Today marks eight weeks until I’ll be at ISTE!
For those who haven’t heard, ISTE is the International Society of Technology in Education‘s Annual Conference. The conference is one of the world’s biggest for educational technology and this year it will be held in San Diego. There will be over 700 sessions held over four days, and a plethora of networking and sharing amongst thousands of educators.
It was Linda Yollis’ idea for us to present together at ISTE. We applied last year and when our application was successful we began making plans for our trip to San Diego.
My students have been working with Linda Yollis and her class since early 2009. They were our first real blogging buddies and we have worked on many collaborative projects together. We feel like we know each other well but have never met in person!
Our session is called Educational Blogging: Flattening Classroom Walls! We look forward to sharing how we use blogging to drive global collaboration in our classrooms.
We hope if you’re attending ISTE, you’ll add our sessions to your conference planner.
There are many members of my PLN who I look forward to meeting at ISTE and some fantastic sessions that I am excited to attend.
Thanks to Tracy Watanabe who also shared the details for ISTE Unplugged; the “fringe festival” of the ISTE conference.
I am really excited to be attending ISTE12 and it will be my 2nd year! I met so many fabulous people I consider friends. I do have some tips from my experience last year. Here is the link to my reflections about what I will do the same and differently! http://allkidscanflourish.blogspot.com/2011/06/11-mistakes-i-made-at-iste11.html
Thanks for the post, and I hope to meet you and Linda there!
Hi Joan,
Wow, that is an amazing post – so honest and reflective. I know your points are really going to help me. It sounds like ISTE can be quite overwhelming but is very worthwhile (it must be if you’re going back a second time). Being Australian, this might be my only chance to go so I really hope to get the most out of it. At the same time I don’t want to miss out on exploring San Diego too.
I’m excited to meet you there!
Kathleen
I am so excited! This will be my first ISTE. I am looking forward to meeting so many new friends and hang out with some old friends.
Fantastic! Not too long to wait now 🙂
I am absolutely looking forward to it and have your combined presentation on my calendar. I got a chance to meet Linda in person at the Computer Using Educators Conference this past March and throughly enjoyed our visit and her presentation. You will surely love San Diego. Be prepared for non-stop adventures. Looking forward to meeting you. 🙂
Hi John,
Thanks for commenting. It’s great to hear you’ll be at ISTE too and attending our session. I’m sure it will be a hectic few days but very rewarding!
Look forward to meeting you there,
Kathleen
Hi Kath,
Wow, eight weeks to go, how exciting! Having presented with you many times over the past few years, I know you and Linda will thoroughly enjoy the experience!
I wish I could be there at ISTE, but I’ll just have to rely on you to share everything you learn with me!
I have no doubt that everyone who attends your session will gain so much and be inspired to start their own “collaborating journey”.
Cheers,
Kelly
Thanks, Kel! Maybe after you hear about ISTE12, you will want to head over next year! I’m sure there will be many updates and lots of new ideas for 4KM and 4KJ!
Kath
Alohs Kathleen,
This will be my third ISTE & I am so looking forward to attending your presentation with Linda. For me, meeting new people and members of my PLN so enrich the experience. It becomes so much more than just a conference. The conversations and ideas exchanged among friends both old and new continue to resonate long after I’ve returned home.
JoAnn
Hi JoAnn,
I was wondering if you were coming this year and I’m excited to hear that you’ll be there!
I look forward to meeting and sharing new experiences with you.
Kathleen
Hi Kathleen,
This will be my second year attending ISTE’s Conference. I wrote a post about my favorite takeaways from last year, with SocialEdCon, the ISTE Unplugged event (called EduBloggerCon last year), as one of my favorites.
As far as tips go, here they are:
1) There are some sessions that I didn’t want to miss out on. They get filled up quickly, so it’s important to correctly reserve your spot ahead of time (which I did incorrectly last year).
2) I didn’t realize that the after events are a great way to continue conversations from the day, so this year I made sure to sign up early instead of scrambling at the last minute to figure out how to attend.
3) I made sure I took time to relax and reflect. When I was feeling like I was getting close to info overload, I’d wander to the Bloggers’ Cafe to continue the conversations with other passionate educators, and would write down the ideas popping in my head. Even though that meant missing a session here or there, I still got more out of it because I was able to make sense of what I heard, and was able to make action steps to incorporate it into what I did and share with others. — To me, that maximized the learning that came from the conference.
4) I also took to heart Scott McLeod’s tips for ISTE11, and those will apply to ISTE12, with the exception of the Philly cheesesteak! 😉
I am so looking forward to meeting you in person! I can’t believe it’s only 8 weeks away!
Warm regards,
Tracy
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for your excellent tips. I know I’m going to have a lot of questions for you while we’re there! 😆
Scott McLeod’s tips were great too. I have been to many conferences where I sit through boring sessions to be polite but he’s right, you have to make the most of your own experience!
I’m not even there yet but I have a feeling I will be overwhelmed so time out will be so important. I also hope Nate and I can take the time to explore the city a bit.
Shame there won’t be Philly cheesesteaks to try but I’m sure there will be other delicious SD cuisines!
Less than 7 weeks now!
Thanks for commenting,
Kath
Hi Kathleen,
I am really looking forward to attending ISTE 12 and meeting you in person! It is going to be such a thrill to be face to face with people I have met through blogging and have influenced how my teaching has changed in the past two years.
I am also nervous about ISTE 12 and figuring out what sessions to go to, what I can’t miss, etc. this is my first ISTE convention and I have no idea what to expect. I am going to read through the tips that others have shared with you. I am sure they will help me as well.
See you in a few weeks!
Julie
Hi Julie,
I’m so glad you will be a newbie at ISTE just like me! I’m sure we’ll have lots of questions for our more experienced friends.
I can’t wait to meet you in just over 6 weeks!
Kathleen