This summer has been QUITE exciting. Not only did I get the opportunity to attend the KTI Star Summit; I have also been a successful matchmaker in at least one instance.  The energy I feel from recognizing potential connections between people is so invigorating that I am almost as twitterpated as they are. It’s a high. At the Summit, as I was telling people about this romance kindling, I realized I was getting that same “twitterpation high” throughout the week as we learned together.  

After #KTI2019, I am definitely “in a state of nervous excitement” because I see SO MANY connections being made.  Like taking a chance on a new love, many of the connections we made this week will put us on a new path, changing our lives forever.  This also explains why we could still function after the action-packed week of PD. The twitterpation gave us a high in two ways:

1. Finding our own match(es) - These professional connections are thrilling, whether we connect to other people or to new tools and ideas.  We can imagine their potential to make our lives better.
2. Matchmaking - The electrical energy we feel from being a matchmaker is even more powerful than finding matches for ourselves.  We share, we solve problems, and we help others make connections that could change their lives.  

Either way, it’s destiny.  We were brought together for a reason.  

After amazing collaborative experiences— whether a conference, summit, or a brief day of learning together, remember this feeling.  While our KTI Summit experience can never be exactly replicated, we will continue to be matchmakers. We will feel that nervous excitement as we take risks and continue to get to know new ideas and people.  Most importantly, we will have this twitterpated, electric high by matchmaking for those around us (with educational resources). It will bring out the best in all of us, and push us all to be better teachers for our students.  
People can be anxious about taking risks, so here are some things to remember as you help others find their educational matches.

• People struggle to see the positives about themselves.  Point out what makes them awesome. Describe how they can add value to each other’s strengths.
• Remind them that the risk of trying something new does NOT mean it is a “forever” commitment!  They can always call it a learning experience if it #FailsFabulously.
• Some are scared off by that twitterpated feeling— it’s good to have that nervous excitement.  It means you care.
• We are all attracted to different things.  Our matches should not be compared. Obviously we all have specific destinies, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help each other.
• Take it slow; take it fast; pace yourself.  Speed doesn’t matter. Read the situation and do whatever brings out the best in all parties.  It’s not a race to see who can use the most ed tech or who can gain the most Twitter followers.  

Moving forward, if you ever feel like your professional energy is fading, be a matchmaker.  Not only will you bring the electric back to your own career, but you will exponentially light up the entire profession. It’s the power of love… it can change the world.

Problem 1: Keeping up with #ISTE2015 on twitter
Problem 2: Managing QR codes scanned from busy poster sessions

PROBLEM SOLVER #1: Recently I learned of a website ifttt.com where you create “recipes” made up of if/then actions. Thanks @mcleod for this! I first heard of it so I could keep up and organize the tweets from the ISTE conference (#ISTE2015 and #ISTE15). After I created the account and linked my GoogleDrive and Twitter, I found “recipes” that automatically take tweets with a given hashtag and put them into a google sheet for me. I was amazed, and it was easy to make my recipe.  You can make them yourself, but we found one already made here: https://ifttt.com/recipes/search?q=%23ISTE2015&ac=false.  You can do this all via the web, but I went ahead and got the free app, and of course I started to think about the power of this new tool.  I always look to the problems technology will solve, and QR code organization was a big problem for me last year. 

Poster Sessions are filled with so many treasure-filled QR codes to scan.  Last year was my first ISTE conference, and I was caught off guard. I started out scanning with my phone's QR scanner, but that did not save my links. I then took pictures of the QR codes and saved them in EVERNOTE so that I could look at them later.  This didn’t work well either. Maybe I was missing the easy part of scanning QR codes, but I went home with random QR code collections, and it was overwhelming.

Over the last 24 hours, I finally made sense of how to do it. 

PROBLEM SOLVER #2: Now I can scan QR codes at the poster sessions (or anywhere), and they’ll go into my GoogleSheet as links.  They’re organized by date and time.  The setup process for this is not quite as simple as the twitter process.  It also is NOT free, but I thought $2.99 was worth it since I paid all the money to come to ISTE.  I want to easily access all of those resources well after the conference ends!

To make this work on your iPhone, you will need:

• An account with  https://ifttt.com/ (and optionally, the free “IF” app)

• Google Account (linked to the ifttt.com account)
• Launch Center Pro $2.99 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/launch-center-pro/id532016360?mt=8) Download and create your account.
• Get the recipe “Scan QR Code to Google Sheets” here: https://ifttt.com/recipes/265160?z=6267944 and click the Add button (be sure you have the link on the screen first, or see below).
• This is the step that I skipped (that took hours to figure out): Where it says Install this Launch Center Pro action to trigger this Recipe: https://launchcenterpro.com/34l7k3 BE SURE YOU CLICK THAT LINK AND INSTALL TO YOUR PHONE.  It’s the magic that makes it all work.  The Launch Center Pro app will then ask you where you want to put the tile in the app.  Once it is there, you’ll click it, and it will bring up your QR scanner.  After you scan, a line will be added to your Google Sheet.  You’ll find the completed sheet in your Google Drive in the IFTTT folder (unless you changed settings).

I know it is complicated, and I would love to make a video sometime.  But if you can make it work, I think it will be a handy tool!

Good luck, and have fun at the conference!
I'm @duqcolleen on Twitter! :)

I'm a good listener.  I always have been.  I'm sure my mom still has all of my elementary school report cards to prove it, too.  Kidding aside, listening and learning are very important to me.  I enjoying hearing what people have to say.  Believe it or not, some of my best insights and ideas come when I am listening to people complain!   This does not mean that I love negativity; I usually try to find the silver lining.   People just do not realize how valuable complaining can be in the problem solving process.  Passionate complainers sometimes have the best ideas hidden amongst all of that hot air and eye rolling.  Listening, finding value, and problem solving.... Next time you end up in the middle of that group of complainers, sit back and listen.  You might just get a great idea!