Initial impressions of ISTE

Overwhelming!

That's my first impression of ISTE 2014. There is a lot happening here and it's tough to process. So, here is some processing, in no particular order.

• Everything looks great: the signage, the colors, the booths, the lounges and gathering spots.
• Tech people need coffee and will wait in silly long lines to get it. I count myself in that statement.

• There are A LOT of vendors/exhibitors here from all sorts of markets. According to the conference app, there are 26 different categories, and some categories have 100+ exhibitors. The expo hall opens tomorrow, so we'll see what that looks like.
• Today, there were a lot of sessions that were hands on, but they required additional fees. I was really put off by that. I am not looking to pay an additional $150 on top of the initial registration fee. 

OK. Opening speaker time, and who else should speak to us other than Ashley Judd? 

Oh. And EDTC 650 folk, notice whose booth that is on the right. 

ISTE incoming

Next week, I travel to Atlanta to attend ISTE 2014, the annual conference of the The International Society for Technology in Education. This will be my first time attending, and by all accounts, it should be a good show. I'll be blogging as I go, so check here for my impressions as a first-time attendee.

Things I'll be looking for and writing about:

• important considerations for one on the technology leadership track
• stuff about iPads
• a good night's sleep (I have a two-year-old. 'Nuff said.)
• more stuff about iPads
• information unique to technology in independent schools
• iPads, iPads, iPads
• good examples of online and blended learning programs and the platforms that best support online and blended learning
• a great presentation by my boss and one of my colleagues --- about iPads.
• some great networking with people in my field

For the past 10 years, I've always been on the delivery side of education conferences. This will be my fourth conference as an attendee in a decade. I'm not sure if that's a lot or a little. Either way, I'm excited about it. 

See? Excitement!

The reanimation, resuscitation, and revitalization of this blog

This blog started three years ago for a graduate school class. When that graduate school class ended, so did the blog.

So, why reanimate it now? Another graduate school class! And, because in my professional life in the technology department at an independent school, I want to be more reflective on my work and on my school by maintaining a blog. So the posts may alternate between stuff that is related to my current grad school class, Teaching and Learning in K-12 Virtual School, and stuff that is related to my work as the Systems Manager at the Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA.

Old posts have been removed, old comments have been deleted, and former classmate/co-authors have been deactivated. The blog even has a new name.

Here's to much, much less time between posts.

To blog or not to blog?

Blogs have always been double-edged for me. There are times, both professionally and personally, when I have wanted to blog about something important -- or unimportant. I think, "Why, yes. The world would like to know my thoughts on this topic." That thought is usually quickly pushed out of the room by the much more active, and much more numerous, negative, and vocal thoughts saying, "You're delusional," "No one is interested. Put the Blogger down," and "Um, no, dude. Really. No."

Another side of me worries about having enough content to make the blog worthwhile for me and for any readers. I don't want to become a part of this statistic: "According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled." (New York Times, June 5, 2009 - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html).

I think I will let the crude digital imagery of MS Paint help me illustrate my point:

However, a dedicated topic, rather than an everything/nothing blog, hopefully will prevent me from resorting to posting about my cats. (Too late!)

A first blog test

So, yeah. Here's a first post.

Whoa. Check out all its bloggy magnificence.

And, here's my cat.