ISTE

One of our Makerspace sessions this month is a poster session at ISTE in Denver.  I attended ISTE for the first time last summer with an eLearning team from my school district.  Of all the professional development opportunities I have experienced in my twenty year career, ISTE has had the biggest impact.  Twenty thousand people convened in Philadelphia in June of 2015 to learn more about technology in education, and I was fortunate to be one of them.  

The ISTE format is the ultimate "Design Your Own PD" experience.  You can mix and match from a variety of formats to best meet your learning needs: lectures, panels, research papers, snapshots, forums, interactive lectures, poster sessions, learning academies, playgrounds, and workshops.  And, you choose the content that is most applicable to you.  

I had the best time at the playgrounds (STEM, Maker, Digital Storytelling, Creativity, Mobile Learning, Games and Virtual Environments, Ed Tech Coaches, and InnovativeEducation), where you could listen to short "how to" presentations, then try the tech out yourself.  I gleaned lots of information from visiting with presenters at the posters sessions, where you can sweep through the room and gather perspectives from across the country on a featured topic.  

One of my most memorable sessions was a littleBits interactive workshop, where I worked with a team of seven to complete a challenge.  We grouped ourselves together randomly, and my small group represented educators from three countries and four states.  It was exciting to be part of a team gathered for just thirty minutes, that represented seven different grade levels/subject areas, and had such global diversity.  We talked about what education looked like in our part of the world, and how we could integrate littleBits into our specific learning environments.

I am excited/scared/nervous/anxious about presenting next week.  I love that we will be part of the Makerspace Poster Session environment.  I will learn so much from the other presenters in the session who share my passion for maker environments.  I will learn so much from those walking through to visit with us about how the Makerspace concept works in our setting.  And, that will just comprise two hours of a four day conference.  So much learning!