What #NOTATISTE16 Is Teaching Me

#NOTATISTE16 gives many of us who are otherwise unable to travel to the ISTE Conference in Denver, Colorado an opportunity to live vicariously through the social media interactions with other like-minded educators at #ISTE2016 and a gorup of more than 1,000 other educators who also are not attending #ISTE2016 in person.

With the subculture that Jennifer Wagner (@jenwagner) has generated year after year with what has become a Google Community group and is accompanied by various challenges and mimicry of the actual events of ISTE, educators are compelled to collect learning experiences and to engage in a variety of entertaining and multifarious learning experiences. For the frugal with internet connections or the educators who simply love the competition to win prizes from the multitude of sponsors for the #NOTATISTE16 group, this is exciting and may even bridge the digital divide for those building a social media PLN.

So though I am learning about numerous great tools and resources for educational technology application and new philosophical approaches to education and learning, my learning has come to three major points in my participation in #NOTATISTE16 this year:

1. Competition drives activity. I have known for quite some time that I enjoy competition, but I have realized while participating in the #NOTATISTE16 challenge that when I am focused on solving a problem or tackling a challenge I take it seriously and seek out the resources that I need to accomplish the task. This reminds me how incentives drive learners at all levels when they are meaningful and relevant and that challenges with feasible solutions and even sometimes creative or innovative possible solutions drive learners to success.
2. Educators who share care. Seeing teachers draw from one another and freely share resources for the good of students everywhere in the realm of social media really impressed upon me more powerfully why I am an educator and why I intend to treat others with integrity and honesty without holding onto experiences simply for my own enjoyment. I am encouraged by the intentions of fellow educators to share not only their tools and resources, but also their trials and triumphs as they experience beautiful epiphanies and learning with their students and colleagues.
3. I truly am a nerd, and love this about me. Every new device, program, and robot or gadget that I saw through the social media feeds with hashtags #ISTE2016 and #NOTATISTE16 excited me and generated a zeal for finding ways to experience it so that I might also carry that zeal to my students and teachers in my building. I do not anticipate ever losing this eager anticipation of the next valuable technology tool for learning and experiencing the world in a more exciting and engaging way.

So as I continue into my last day #NOTATISTE16, I hope to continue to build relationships virtually with other educators and to develop a greater repertoire for both the tools and resources and the passion that comes from some of the most well-known personalities in educational technology, as well as from the new innovators who are sharing their experiences so freely with others.