#IST12: Day One

I think I keep falling into a some kinda space/time hole thingy … I keep tweeting #ISTE11 instead of the official hash tag #ISTE12. No biggy, except for the embarrassment of doing so. But I think it simply reflects the same-same quality of this conference to last year’s conference. So far everything has been the same. Thousands of teachers herding towards the one door, all at the one time (OK, that was just the Sir Ken keynote yesterday that I fortuitously decided to miss). I shouldn’t expect anything different – even though we are on the complete opposite side of this massive country – because all conferences are the same. If we were idealists we would say that the biggest difference is the people – you know, there are different types of people at a different conference and it’s one whole year later. But no. All the same – same teachers here for the schwag bag and prizes, same teachers here to learn about the latest web 2.0 tools, same teachers here to feel a sense of belonging and importance by uniting under the title ‘twitterati’.

I’ve been to two sessions already this morning and they have been OK. I saw David Warlick talk about how students are changing (I think, lol) and I enjoyed his stories. I don’t think anything in particular screamed out as new and I guess that’s a good thing, yeah? Like I agreed with what he was saying and tweeted couple of things he said. That’s always a good sign. But I didn’t decide to come to this conference on the other side of the world to nod my head and think ‘yup, I know that and I agree with you’. I’m really trying to get my head around my motives for coming here. One thing I did get excited about was Scratch. I’m looking forward to showing that to my two boys tonight. It looks pretty cool in that they can create their own games using a kid-friendly programing language. Nice. I’m thinking I will look into using it with my Year 8, 9 and 10 classes as summative assessment – maybe the product at the end of a project. There’s a good chance I’ll hit some kind of filter block and the ICT guy at school will stare at me blankly when I ask to have it installed on our computers in the labs. Oh well.

After this session I went and found the Blogger Cafe and bumped into fellow Aussie @edusum. She’s very excited about being here and I have to admit it’s kinda contagious – probably a good counter to my moodiness and cynicism. It was nice to also put a face to a couple of other names – like Amanda Dykes and Michelle Baldwin. I also managed to stop Kevin Honeycutt and say hello, but once again he just gave me some merchandise so I’m starting to think that we won’t ever be collaborating on a project. He’s a super creative guy and a passionate educator but I think he’s on a path that has no divergence. I’m merely a flat speed-bump. Another teacher. The next session was meant to be Alan November (which coincidentally is where I am as I complete this blog post) but Summer and I bumped into Chris Lehmann. OK, I’ll be honest. Summer bumped into Chris and since they know each other I could be a dag and say hello too. Chris is someone I think very highly of as an educator. Sometimes I think when I grow up I wanna be like him, but the last few days have taught me that I have already grown up. Into a grinch. Anyway, Chris suggested we go to see a different session, one about media and students by Matthew Williams from KQED. Summer went to November and I opted to follow Chris. So we went to the session together. Well, we sat beside each other and I occasionally tried to make conversation, failing like a complete social-n00b. Nothing new there.

The session was great. It gave me what I look for in a conference session. A thoughtful, passionate, intelligent, experienced presenter talking about something he has done with students recently. No hyperbole, no book sales, no yelling, no drama, no pretense. Matthew was great. He didn’t talk at us the whole time, he just told his story about helping disadvantaged and silenced students find their voices through digital stories and gave us tips on how we can do the same thing with our students. He let us watch aptly selected examples of student work that were so powerful it made me want to make documentaries with all of my classes as soon as I get back in the class. He put up a link to a bunch of resources for making documentaries but I can’t find it now … thought it was this: http://www.kqed.org/education

Here are my tweets from that session:

The next session was about creativity by the director of innovations at New Tech High, Chris Walsh. It was OK, we did a couple of cute activities (drawing a butterfly to test creativity, writing our dreams on a piece of paper and making them into a paper plane to throw at our colleagues and transforming a creative teaching experience we have had or made) but mostly we were spoken at for over an hour. You can access the slides online here. I liked what he had to say, but once again the session lacked ‘praxis’ – you know what I mean? How will I put these ideas about creativity into practice in my class? I don’t wanna be told what to do in my classroom, but I do want some good examples of ways learning has occurred successfully in other schools. Or a model I could emulate or maybe modify for my students. Nope. None of that.

Right now I’m splitting my attention between Alan November speaking about how to use google effectively (I would have gone to a session about this, had that been the title of the session, but it’s not – it was about empathy which hasn’t really come up that much) and how to use twitter as a search engine to connect to authentic conversations. Yeah, that’s cool. But right now, thanks to twitter, I can see that the session by Adam Bellows is going off and I should have chosen to go there instead of here. The audience is enjoying Alan November. Maybe I’m just a grumpy bitch. Yeah, probably.

My thinking question for tonight: why did I come to ISTE12?

How to survive #ISTE12: An Aussie teacher’s guide (Pt 2)

This post is a continuation from my last post where I listed 6 things you need to know to prepare for a successful ISTE experience. Here’s the final four …

7. Attend the closing keynote

After hearing people talk about education for four days straight and walking between the sea of sessions, it’s easy to make the decision to ‘skip’ the closing keynote … after all, haven’t you heard it all already? My suggestion is don’t miss it. Well, not if this year’s closing keynote is as good as last year’s and I reckon it could be. This year’s closing keynote is about project-based learning and how it can get kids actively involved in solving some of the world’s biggest problems. I reckon that sounds pretty cool!

Last year the closing keynote was opened with amazing SLAM poetry by students of Chris Lehmann. They just were so cool, it got us all really enthused about our role as educators and energised us as we were all at our most exhausted, haha. Then we had the wise words of Chris himself – so cool, I wish I worked at his PBL school the Science Leadership Academy in Philly. He really is inspirational and you know how I hate using goofy words like that.

8. Make some time to spend at the bloggers lounge and the poster sessions

Often when you’re at a huge conference you find yourself rushing madly from one session to the next with little time to stop and socialise. I think that at ISTE you really do have to take some time to stop – if nothing else, just to rest a little! Whilst there are a LOT of big names in education to go and see at ISTE, I highly recommend stopping by the poster sessions that run all day long. These are usually presented by students and teachers who have a project or an idea that they are really proud of and want to share with others. Last year I was glad that Andy and I spent a bit of time walking around the different poster sessions, checking out what was on show. I met some great teachers and their students and was blown away by some of the work that both have produced. What you’ll find is that these are people taking real edu risks and being super innovative in ways that maybe some of the better know edu-stars can’t do anymore.

The next place to visit (and which last year was within spitting distance of the poster sessions and this is why I lump them together) is the Bloggers Cafe. This is another one of the ISTE Unplugged installations that gets to the heart of what a lot of ISTE is about for many of us edu-geeks. I still laugh thinking back to Andy pointing at all of these people and naming them with reverence – I had no idea who they were but knew they must be super important if Andy held them in high esteem. It is only with another year of edu-geeking under my belt that I can appreciate the calibre of the educators we were kinda hanging out with. It was really cool to be able to go up to someone like Kevin Honeycutt and say hello in person without feeling like a complete n00b. The premise of the Blogger Cafe is that discussion is open and lively … it is meant to be a place where people start putting new projects and vision into practice. In the ideal world it is the hub of praxis and is therefore the opposite of the more formal ISTE presentations where the audience receives wisdom from an edu-sage and then takes this home to put in practice later. I must add though, that the Blogger Cafe can be super intimidating. It’s hard to break into a clique at the best of times, and when the clique is some of the ‘top’ edubloggers from around the world, a person can be forgiven for just standing back and staring. I hope that I have the guts to go and say hello to the people hanging out in the BC, even if it’s just some other edu-blogging newbies like me. The best bit about ISTE is the connections you make (or solidify) and the evil genius-like plotting that results as a consequence, haha.

9. What tech should you bring?

I’m going to be honest here. If you don’t bring an iPad with you, you’re going to stick out like a sore thumb. Last year I took my Macbook pro thinking I would look super hipster but boy how wrong I was! I’d never seen so many iPads in the one place … they were still relatively new in Oz 12 months ago. I imagine this year will be the same. Regardless of what you bring, you should be able to jump on the wifi easily and if you can’t don’t worry because everywhere you turn you will find an ISTE volunteer eager to point you in the direction of an ICT emergency booth … I was happy with my iPhone tweeting all of my notes using the official hashtag. I then promptly forgot to back those tweets up with some cool tweet-caching site … and lost a bunch of notes like a complete loser. So yeah, bring something portable that can get on the wifi.

10. Make some time to party after-parties

ISTE doesn’t finish with the final speaker each day, nope it goes right into the night. There are a variety of events that you can attend in the evenings. You probably have already received an inbox tide full of emails about the hippest ISTE after-parties to attend. I have registered for tix to the big Karaoke party but from the looks of the list I’ll be surprised if the roof-top doesn’t collapse under our weight … there’s thousands of people attending! Even if you opt not to attend an ‘official’ event held by a sponsor or some other edutech company, you’ll most likely find yourself being carried out on a PLN tidal wave to pubs, clubs or restaurants. ISTE can be massive for those people keen to let their hair down.

Because I’m travelling with my family … and because to be honest I’m a bit of a wall-flower … I doubt I’ll be out late in the evenings. Last year it was great to meet so many edmodo people from my network and I hope they have another party this year. I guess you need to find a balance – and remember to eat! If you don’t you could find yourself feeling pretty gross come the 27th June.

11. And if you can’t make it to ISTE12 …

This year there are literally hundreds of Aussies heading over to ISTE12. Last year there were a few that I either knew or met via twitter – I even heard one guy speak up in a session and I nearly snapped my head trying to ‘spot the Aussie’ … it’s always nice to hear our familiar nasal twang when you’re overseas! I’m pretty keen to make sure that those people who can’t make it to ISTE this year (but who I know will be following our adventures and will most likely head over to #ISTE13) are kept up to date with the craziness of ISTE through the eyes of Aussies. I plan on making a daily vodcast to sum up my experience of ISTE and also the experiences of some of my fellow-Aussie travellers. I reckon that will be heaps of fun. I kinda haven’t done anything like that before but I’m sure there has been similar things done in the past. I have big plans for giving you all a tour of the toilets and the registration desk … you know, all the fun stuff I haven’t come up with an awesome name for the show so if you can think of anything better than the Down-Under Daily (which sounds completely suss and therefore may be the winner) post a comment below. Oh, and if there is something that you want me to document via video at ISTE12 just let me know!

So that’s my list of hot tips for ISTE12 … maybe nothing new for those of you who are old hats at epic edu conferences but maybe something in there for those of you who are ISTE virgins. It’s going to be a manic four days and I do hope that something or someone really challenges my thoughts about education and forces me to do an about-face. I love that kind of thing. I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars and hours of my life just to hear the same old stuff that I can get for free from twitter 24/7. ISTE12, you’ve been warned!

How to survive #ISTE12: An Aussie teacher’s guide (Pt 1)

I just wanna say this so you know how crazy I am – this is going to be my second time at an ISTE conference. Yup – I’m a repeat offender. This year I don’t even have the excuse that I’m being forced against my will to attend by the peeps at edmodo … nope, I’ve taken it all upon myself to return to the big ol’ US of A to attend this massive edtech conference. So, now that you know I am a totally experienced guide, lol, I will give you some tips on how best to survive a conference that has around abouts 13,000 attendees!

OK, OK … I’ll stop being a knob and just write this damn blog post … apologies to those of you who may have accidentally found this post thanks to the google gods.

Last year ISTE was in Philadelphia – that’s right across the other side of the country from its location this year in San Diego, so keeping that in mind my advice may be somewhat less valid. I guess we’ll all know in a little under two weeks time! Regardless, this conference is going to be just as massive as it was last year and I really think there are a few things worth knowing before you embark on your #ISTE12 mission.

1. Pack your lunch!

Picture 13,000 tired and hungry teachers all swarming on the foodcourt at your local Westfields and you’ve got a pretty good image of what it’s like at ISTE come lunchtime. Last year we were lucky enough to be located across the road from the epic Reading Terminal Markets … and I mean epic! That place is huge and full of so many different food choices – think Patty’s markets x10. Despite its size Andy McKiel and I still had to literally cram our way through teacher bodies in order to find a relatively uncrowded stall to get something to eat – I think I ended up at a grocers and got almonds and a juice. I only ventured into the markets once – I learnt my lesson. My best tip is to eat a big breakfast – regardless of how giddy you are with excitement or nerves – and then pick up a snack like nuts, chips or a cookie and a drink from a deli or street cart on the way (I don’t know what the West Coast equivalent is – maybe a 7/11 or something?) and pack it in your bag. There is so much happening at this conference that you don’t want to be taking two hours for lunch – you know you’re going to miss something cool. Oh, and yes, there are coffee stands/shops inside the convention centre itself but the lines will be endless … I’m not a coffee drinker, so maybe you’ll think waiting 40 minutes for a coffee is OK. I don’t.

2. Dress casually and bring an extra layer

Like all convention centres, this one will have some super-sized air-conditioning system which most likely will be pumped to the max. All those teacher bodies huddled together in one space means we’ll need heaps of fresh air cycling through the place. Even though it was summer, I still found myself wearing jeans, a shirt and a cardigan – until I got me edmodo hoodie from the crew and then that became the staple, haha. I remember seeing John and Lucia almost blue from cold at the edmodo stand in the exposition hall - the aircon was super powerful in there! So pack a jumper or something lighter to cover your arms. And of course wear sensible shoes – if you’re presenting at some point and you wanna wear your heels, just pack some sneakers in a bag for later. The Philadelphia Convention Centre spans something like three city blocks and if it wasn’t for Andy I would never have found a single session I needed to attend – the whole place was disorienting and trying to navigate it, combined with the distance makes for very tired teachers. Many a time I just stood still looking bewildered, catching the sight of many others like me … those who have given up and made the decision to park their butts on the ground and rest a bit. No joke – teachers are a resourceful bunch and will make use of what they can get. So I truly do suggest that you’ll need some seriously comfy shoes – I suggest Chuck Taylors. They served me well and will again.

3. Friends – get some!

Whilst I was fully determined to go solo at ISTE last year – cos to be honest I didn’t know a damn sole and am not that big on asserting myself socially – but I was so very, very thankful to have found a true buddy in fellow edmodo-geek, Andy McKiel. The whole experience is quite literally overwhelming and at times threatens to break one’s spirit … how can there be so many teachers? So much to know? So much to learn? So much to do? So much to share? And so many bloody rooms to navigate! Having someone to share this experience with just makes it all the more special – and pretty much makes it manageable and enjoyable. I’m sure there was many a time when poor Andy hoped that I would forget his twitter handle so I couldn’t locate him the next day, lol. Of course if you are travelling to ISTE12 solo then I recommend rocking past the Newbies Lounge or the Bloggers Cafe and just striking up a conversation with someone else who looks equally bewildered. If you’d prefer you might just plonk yourself down next to a fallen teacher body on the floor – I’m sure he/she would love to see someone smile at them! (The pic below shows how Andy and I entertained ourselves towards the end of ISTE11 – trying to get our tweets on the screen in the Newbie Lounge, haha!)

4. Vote with your feet

A massive difference between ISTE and Aussie conferences is how the program works. You don’t need to pick your sessions in advance – no need to book a seat unless it’s a paid session. This means that the system is pretty much ‘first in best dressed’ which is cool, I reckon, but also means you need to get in early to the popular sessions. Problem is, how do you know if a session is going to be a popular one? The biggest indicator is – no duh – the presenter and his/her popularity. There are some obvious edu-stars who always draw a crowd for two reasons – they have something good to say and they say it well. A few names to keep your eyes out for:

Vicki Davis, Dean Shareski, Steve Hargadon, Roger Pryor (who is pictured below with his guitar during his presentation at ISTE11), Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Suzie Boss, Kevin Honeycutt, Tony Vincent, Shannon Miller, Beth Still, Steven Anderson, Dayna Laur, Peggy Sheehy, Ewan McIntosh, Joyce Valenza, David Warlick, Alan November, Steve Dembo, Will Richardson, Chris Lehman, Gary Stager, Ian Jukes, David Thornburg.

Last year I sat down in my very first ISTE session titled something like ‘Connectivism in the 21st century’ – title sounds naff to me now, haha. Anyway, I was keen on the idea of connectivism but as soon as I sat down (in a massive room about four times the size of my school hall!) and heard the speaker say ‘OK, twitter – this is a micro-blog for social networking …’ I started to panic. I looked around at the iPad-powered teachers in the room and started to sweat a little. Is this really the innovative USA? I felt trapped. But after a quick tweet of panic I was assured that I could vote with my feet at ISTE and leave a session I didn’t like – with a smile you are likely to get into another session, as long as it’s not full. That’s pretty cool – no need for a daggy little ticket, you just cruise on in. Mind you, you might find yourself a little lost if you don’t plan your itinerary a little bit before hand … and don’t follow my lead by writing it on your hand, haha:

5. Steer clear of the exposition hall unless you’re at ISTE just for the schwag bag

Of course this is why many people are at ISTE. For so many of these teachers they are sent to this conference each year to get a tick next to the letters PD. And that’s cool. For them the expo hall is the place to be – it is like a sea of freebies. You can come out of this hall like Santa at the beginning of Christmas Eve – a giant bag of shirts, edu tech gadgets, pamphlets and assorted freebies all emblazoned with the name of the latest, hippest edutech start-up. I think people spend their whole four days in this place … you could and still have missed a stand! I guess I’m biased – a lot – but I reckon that the edmodo stand is the best … haha. Drop by and say G’Day to Betsy and the crew. The people who man these stalls work SO hard that by the end of the four days they are usually without a voice (from giving their spiel over and over again) and getting a cold from the air-conditioning.

6. Come a day early and check out the pre-ISTE stuff

ISTE officially opens on the Sunday afternoon with the opening keynote. This year we have been promised Sir Ken – but I’m skeptical as to whether he will be there in person. Last year Stephen Covey was amazing as a keynote – but he was on a giant screen, beamed in from some sunny local. That’s OK … but how cool would it be to say you were in the same room as Sir Ken? Anyway did you know that there are a bunch of events on before the official opening? Check out the ISTE Unplugged site to find out about some of them. I’m keen to attend SocialEd Con – but I’ll have to run it by the family and see if I get approval first. You can also keep up to date with coinciding events by following the official hashtag #ISTE12.

OK … just realised how long this post is already so I’m going to break it into two parts. Your next thrilling installment will look at: closing keynote, bloggers lounge/ poster sessions, what tech to bring, after-parties and the ISTE Down-Under Daily (or some bloody name I haven’t thought of yet!).

#ISTE12 and PBL World – heading back to the US in June

It is almost that time again. Time to start adding numbers to my facebook profile – from 60. Last year I was SO lucky to be selected by the edmodo team as one of their featured bloggers and my reward for blogging about edmodo for the lead-up to ISTE was a trip to #ISTE11 in Philadelphia. I almost weed my pants when I got the email from Betsy telling me I had been chosen. Mostly because I am terrified of flying and I had never been out of Australia before … oh and I knew that I wouldn’t go without Lee and the boys meaning we had to find $10,000 real quickly. I still can’t believe that was almost a year ago! The trip to ISTE was insane and as most of you know we topped it off with an epic drive from NYC to LA in nine days.

Late last year we made the decision to return to the US for ISTE12. How could we not, it’s in San Diego?! I was really surprised by how much I loved the US. In Australia we really get pumelled with some shocking stereotypes about America and American people. It was truly refreshing to have those stereotypes hacked to embarrassing bits by the generosity, sincerity, warmth and manners of the American people we met on our trip. So of course we’re going back- who wouldn’t?

We have grand plans to travel the whole West Coast of North America and nudging into both Mexico and Canada for quick day trips. At this time it all feels like a crazy dream, just like travelling to Philly and NYC did this time last year. All we have booked is our accommodation in San Diego. Apart from that we have a blank slate ahead of us. Nothing motivates you more to keep working than knowing that you will able to reward yourself and your family with a life-changing experience … with memories that will last forever. Yup, corny as a CornJack but I don’t care.

I do have a conundrum though. I really, really, really, really, really wanna attend PBL World run by my mates (SOO, they are not my mates, not even friends or acquaintances but I sometimes tweet at the BIE guys and sometimes they tweet back and I have been loving them from a distance for a couple of years now so I’m going with mates anyway, OK?) at Buck Institute of Education between 18-22nd June. When is ISTE12? It’s 24-27 June and before that we have ISTE Unplugges which is what I really, really wanna attend. Urgh. It’s all too hard. Oh, and did I mention that the PBL World stuff is kinda expensive because it is all workshops – which is excellent because you get more from a workshop doing stuff than from sitting and listening to someone Keynote. But to be honest, I want to hear the keynotes speak – they are awesome people who I know will have some wicked things to say about project-learning. I want to be there for the ‘in between’ conversations with other PBLers. It just makes more sense to go to PBL World since that’s what my research is on – there would be some amazing connections made. I think I could maybe go for the Thursday, but then what do Lee and the boys do for that day? I have to admit it to myself. I won’t be able to make it to PBL World. But I hope that the people who are there do tweet like crazy! And if you are in (or near) Napa, CA when the workshops are on I reckon you should go.

Next problem. Last year I found ISTE overwhelming, crazy, too big and chaotic. I found it a little bit anti-learning. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for being sent there (I most certainly am not and I think attending ISTE is something you kinda gotta do, it is an experience!) but what I mean to say is that just attending all of the sessions for three days straight can be exhausting and counter-productive. I want to go again because I think with the experience of a first-timer behind me I can work out how to get the most from the conference. I think.

As with PBL World, the workshops are pretty pricey and way out of my reach. I do, however, think that they would be worthwhile attending if your school is sending you. But if you’re like me and you can just cover the conference registration fee, I recommend hanging out at the poster sessions and at the bloggers cafe. Of course the bloggers cafe is going to be full of people who know each other, or who ‘know of’ each other and it might be hard for you to strike up a conversation with any of them. Maybe the best tip is to sit close enough to over-hear their conversations – jokes! I always find looking for other outsiders and starting a conversation with them – you’ll be surprised by what you can learn from a new ISTE friendship!

I can’t even remember why I was writing this blog post … I think I wanted you to give me travel tips for the West Coast of the US and maybe ask you to decide on whether I should choose ISTE12 or PBL World.

Anyway, have you been to ISTE? Have you got some tips for second-time around? Should I skip it cos it’s too big and just head up the coast to the BIE gig? Haven’t been to ISTE but wanna go? What makes you want to go there?

ISTE11: Breaking down the preconceived ideas

As an Australian in a foreign land, I must confess that I packed quite a few preconceived ideas about America in my luggage. I didn’t even know they were travelling with me but once I got here they just sort of appeared.

Whilst I write this my husband is speaking to my mum on the phone about beer. Why am I telling you this? Well to be honest, he was freaking out about the beer situation in the US. From what we knew, all Americans drink light beer. We Aussies do not. Full strength or it’s cat’s piss, right? Lee loves craft beer made by small breweries. He really likes a good beer and was scared he’d have a choice between Bud Light or no beer. Neither choice was appealing! But as soon as we arrived in the US he’s been amazed by the amount, quality and price of the beer that’s available. There’s heaps more options here than at home in Australia.

Moral to that story? Lee had a preconceived idea about beer in the US and it was shattered pleasantly by reality. I too have had a series of preconceived ideas that have been bash, bash, bashed whilst here in the US. For simplicity I’ll list them:

1. At ISTE11 everyone will think radically about education.

A friend posted a question on my fb wall: ‘Are you no longer a lone wolf? Have you found your pack at ISTE?’
I thought the pack would be 18,000 strong. Naive, I know. Details will follow in a later post not typed w/ one finger on my iPhone. I will say, however, that I did spy my pack in person and face to face. It’s a small but growing and intensely passionate group of educators. ISTE taught me that I am not a lone wolf, but I am not part of an 18,000 strong pack.

2. I will be able to navigate ISTE11 solo.

If you ever get the chance to come to this insanely big conference, don’t try to go it alone. For one thing, it’s not in the spirit of the conference – in the words of Chris Lehman, ISTE is about community, family, your teacher brothers, sisters, mums and dads. I was so fortunate to have my fellow edmodo blogger with me, Andy McKeil. In the words of @thenerdyteacher – he’s my edubro. Together we navigated the three buildings that ISTE11 sprawled over, we ate almonds and chocolate for protein and energy, we got excited about the future and we gave each other the confidence to say hello to our edu idols. Thanks Andy!

3. Self-help gurus are out for the cash.

If you know me well, you know I can be a little cynical. Me and sarcasm have been roomies for most of my life. I’m also a working class kid eternally frustrated by artifice. When I read that the keynote speaker on Tuesday was a guy who wrote self help books I was pretty disappointed. Yeah, I know you’re all thinking I must live under a rock or something cos I don’t know who Covey is, but I really didn’t. I’d heard of his famous book (not the one on leadership and schooling) and it just never appealed to me. I don’t like to prescribe to rules. I don’t like being told how to live my life. But hearing 78 year old Covey speak with concern, guts, honesty, passion, commitment, damn edupunk balls in some parts – well, he surprised me. I thought he would wanna sell a book. But he just wanted to sell change. To be honest, maybe I just liked him cos what he said reflected my own thoughts about the state of play regarding education and change. Change how you think. It’s a mindset thing, not a skill set or a tool kit.

Well my iPhone battery life is leeching into the ether and I’m still suffering the ISTE11 hangover so I’m going to cut this post off now.

I’m going to ISTE12. I dunno how but I won’t be missing Kevin Honeycutt again.