ISTE 2014....WOW Part 1

So I have officially finished 2 full days at ISTE and all I can say is WOW!  For all my love of tech I was impressed, inspired, and overwhelmed. I have about a million new ideas and thoughts running through my head so for my sanity I am going to pick 4 things to focus on and share those.

IEP - individual exploration plan.  

   As teachers, with the meetings and testing that go along with IEP's we forget about the positive experience these plans can help our students achieve.  They are plans with specific steps, goals, and timelines.  They give a roadmap to where the student should end but who knows what will happen in the very important middle part.  

  Of course when the presenter (Jennifer Magiera) at the ignite session said teachers should have their own IEP we all giggled a little...ok a lot.  She told us that we need to take charge of our own learning.  We need to figure out what we need as teachers to move forward and find a way to learn it.  Just like our students, when we take control of our learning why wouldn't we be more engaged and excited about the journey.  Who knows what else we will find on the way? 

  So let's look st IEP'S in a different light. Why cant we as educators take a tool that we have been usung with our students for years and make it work for us?

Pear Deck - interactive presentation web tool

  I have seen more presentation's than I care to think about. We have all been to lectures where we listen to slide after slide and think when is this going to end.  During the interactive lecture for Untangle the Web we had quite a few tools thrown at us (in a very fun, energetic, way).   One of my favorites was Peardeck. Its still in Beta mode and its not a free program be but it was so fun to be in the audience and interact with the presentors through this tool. Each slide was a quiz and answer, or respond, or share. It was great! I might have to look into it more and give it a try.

Robotics -

   All I can say about this is I have to try it!  My favorite robot was the one created by the Tufts grad students. It was simple and look like a wooden block toy.  It was so unassuming and not scary!  These teachers (not engineering students) planned, designed,and built this robot.

AR- Augmented Reality
  This by far has the most posibilities to do with a very limited budget.  AR allows for location tags or image recognition.  With location tags (and image recognition), spots are "pinned" via GPS.  At each of these "pins" information is linked up for the user to watch, listen, learn, and/or do.  It could be as simple as a video telling you about a location or an activity to complete.  The possiblities are endless!  I already have so many ideas on how to incorperate this into my Kinder classroom (and some ideas for my friends in other grade levels).

So with my brain on overload that is all I have for today.  Once the rest of the new knowledge/ideas sort themselves out I will post my ISTE 2014 Part 2.

Were any of you at ISTE 2014?  What were some of your take-aways?  Anything spark your "I have to do this when I get back" feeling?