My take-aways from ISTE are many! I will just share a few here:
Developing, Designing, and Delivering: The Case for Powerful and Productive Presentations – Ken 
Shelton and Robert Craven
I have seen so many bad PowerPoints that I truly understand the Death By PowerPoint video on Youtube. I have used PowerPoint in the classroom and will be using it in my new role here at TIE and I really wanted to learn how to use it in a better way. Ken and Robert really talk about the visual impact that your presentation can have and why you really need to tell a story. I hope to be discussing this in greater detail in a class we are offering this fall ~ Bringing It Home: ISTE 2010!
Yolink
As I installed the extension in Chrome (and you can use it on other browsers) they said this:
Yolink – Search, Find, Create
Find exactly what you’re looking for, only faster. Using key terms, the yolink Chrome extension scans web pages, search engine results, e-books and more to deliver just the information you need. It even lets you peek behind the links so you can
decide what’s valuable. And then with just one click, it takes you to the exact location of the information, completely shortening your search process.
But it doesn’t end there. Once you’ve found what you need, yolink lets you compile all of your results in Google Docs and Spreadsheets and share them with colleagues, co-workers and friends using your favorite social network and bookmarking tools. So it not only simplifies your search, it simplifies your life. Not too shabby for a Chrome extension.
I am now ab
le to go to a website, click they yolink extension and enter words to search for. It makes searching the site so much easier and faster!
Foursquare
At first, I thought this was silly. You set up an account and then you check in at the places you are at. This alerts your friends – in one or several different ways – where you are. I found that for the conference, it was extremely helpful. There was a large group of us that were doing things together, but we would separate to go off to different sessions. Using Foursquare, we were able to quickly find one another. Plus, there was the fun aspect of earning badges and trying to become the mayor of a place. I never managed that! Sigh!
Plurk
This is not a take away from the conference as I have been using plurk for two years now. This conference cements the value in networking online and then having the opportunity to meet face-to-face. Because we already “know” each other, we can come together for very rich and meaningful conversation. Through this, I was able to be part of a digital jam session, where everyone brought their ipads, iphones, droids, and laptops and played beautiful music together. We added some digital guitars and used a free, online karaoke site called singsnap.com to add more depth to the jam!
I was also able to meet people that I might not have networked with. The new friends I have are already proving to be valuable resources.
While I believe you go to a conference to bring back resources, I know I could sit online and garner many of those. The face-to-face networking I get to do is something that is truly enriched at an event like the ISTE conference!
