ISTELive 24 4+

Every year I marvel at how horrible the app is. It’s literally a technology conference! Any time you go off the app it closes you out of the screen you were on. Chosen sessions are a mystery in the app..they should be the easiest thing to find.

Just in the first few minutes, issues from years past are still very painfully evident, including (1) forced portrait mode on an IPad; (2) no way to see more than 100 characters of a session description (really??); (3) illegible-sized fonts that ignore system settings; and probably worst, (4) when you swipe to another app, you totally lose your place and filters for what you were looking at, and you start entirely over. Even if you swipe out for a few seconds, you waste 10-20 seconds getting back to your schedule … which starts you on Sunday even though it may be Tuesday.

Forget trying to build a schedule on the IPad or IPhone app, impossible as you’re not shown any of the description beyond 100 characters. Do your planning from a desktop, or from your mobile browser, then import it into the app. I guess that’s the way to do it.

Does anyone at ISTE care, or does anyone there use their own app? My school district is bringing fewer people to the conference this year, due to rising prices and diminishing value. Seeing how poor the app experience is, and how poor it’s been for years now, does not reflect good on the organization.

The ISTE Conference app has really improved this year! It now has some very useful new features, like being able to register for sessions—and to see if they’re full. It can also help personalize attendees’ experiences at the Conference with recommendations, and it makes it a lot easier for people to network and connect with other educators who have similar interests.