Many of our presenters come to the ISTE Conference & Expo for the same reason that other attendees come: They love the engagement, learning from peers and the electric atmosphere.

We asked a handful of ISTE 2017 presenters to tell us what they like most about the conference and to share a little bit about themselves. Reshan Richards, who cofounded Explain Everything, will present the BYOD session "Animated Whiteboarding and Sketchnoting" at ISTE 2017.

Which of your fellow presenters are you most excited to hear/meet and why?

I’m so excited to attend sessions that are exploring sketchnotes and other non-linear forms of documenting learning. A program search for sketchnoting basically reports out the sessions where I plan to be!

Which social media app will you be using the most at ISTE 2017? And why?

I’ll be sharing my learning on Twitter since it's a space where I am already quite engaged. I usually share out my notes after a session right away with the conference hashtag. I enjoy when others do the same because it helps me see how other people captured the sessions that I was in while also creating curiosity to learn more about sessions I did not get the chance to attend.

What’s your favorite thing about the ISTE Conference & Expo?

My favorite thing about the ISTE Conference & Expo is all of the ‘in between’ time where you run into people you follow, people you’ve met at other education events, people you’ve worked with before, and then all of the people that those folks are hanging out with at the time. It’s serves as a learning and network amplifier for me.

What do you think are the three most important topics in edtech right now?

I think the three most important topics to examine in education are assessment (both practices and perception), schedules and content disciplines. I think technology continues to provide new lenses for looking at these topics, which in my opinion are the biggest constraints for creative design and development of schools.

What book did you last read for fun? For PD?

The most fascinating professional book I read in recent months is Joshua Cooper Ramo’s The Seventh Sense. While not in the education PD category necessarily, it is a book that I think all progressive educators can learn from. For fun, Questlove’s Something to Food About was given as a gift and I still enjoy flipping through its colorful pages.