ISTE 2019 Recap + Ambassador Questions?

Last month, I was extremely fortunate to attend ISTE 2019 in Philadelphia, PA. I won a spot to present through their "People's Choice" session vote after initially being rejected as a standard session. I gathered all of my session resources (including the presentation itself, into one Wakelet collection, and you can find all of the info from my session, regardless of attendance at ISTE, here! My session was about digital storytelling and visual literacy through the use of video. I outlined the steps of Design Thinking and how they apply to the process of creating a digital story.

I posted a little recap of my experience at ISTE on my Reset EDU YouTube channel. You can check it out here:

I was fortunate to be able to attend ISTE thanks to WeVideo. They paid for my travel and registration for ISTE in exchange for working in their booth for the duration of the convention. Many educators are in the same boat as I am - we are unable to afford travel and registration to this convention on our own, as it is quite expensive. I have heard several educators who are critical of other teachers who serve as ambassadors for ed tech companies, and although I understand their views, I know that I could not be a part of this community and attend these events without it. So I need to be open-minded and flexible, and comfortable with the fact that I would not advocate for a company or service that I did not truly believe in and use personally. This is very true when it comes to WeVideo.

I have also made a lot of new friends and significantly expanded my PLN as a result of being an ambassador and the experiences that have come with it. At ISTE, I was able to connect with so many friends IRL, including getting to meet fellow WeVideo ambassador Bruce Reicher, pictured in the thumbnail above. (Find him at @breicher on Twitter!)

I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone has concerning my experience as an ambassador, so feel free to send them my way! I'd like to address them in a future blog post or Reset EDU episode. Is there anything you've always wanted to know?

- Mrs L.