Memories from day 1 at ISTE 2013 with Beyond Technology
Notes from day 1 of ISTE 2013 in San Antonio: the opening keynote, Microsoft's Surface RT giveaway, the Nexus 7, and what ISTE is today.
Updated with current data and sources. Originally published July 2, 2013.
Around 20 thousand people, hundreds of exhibitors, and 100s of workshops are part of the San Antonio, TX ISTE Conference this year. It was an overwhelming spectacle to take in. The opening keynote, Jane McGonigal, was interesting and engaging, sharing her perspective on gaming in education. She kicked off the conference on Sunday night. Monday was full of workshops to attend and showcases to visit.
Dividing our resources
Melisa, Rick, and I decided the best strategy was to divide our resources and each attend a different workshop at every time slot. Morning and afternoon workshops were full of new tools, new ways to use familiar tools, and new perspectives of technology education. We had a few minutes for lunch and about an hour to check out the exhibits.
Microsoft and Google make their moves
Microsoft made quite an aggressive move for presence in education by giving away 10,000 Surface RTs to educators who received permission from their district to receive one. Google showcased its support of the Nexus 7 as their move to have a tablet presence in schools. They are working to develop more educational apps for the fall rollout.
It's been quite exciting with tons of information to process! In the evening we have taken in the local sites and culture enjoying dinner on the River Walk. Dinner has been our time to relax, recoup and share all of the great information that we absorbed. Day 2 was another full day.
Where to start this week
Schools now bring a new question to conferences like this one: what to do about AI. Before you go, the free AI Readiness Assessment takes eight questions and scores your school out of 24 across Policy, People, Curriculum, Guardrails, and Funding, so your team knows what to look for.
Related reading: Memories from day 2 at ISTE 2013 with Beyond Technology and Professional development for educators in the era of human and AI collaboration: what works in 2025-2026.
Sources
- Educational Technology and Change Journal, ISTE 2013: Successful, but too big? (July 2013) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Getting Smart, ISTE's top ten conversations (June 2013) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- EdTech Magazine, What to expect at ISTE 2013 (June 2013) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Engadget, Microsoft will give 10,000 Surface tablets to educators attending ISTE (June 2013) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- ISTE+ASCD, ISTE+ASCD announces new name: International Society for Transforming Education (June 2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Education Week, What's in a name? Check out ISTE+ASCD's rebrand ... ish (June 2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- ISTE+ASCD, Second annual ISTELive and ASCD Annual Conference convenes global education leaders (2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- ISTE, ISTELive 27 frequently asked questions (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Microsoft Support, Surface RT update history (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- National Center for Education Statistics, More than half of public school leaders say cell phones hurt academic performance (February 2025) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
See where your school stands on AI, in five minutes
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