Iowa 1 to 1 Institute- A Great Success

I want to thank CASTLE and Scott McLeod along with Nick Sauers, Jamie Fath, and John Nash for supporting and organizing a wonderful event yesterday in Des Moines. It was a great opportunity to connect, share, and learn. I think we would all be hard pressed to find a better conference for educators interested in a 1:1 learning environment. And the thing that still amazes me, is it was free for all participants. Great job CASTLE!

It was a great opportunity for me to connect with other Iowa educators. I particularly liked the reflection time at the end with other principals including, Dominic Giegerich, Jeff Kirby, and Brian Downing. However, the best part of the conference for me was the opportunity to meet in person, Patrck Larkin. We have talked a few times and tweeted a lot, but to actually get the opportunity to meet someone from my PLN that I hadn't yet met face to face was very enriching for me. I want to thank Patrick for taking the time to come to Iowa and learn with us. He was able to help me in my session about Twitter and PLNs. It was great because Eric Sheninger also Skyped in with us earlier in my session. I tried to show people in my session the power of Twitter and developing a PLN that allows you to connect with great educators through out the world. I think having Eric and Partrick participate in my presentation was an enriching opportunity for all of those which attended, but it was especially enriching for me because both of these guys have helped me grow as an administrator.

Unfortunately, we did not livestream or record our session so I am going to follow Russ Goerend's lead and try to record my own reflections about Iowa 1 to 1 Institute. I believe there is a great power in networking. We can lead the change we want to see in schools. We are gaining momentum. The Iowa 1:1 Institute was one more step in facilitating the transformation of our educational system.

Don't make too much fun of me:)