and made the whole time worth it.
Do I remember the content, I'm sorry I don't but I do remember the presenters and how they delivered their message.
Carrie Ross was great as was Wes Fryer and Dean Shareski.
These ignites helped me to focus my own Ignite ideas and what I can do to deliver a more powerful message.

In short, the sessions were helpful to show me how I would conduct Professional Development in my schools, gave me examples and non-examples as to what might work when sharing and showing teacher how to be more inclusive of ideas out their "Box". (Another post for later.)

Do you have a session that still sticks out in your mind? What was your takeaway?

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