Last week, 225 Rowan-Salisbury educators loaded onto four buses and braved a mid-summer trek to Philadelphia for the International Society of Technology in Education’s (ISTE) annual conference.

I heard so much about the conference last year, I decided to tag along to see what it was all about.

Rowan-Salisbury educators presented a number of sessions, and I tried to make it to as many of them as I could.

I wrote several stories about it last week while I was there, but it’s hard to capture the energy of thousands of educators in just a few stories. In fact, I’m not sure that I could sum it all up. Below, you’ll find my humble attempt to describe ISTE in just a few words.

ISTE was…

Empowering

I watched teachers walk away with new tools and ideas, as well as a deeper understanding of how to use them in the classroom.

I also listened to them talk to other teachers from around the world, and share their similar experiences as well as their unique ones. The networking that took place at ISTE won’t just benefit the teachers. Many of them talked about linking their classes and working on projects together through video conferencing.

Rejuvenating

I had several teachers tell me that they were so excited they were already ready for the students to come back to school so they could implement what they learned. ISTE sparked a renewed sense of excitement amongst local educators.

Unifying

One of the coolest things I saw was that the learning did not stop when the educators returned from the convention center. On shuttle rides, at dinner, in the hotel lobby and on the bus ride home they talked about what they saw, what they learned and how they can implement the ideas.

It brought together teachers from different schools as they shared their passions and plans with each other.

Challenging

Keynote speaker Soledad O’Brien talked about the importance of diversity in educational technology.

In a district with high poverty rates, O’Brien’s talk was especially relevant as she encouraged teachers to use technology to include those students, rather than to alienate them, and to use it to open more doors to them.

I also sat in on a meeting of Digital Promise’s League of Innovation, a group of leaders from 57 districts across 27 states who are successfully using technology in education. Rowan-Salisbury was accepted into the league last school year.

During that meeting, district administrators tackled the real-life problems they’ve come up against and brainstormed ways to solve those problems. They shared their successes and failures as a way to find better solutions for their students.

Overwhelming

More than 20,000 people attended ISTE this year, and roughly 1 percent of those attendees were Rowan-Salisbury teachers, technology facilitators, principals and administrators.

The conference filled the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which encompasses three city blocks in the heart of downtown Philadelphia.

The sheer size was overwhelming enough, but the amount of information shared was even more impressive.

Every day, there were vendor booths to learn about new products, playgrounds to try new technology, poster sessions to learn from fellow educators, lectures and keynote sessions. There was always something going on.

Rowan-Salisbury still has much to learn (and always will) about the best practices of using technology in education, but they also have much to offer.

The district’s visionary leadership and staff worked hard this year to roll out the one-to-one digital conversion, and they’ve learned a lot along the way.

ISTE was a critical piece of professional development for the district. Not only did attendees learn a lot, but they will also have the opportunity to present to their peers what they learned, at the district’s back-to-school conference in August.

Contact education reporter Jeanie Groh at 704-797-4222 or jeanie.groh@salisburypost.com