San Antonio is HOT—and it’s all about educational technology!

I’m in San Antonio, Texas, for the annual National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), sponsored by the International Society for Technology in Education. ISTE is the organization responsible for the standards that we use to measure technology proficiency, like the NETS-S and NETS-T. This conference is the one to attend if you are looking for play with new software, examine new hardware, and connect with people who do what we do and who use technology to do it.

I arrived a day early for a pre-conference workshop on Saturday that was, unfortunately, cancelled. However, that cancellation did provide me with the opportunity to see a bit of the city and to catch up on email and paperwork. I remember when traveling meant that work stopped. Now, I can work from anywhere, which I suppose is a mixed blessing?

A few notes about San Antonio—The Riverwalk is definitely a success story. Through a series of bridges, tunnels, and walkways, the city planners have found a way to move visitors in the downtown area from the hot street-level sidewalks to a shaded, lower-level arena for eating, shopping, and people-watching, all surrounding a body of water that’s more like a small ditch than a river. Nevertheless, the combination of misting fans, lush tropical foliage, and water taxis, along with low-cost trolleys to bring in travelers from nearby hotels, provides for a much more pleasant visit in the blistering temperatures of July.

Inside the Convention Center, however, things are heating up. Vendors are moving materials into booths, convention planners and volunteers are adding final touches, and pre-conference meetings have begun. More on that later!