“Think and wonder, wonder and think.” - Dr. Seuss
Learning can happen anywhere and at anytime when you attend an educational conference. Here are a few tips and tricks to help everyone attending make the most of their learning experience at this year’s IDEAcon conference on February 24th through February 27th.
Plan Your IDEAcon Experience in Advance
This seems like a no brainer, but I am always amazed by the number of teachers frantically flipping through a paper program each morning or between sessions at a conference. Here are a few planning tips for everyone who wants to get a head start on sessions.
1. Ask yourself this question, why are you attending IDEAcon? I think the best conference experiences happen when you know your ‘why’. My why is always evolving, but I can tell you that it almost always starts with my students in mind.
2. Have a plan to share your notes. Knowing that someone else will be seeing their notes is a great way to help learners focus on the learning experience in each session. I personally love Google Docs for notes, but you can’t go wrong with any of the incredible notetaking tools. If you prefer taking notes by hand, but still want to share your notes digitally, I would recommend purchasing a Rocketbook.
3. Explore the IDEAcon Sched before the conference. SCHED is a great resource to learn more about presenters and sessions. I personally like to start with the “Expanded” view when exploring the sessions. You can also filter sessions by audience type on the right side menu. One of my favorite audience filters is “Professional Learning & Coaching”. If you are new to Sched, be sure to visit the Attendee Guide to learn how to customize your schedule.
4. New this year are Immersion Sessions. These sessions vary in length and designed to engage educators in a variety of topics and presentation styles. If you are looking for some deeper dive sessions be sure to click on the “Immersion Room” filter and explore these sessions.
5. With your ‘why’ in mind and some sessions planned, dive into the conference website and explore other opportunities at the conference outside of the schedule of sessions. There will be some incredible exhibitors and sponsors and additional learning opportunities happening in the IDEA Exchange in the Expo Center. You can explore the IDEA Exchange schedule here.
6. If you are attending with other educators from your school or district, try to coordinate your plans before the conference. Attending sessions together is a great way to collaborate, but sometimes a bit of divide and conquer can lead to some great reflective sharing after the sessions.
7. Did you know there’s an IDEAcon app? Visit your favorite App Store and search “IDEAcon2020” to find and install the app.
Find Your Tribe - Grow Your PLN
We all work with some awesome educators and attending a conference with some of our colleagues can be part of a great learning experience. I love these opportunities to collaborate and sometimes just reconnect with my teaching friends, but I also do my best to try to make new connections and meet presenters and attendees who I may only know through social media. Here are a few tips to grow your PLN at IDEAcon.
1. When you sit down in a session start a conversation with someone sitting near you. Connecting with educators from other schools and grade levels is a great way to learn something new that you can bring back to help your students.
2. Presenters also want to meet new people and grow their PLNs. If the presenter doesn’t look too busy setting up, try to find a moment before or after a presentation to ask a question or just say thank you.
3. One of the easiest ways to remember who you meet is to make a connection on social media. For me, Twitter is still the easiest way to connect digitally. You can even quickly share your Twitter contact information with anyone using this quick Twitter Tip that I learned at the 2018 ISTE Conference.
Connect With Exhibitors
The exhibit hall is a great space to explore some new EdTech resources and tools to support learning in your classroom. You can also find some great "swag" and other valuable resources at the exhibitor booths. Connecting with exhibitors is a great way to add a little something extra to your conference learning experience. Here are a few tips to make the most of your visit to the Exhibit Hall
1. Find the exhibitor list on the IDEacon Website. You can learn more about the exhibitors and make a plan to visit at least 5 exhibitors that you are curious about. I always make a list ahead of time and add it to a Google Keep List. I like Google Keep because I can have a checklist on my phone. Here is a screenshot of the list I’ve started for this year’s IDEAcon.
2. Don't just stop for the swag and run. Take a moment to have a conversation with some of the exhibitors who you are curious about. Many of the exhibitors were teachers before moving into their new roles. Connections with these people can often have a bigger impact than just connecting with the company.
3. Connect with the exhibitors via social media. A shoutout on social media with the conference hashtag is another great way to make new connections with exhibitors.
4. Wandering is also ok. You never know when you might discover something that could have a positive impact on you and your students in the future.
Attend at Least One Session That is Out of Your Comfort Zone
I was at the NICE Minicon a year ago and there were some great sessions connected to my why, but some of my best learning moments came from a session that I didn’t expect. This session was led by a K-5 Art Teacher. I knew the educator from social media, but never really thought that I could make connections to my classroom by attending one of her sessions. I was wrong! Here are a few reasons get started exploring sessions that may not directly connect to your role.
1. Start by using the search filters to find sessions outside of your grade level or content area. For example, if you are a Social Studies Teacher, maybe explore the “STEAM sessions”.
2. Sometimes listening to someone with a different perspective can spark some great creative ideas that can be applied in a new way to the teaching and learning experiences in your classroom or school.
Engage in the Digital Conversations
There is nothing wrong with a tweet or two letting everyone know which sessions you are enjoying, but engaging in a digital conversation on Twitter is an even better way to enhance your learning experience. Here are a few tips for engaging in the IDEAcon Twitter hashtag conversations. (#IDEAcon)
1. While there are many great ways to connect to a Digital PLN, Twitter still seems to be the place to be for educational conferences. Set aside some time to find and explore the conference hashtag before, during, and after the conference. You never know what you might discover.
2. Liking tweets is a great way to acknowledge someone's time, but commenting on a tweet is a great way to start a conversation about teaching and learning.
3. Ask and reply to questions. Have an actual digital conversation. Most educators who share something on social media are looking to do more than just post and run.
5. I recommend creating a Twitter list of presenters and attendees. Lists are a great way to narrow down some of the clutter that such a busy conference hashtag will generate. You can even create a twitter list of people you meet at the conference for future reference. I’ve started this IDEAcon 2020 list already.
6. Reflect on your learning experience at the end of the day and share 1 key takeaway using the conference hashtag.
The Essential IDEAcon Supplies
Bring a Laptop. MacBook. or a Chromebook. Tablets and mobile devices are ok, but there will be sessions where having a full-sized screen and keyboard are a huge bonus. It’s nice to have a pad of paper or notebook for some sketchnotes, doodles, and quick brainstorming notes on the side.
1. Don't forget those charging cords or backup chargers!
2. I also recommend bringing a refillable water bottle and some healthy snacks to keep your energy levels up.
3. Have you ever explored Rocket Books? Rocket Books are reusable notebooks that can be erased. You can also use the Rockebook App to bring your written notes to the cloud and share them with the world!
4. If you are curious about sketchnotes and doodles as part of your conference learning experience, be sure to check out this great book: The Conference Companion by Becky Green.
5. I also think it is important to dress in layers. The temperature can vary a bit in different spaces at a larger conference.
6. If you are looking for more conference essentials, check out this list of Conference Essentials that my PLN has helped me organize.
Finally, please make sure you have a plan to bring at least one thing that you learned back to your school and classroom. It is too easy to get back into the rush of school and never connect your conference learning experience to your teaching plans.
Thanks for reading. If you have any additional suggestions please add them to the comments below. If we ever have the chance to meet at a conference I would love to stop and chat or share a quick high five if I am on the run.
Happy Learning,
Steve
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