IETA 2025

As esports continues to gain popularity among students, schools have a unique opportunity to harness this enthusiasm by establishing an engaging and inclusive esports program. Join us for an informative session where we’ll explore the essential steps to successfully launch an esports program at your high school.

In this talk, you’ll learn how to:

Understand the Landscape: Gain insights into the current state of high school esports, including popular games, leagues, and competition structures.

Build Support: Discover strategies for garnering support from administrators, teachers, and parents to create a sustainable program.

Foster Inclusivity: Learn how to create an environment that welcomes all students, regardless of skill level or background.

Implement Best Practices: Hear from experienced coaches and program directors about what works and what to avoid in developing a successful esports initiative.

Whether you're a teacher or administrator, this session will equip you with the tools and knowledge to turn your esports vision into reality. Join us to unlock the potential of esports in education and inspire the next generation of gamers!

School leaders are constantly faced with critical decisions, often under intense pressure to respond quickly and decisively. This session will show administrators and educational leaders how to cut through the static and amplify their leadership voice by creating a customized AI assistant to help find clear, consistent solutions to complex issues. Participants will learn how to input their personal leadership philosophies, discipline policies, and goals into the AI, transforming it into a tool that offers customized solutions and suggestions that are in alignment with your core principles. By the end of this hands-on workshop, attendees will understand how to use custom AI as a thought partner to navigate the noise, make clearer decisions, and tackle real-world challenges—from discipline issues to school management and technology integration. Walk away with a fully customized ChatGPT, primed to lead with you—loud, clear, and at full volume.

Participants will leave the session with a working knowledge of ChatGPT’s custom instructions. They will gain confidence in using AI to support decision-making, ensuring their leadership style is consistently reflected in the AI's responses. The session outcomes include faster, more consistent decision-making, reduced stress, and the ability to turn AI into a dynamic tool that aligns with their leadership vision.

On average, the world experiences 350 to 500 medium-to-large scale natural disasters each year. This rate of occurrence is expected to continue through 2030 and could significantly increase year-over-year. In short, the development of resilience strategies has become part of doing business -- are you confident in your school or district’s ability to respond to [and recover from] these types of events? This presentation, led by a DRII Business Continuity Professionals, walks the audience through a Business Continuity and IT Disaster Recovery Program Lifecycle. As we step through the lifecycle, our presenters will equip attendees with actionable knowledge, share best practices, and explain the principles that underpin each activity. Midway through the session our presenters will switch gears from education to applied learning – effectively leading the audience through a tabletop exercise and simulating the decisions necessary to navigate a real-life disaster. Attendees are encouraged to participate and ask questions as we explore the strategic imperative of safeguarding and ensuring continuity of K-12 education!

This session will offer new technology leaders in education a different approach to meeting the needs of their district. Vision statements, building momentum, and using feedback as guideposts for success are all part of this session.

In today's competitive landscape, the success of a project often hinges on its strategic positioning prior to kick-off. This presentation will explore key strategies to effectively position individual projects within a portfolio and how to maximize their chances of success. We will delve into essential elements such as understanding the target audience, identifying key benefits, crafting compelling messaging, and leveraging effective communication channels. By implementing these tactics, you can enhance stakeholder engagement, secure necessary resources, and ultimately achieve your project objectives.

Staying current with your technology strategy, infrastructure, data governance, cybersecurity resilience, vendor management and more can feel like a daunting task. Now consider trying to move the needle to future-proof your platform, processes and vendor relationships while perpetually fighting to protect your data from those that don’t rest from relentlessly attacking it.

Join Idaho Digital Learning Alliance (IDLA) and infoVia for an insightful discussion about how we are doing just that. With an eye to the future, we are on a journey to put IDLA on a more solid foundation that enables them to provide a much higher quality of service to their constituents more efficiently while increasing security and governance.

Tech fatigue is a persistent challenge for educators, often stemming from too many new tools, limited time for training, or the aftereffects of pandemic-era online learning. This session will show how NSD’s Curriculum & Instruction team is transforming tech fatigue into tech engagement by spotlighting teachers and instructional coaches in the NSD Innovators cohort. With a focus on simplifying digital tools, flexible PD offerings, and on-demand classroom examples, we’re creating flexible teacher pathways to spark excitement. Join us to explore school or district strategies for re-engaging teachers with technology!

Schools often prioritize speed and accuracy, but true innovation thrives on creativity and divergent thinking. This session will challenge the traditional focus on "correct answers" and explore practical strategies to cultivate a more creative and imaginative learning environment. Through engaging hands-on activities, participants will discover protocols designed to stimulate divergent thinking that can be used in both classroom and professional learning settings. By tapping into our curiosity, combining unrelated ideas, and thinking outside the box, we can empower those whom we work with to become innovative problem-solvers and critical thinkers. Join me as we explore how to foster a culture of creativity and innovation that can help us tackle the challenges and harness the opportunities of today’s world.

Roundtable discussion. Come ready to talk about what you use to dig into student data or what you are looking into. What data do you find asked for most. Example: How test data and attendance might correlate. Do/Will you have a specific person(s) in charge of creating reports. Anything else you would like to share or know about student data analytics.

Google Workspace for Education and ChromeOS are the power couple of productivity, we'll cover all the latest and greatest features of these two must-have tools, so you can work smarter, not harder.