STRATEGIES FOR WRITING AND

SUBMITTING AN EFFECTIVE ISTE

CONFERENCE SUBMISSION

Chris O’Neal@onealchris

#iste2014

TOPICS

Information

Proposals

Tips

Timelines

Q & A

Note: Conference planner – this session entry also has link to webinar

ATTENDEES

Submitted AcceptedAcceptance

Rate

BYOD 215 105 48.84%

Interactive lecture

531 78 14.69%

Lecture/panel 616 107 17.37%

Poster 650 337 51.85%

Research paper

101 55 54.46%

Snapshot 174 44 25.29%

Workshop 312 183 58.65%

 

Total 2,599 909 34.97%

PROPOSAL ACCEPTANCE RATES

EVALUATING THIS YEAR

Session evaluations

Room counts

Overall conference-evaluation feedback

Requests from participants

General feedback

TABLE NETWORKING

How many of you are going to submit for this coming year’s

conference in Philadelphia?

Table Share:

What are your favorite types of ISTE sessions to attend

and why?

If you have favorite presenters, what is it that they do that

makes you keep coming back?

GOAL OF SUBMISSION PROCESS

To allow the program committee and the

reviewers to get the best information

possible for choosing the program content.

GENERAL PROCESS

• Proposals are collected and grouped with a team chair who is an expert in that area

• They assemble a team of 3-5 educational-content experts to evaluate against the rubric

• Guidance/webinars to ensure objectivity

• 70 teams reading 2000+ proposals

OVERVIEW & TIMELINE• Call for Participation – September

• Proposals submitted

• Program Proposal Review Teams Assembled

• Team Chair organizes team and schedule

• Team evaluates against proposal rubric

• Conference calls, emails, etc.

• Recommendations made to ISTE Program Committee

PROCESS NOTES

• Program chair may recommend multiple presenters to team up in a panel, if the themes are similar

• Clarification Issues

• Notifications sent

WEB TOUR

PRESENTATION TYPE

• LISTEN AND LEARN

• PARTICIPATE AND SHARE

• EXPLORE AND CREATE

• ENGAGE AND CONNECT

SUBMITTING - TITLE

• Titles should clearly depict what is going to be presented in the session.

• For example, “Bytes, Camera, Action!”, although creative, does not adequately describe what the session is about.

• "Bytes, Camera, Action: Incorporating Digital Video in the Classroom" does.

SESSION DESCRIPTION• Descriptions should be accurate and

enticing.

• Workshop descriptions in particular should be designed to “sell” the workshop.

• Effective descriptions should contain action words and focus on benefits to participants rather than a narrative of workshop content.

AUDIENCE FOCUS• Chief Technology Officers/Superintendents/School

Board Members

• Curriculum/District Specialists

• Professional Developers

• Library Media Specialists

• Principals/Head Teachers

• Technology Coordinators/Facilitators

PROPOSAL SUMMARY - GENERAL• Educational significance and

contribution to the respective theme and strand

• Degree to which higher-order applications of technology are addressed

• Ease of replication & value to participants

• Presenter knowledge and experience

PURPOSE & OBJECTIVES• Written as participant outcomes

• Educational or infrastructure challenge/situation

• Technology intervention (include specific names/titles and descriptions, if not widely known)

• Models employed (include brief description)

• Lesson plans or instructional strategies employed (include a brief description of your resources/tools)

• Evidence of success, graphical displays of plan

CATEGORY SELECTION• Strongly consider your audience

• Decide format – lecture, poster, workshop, etc.

• Select appropriate theme/strand

• Let’s look at the presenter submission form.

GENERAL TIPS

• Think back on highly-engaging sessions or presenters you really liked:

• What stands out?

• Would you have done what they did?

GENERAL TIPS

• If this will be the first year you submit, consider a poster session – plan for videos, posters, and other materials, so you can build your presentation experience

• TakingITGlobal, for example, prefers to do posters because they are personal and informal

GENERAL TIPS• Think very carefully about how to write and

prepare for your intended audience

• Teachers – want successful and practical sharing of ideas and resources

• Administrators – want to know about instructional success, policy and funding issues, scalability

• Tech coordinators – rollout issues, cost, ROI, p.d.

GENERAL TIPS

• If you are fairly new to presenting, build up your experience now

• Presenter background is important

• Presenter’s experience can help

GENERAL TIPS

• Have critical friends review your proposal

• The idea

• The theme/strand applicability

• The written contents

REMINDERS• View current conf site to view accepted-

session details

• September is most the important milestone

• Start now with your idea

• Prepare your outline

• Get with a friend to come up with clever title/description and sharp objectives

FUTURE CONFERENCES• ISTE 2015

• Philadelphia, Penn., June 28-July 1, 2015

• ISTE 2016

• Denver, Co., June 26-29, 2016

• ISTE 2017

• San Antonio, Texas, June 26-29, 2017