ISTE Reflections

ISTE 12 Reflections

Reflecting on the ISTE 12 experience and comparing it to prior ISTE’s I have attended.

My experiences this year were in many ways similar to those at preceding conferences. There was little time to stop and reflect, eat, and see a lot of the sessions I had earmarked as interesting. It was easier to get around the convention centre than the centres in Philly and Denver and  It was really nice to have the Bloggers Café upstairs in the Sails Pavilian along with the various sig playgrounds. These were important venues for  meet ups and networking.  I attended a variety of sessions and presented on a variety of topics, and while the large venue, lecture style presentations are often very informative and occasionally entertaining, their impact on my learning was overshadowed by the networking opportunities, discussions, and sharing that went on in more informal sessions, meet ups and social activities. My PLN has once again exploded. I look at my travel envelope and there is a certain absence of business cards, both my own which ran out in just one session and those of others, QR Codes, twitter and the reinforcement and expansion of preexisting  professional relationships  were key elements this time around. A shift has certainly happened for me and it  has been building since ISTE 11 in Philly.

There were an estimated 20 000  attendees this year and  while that seems and is a huge number of people, it didn’t prevent me from constantly running into people I knew, many of them from previous conferences. It felt good to further solidify our relationships, share new ideas for project work and tighten those professional links even further.  My conference experience was not about the big name speakers and their sessions, it was about building my branch of our learning community, with professionals, both big name and not.

I was so fortunate in being able to present 3 poster sessions which were heavily attended and work at both the Google and digital AV Playgrounds with Sigms. While time consuming and taxing  at times (I spoke for 10 hours  total often 2-4 hours at a time.) These were some of the most important ISTE12 moments for me.

That said this reflection would be incomplete without reference to some of the other sessions I was at as an attendee..   So here it goes directly from my Evernote  notebook.

About Evernote: I decided that it was time to take that plunge and do more than tinker with it.  I forces myself to use Evernote alongside Diigo and Twitter to record important experiences and finds and I have to admit that it was for the most part a great decisions.  I am going to ensure that I not only use it  often and with purpose but promote its use with other professionals  and students that I work with.

Now back to what I found. Here is a listing of all the resources that I collected during the conference that I thought notable. Some of these have been around for a while, but are worth being reminded about.

Google Docs Tutorials for Teachers

https://sites.google.com/a/viedu.org/google/home

 This resource is designed to help educators and staff learn how to effectively use Google Docs.

Learn 360 Suscription Resources Online

Interactive media on demand service

Thinkfinity

Resources and lesson plans online for free

http://www.thinkfinity.org/

Kathy Schrock's Resources for Everything

http://www.schrockguide.net/literacy-in-the-digital-age.html

Tricider

Ask a question and invite friends or colleagues.
Collect ideas and vote for your favourite.

https://tricider.com/en/t/

Instagram 

Edit and add photos to twitter, fb etc...with just one click.

http://www.destinyquest.com/ 

Schoology 

Manage lessons, engage students, share content, and connect with other educators.

https://www.schoology.com/home.php

lms social

http://www.follettsoftware.com/destiny-quest

Piclits

create poems based on pics

http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx

SketchUp

Add physical behavior, rolling, gravity, hinges act…(mac put them into library manually)

http://code.google.com/p/sketchyphysics/

Google Presentations idea:

Add hyperlinks as tocs in Google presentations

Scripts

Form Emailer Script

Use for exit tickets, digital receipt for materials checked out, feedbck durng observation, walk throughs

(tools>script gallery)

Henrique's Site

10 step procedure

https://docs.google.com/a/abc-net.edu.sv/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHc0RzhQRWxjN0lscGpjODRXSGlHeUE6MQ

integrating Google Forms in to Google sites

Historical voyages and events

YouTube

Choose your own adventure video using YouTube annotations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtG6yw2IrlI

Create a Playlist Slam

How to do this.....

select playlist and playlist slam

Make a Coin go Around the World-flip a coin

inserting gadgets in spreadsheets

https://sites.google.com/a/flippededucation.com/flipacoin/

Google Cloud Connect for Windows users and Google Docs

Set to automatic to save to googl docs.

Gadgets Worth Looking Into

flashcards gadget 

gadges gadget for real time election results

display results

The Writer's Club 

online collaborative writing projects

http://thenorthschool.com/writersclub/

My Big Campus 

A Site full of resources linked to standards

http://www.mybigcampus.com/

links to presentation resource live binder

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/418977

Since ISTE I have come across a great many other resources that I don't want to forget about. They are all in my various Diigo Groups, however I plan to post several of them here too in the next  few days.