International Society of Technology in Education... ISTE!

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My first official duty as the school's technology coach was to attend the world's ultimate education technology conference IN THE WORLD.
 Yup, I got to go to ISTE!

Can you tell I was excited?  Because I was!


For those of you who do not know what ISTE is, it's the International Society of Technology in Education.  They have an annual conference at which people from all over the world come together to problem solve, share ideas, and network.  This year there were over 70 countries represented!  I met people from as far away as Australia and Japan.  It was pretty cool.  Everyone was friendly and kind.  They all wanted to give me their ideas and hear mine.  It was incredible; it was fascinating; it was overwhelming.

The types of sessions available 
Before the conference, I went onto the ISTE homepage and "favored" as many sessions as I could.  There were over 2,000 sessions available over the course of the 4 days I was there.  I probably favored 1,000 of them!  I talked to my CTO (Cheif Technology Officer) before to get some ideas on what to do to slim down my choices.  He suggested that I focus my learning to just one thing.  We both agreed that the coaching aspect should be my focus.  Even with that, there were more sessions than I could humanly go to.  Next, I focused on the different types of sessions (see the graphic to the right).  I wanted a good blend of all the formats.  Each one of these had subcategories under each.  I read a lot of blogs, twitter posts, and even attended a couple webinars on how to approach my session planning, so I was able to get a basic understanding of what to look for.   Let me just give a quick summary for each of the four formats listed:

  • Listen and Learn:  These were lectures.  I sprinkled a few throughout my day to make sure I was actually sitting still.  They included the main stage, research paper presentations, panel discussions, and "snapshots."
  • Engage & Connect:  These were fun social activities.  They included meetings, hosted activities, social events, and tours/trips around Philly.
  • Explore & Create:  A lot of these were what they called "BYOD" sessions (bring your own device).  Many of this required pre-registration for.  They were smaller sessions and allowed more interaction.  The explore and create sessions also included "playground" sessions.  These reminded me of speed dating.  A bunch of small, hightop tables were placed in an area the size of a large classroom.  People were able to mill about and chat with presenters, teachers, coaches, etc.  There was a NASA playground I went to that was very cool.  I was able to meet an astronaut and check out their 3D printers!
  • Participate & Share:  These were probably my favorite.  They included interactive lectures where the crowd was expected to share, forums, and hosted activities.  But, my favorite type of session was the poster sessions.  What a cool thing!  Educators, coaches, students, school leaders.... I know I'm missing some... came to present at these.  Here's the basic run-down of how they worked.  There were 50 tables set up on the fourth floor.  Each table had its own wifi and bulletin board (average classroom size- 8'x5').  Every 2 hours, a different set of people would set up at their table and be available to engage, share, and interact with participants.  The people would have QR codes so you could just scan and have all their activities instantly.  I learned more from these than anything else at ISTE.  It was awesome!



Overwhelmed yet?  Yeah, I haven't even begun!

I arrived in Philadelphia on Sunday morning at 8am.  I had signed up for a coffee session hosted by Class Dojo (there were tons of before and after sessions, meetups, and parties to sign up for).  There, I met up with my friend from grade school, Kristen (@MrsMagyar) who happens to be a technology coach as well!  We grew up together doing Girl Scouts.  Her mom was my leader through Brownies and Junior Scouts!  She was at ISTE with a large group of her colleagues, who immediately took me under their wings and allowed me to tag along.

We had some coffee, caught up, met some great people, got some free swag, and then headed to the conference.  Kristen and her people had already registered for the conference so they went off to a session while I headed to the grand hall for registration.  

Let me just say, the Pennsylvania Convention Center is gigantic.  Like, for real.  HUGE.  It literally took me 3 days to figure my way around.  ISTE had it pretty well staffed though and there were people on every turn with signs that said, "Ask Me!" so I wasn't worried.  Sunday wasn't too busy, but wowzers... there were a LOT of people.  I heard at the main stage session that over 70 countries were represented.

My plan for Sunday was to get my feet wet.  I wanted to explore and just feel out the conference was going to be about.  I also wanted to get my Twitter on (shameless plug, follow me @FancyLancy).  Many people were tweeting about the conference so it was a good way to keep on top of things.   I went to the NYSCATE (The New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education) Playground and met up with some people from NY. I met Dr. Sam Fecich who is the author of Edu Magic.  She was awesome.  If you aren't following her on Twitter, you should!  (Dr. Sam on Twitter)  She teaches preservice teachers, is a former special education teacher, and is just great.  We talked probably longer than she would've liked (I can't help myself!) but promised to keep in touch.  I did run into her a few more times throughout the conference.

Following that, I was UP and down and back and forth for the rest of the day.


I definitely learned a ton.  I signed up for an "Engage and Connect" session to tour the Reading Terminal Market for that evening.  It seemed like a great opportunity since I had never been there and it was only $10.  I arrived 15 minutes before the beginning of the tour and the line was (literally, I am not exaggerating here) around the entire block.  I lasted a whole 20 minutes inside.  The idea was good, but it was way overbooked.  I waited in line longer than I ate.  I ended up Ubering back to hang with my cousin, Steve, who had graciously set me up for the week.  One day down, three to go!

I hit the ground running on Monday morning.  I was back at the conference center at 7am, ready to acquire as much knowledge as possible.  I did lectures, poster sessions, panels, and interactive sessions.  I did a couple trainings with the Google Edu team.  I went in and checked out the Expo (where all the vendors are).  I had tickets to a panel and after-hours event for 5:00.  At 3:00, I hit a wall.   Especially after sitting and listening to Mandy Froehlich's interactive lecture on the teacher's mental health.  She has some great books out (check out The Fire Within or DivergentEDU) and has a twitter and website!  She was spot on with many of her topics she covered and I really enjoyed her talk.  Of course, that made me even more accepting of the fact that I needed to rest!!

I decided for my sanity and self-care, I needed to go back to Steve's and rest. I arrived at his place and crashed for two hours.  A nap?  That never happens!  When I woke up I realized I was not going anywhere and if I wanted to be useful at all for Tuesday, I needed to stay in.


Tuesday morning began with another coffee session.  This one was at 6:45 and featured Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning.  If you're interested in blended learning, Google Apps, or just good teaching practices, definitely check out her website, blog, and/or podcast!  She's "EduFamous!"  I met a couple cool educators (one for Virginia and one from NC) that had a lot of cool things to share. After that, I took my time walking back to the convention center.  I checked out a couple parks, smelled a lot of flowers, and looked at Philly's beautiful architecture.   I did a lot of poster sessions and meet & greets with the vendors in the expo center.



Of course, now it's Tuesday and I've been going for a few days straight.  I was continuing to drag a bit (which, for me is probably a normal pace for people) but I stayed strong.  It was my last full day and I was going to make the most of it!  I did as many poster sessions and as much networking as I could.  I met with a bunch of vendors face-to-face, which I would not have had the opportunity to do if I was back in Homer.  I grabbed lunch at the Reading Market, brought it back to the expo and sat against the wall across from the wall-sized live feed of the ISS to eat my lunch.  I tried to soak up as much information as possible.  Tuesday night, Steve joined me for a GoGuardian 80s party and the EdTech Karaoke at the Fillmore (yes, THE FILLMORE).  We had a great time and met even more cool people.  It was so much fun!




Fast forward to Wednesday when I was ready to drive home.  My kids and hubby were missing me
and I really missed them.  I was so sad to miss the final few days of school, but I am so incredibly grateful for the experiences I had in Philadelphia.  As this blog post comes to a close, I am going to take a short few weeks to break and hang with MY people...  My family and close friends.

Enjoy your summer, folks!  I know I will!  I'll see you in a few weeks!












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