The best part of ISTE this year won’t be the keynote. It won’t be the epic presentations. It won’t be the #EduAwesome Ed Tech Karaoke party. No. The best part will be the Social Butterfly Lounge.
The Social Butterfly Lounge is a place for educators to learn about social media. ISTE wants us to “help people gain social media literacy and connect with each other using various tools”. It’s going to be much more than that. I have a feeling this it’s going to be the best part of ISTE. Not only will it be a great place to introduce teachers to social media, it will also be a place to connect with other teachers that you already know through social media. So, if you’ve been tweeting, “Who’s going to #iste12?”, or “Add your name to my list so I can see you at #iste12”, than this is the place to be. Rather than wondering where all your tweeps are, just come to the Social Butterfly Lounge. We will be there.
I’ve noticed that the community of educators on Twitter is amazing, but there’s a problem–the same people are talking to each other about the same stuff. We’re stuck in a feedback loop. We’re talking to ourselves.
We know social media is great, we know it’s changing our classrooms, and yet we talk about it with each other and no one else.
This is our chance to branch out, to show other educators how transformative social media can be. And then we will get more educators excited about connecting with social media.
We need volunteers to help run this lounge. Sign up here on the Google Doc. We need to fill forty time slots (30-minutes) on:
Sunday: 3:30-5 pm; 7-8 pm (during the Opening Reception)
Monday-Tuesday: 9 am-3 pm
Wednesdsay: 9 am-1:30 pm
If you sign up, you will get a free t-shirt, which has been #EduAwesome-certified. And please, share this with other educators who love social media.
