Ties Conference vs Brainstorm

[Brian Bartley]

Looking for some input.  What is better to attend, the Ties conference in December in Minneapolis or the Brainstorm in Wisconsin Dells?  Any input?

[Jen Hegna]

Personally, I like TIES. When I leave, I am inspired. Their keynotes are world class and with some of the biggest thinkers/speakers/authors in education reform. You probably wont find a whole lot for Network Administrators. I note that Brainstorm is more geared to the "techy" technical side of school technology. But you will have alot of access to presentations to cultivate vision for your schools. It would be appropriate to have teachers, administrators, and school board members go to TIES. I am not sure, the same can be said of Brainstorm.

Just my opinion...
Jen

[Matt Anderson]

I agree with Jen's synopsis of the two conferences.

If your district only has money for 1 conference per year for you then you should go to Brainstorm and let your teachers go to TIES. As a network administrator you will benefit more from the network and techie stuff and thus the district will benefit more. Then you can go to TECHSPO for your teacher stuff if need be (nice plug huh?).

I liked TIES better a few years ago because they hadn't completely sold out to the APPLE folks. If you go there you need to go there knowing you are getting ideas for the classroom, not the server room. I think it's beneficial if you can go to both.

If you school sends people to TIES you should consider checking out the schedule and making recommendations of workshops and classes to go to. Last thing you want is for 20 teachers to go to a Using your Mac in the classroom when you have no intentions of ever getting Mac's. What'll happen is your staff will expect you to get Macs which isn't going to happen. This advice can be flipped for those districts that have all Macs, you don't want your staff going to a class that is Windows specific.

In closing, go to both if you can, otherwise Brainstorm will be your better bet as a tech.

[Jen Hegna]

I do not feel that Ties has sold out to Apple. There may be a few OS specific sessions up at Ties, and a few Vendor sponsored ones as well. This year even I am going to try and attend a few of the Mac sessions. Especially anything dealing with iPods and iPads. I am a newbie in that arena and I hope my teachers attend some of those too. Many students already have them - it is just trying to find the balance between entertainment and education. Edutainment anyone? :)

By the way,a Byron team is presenting on Monday @ 1pm. Stop by and say Hi!