I spent the day in the education track, which had between 10 and fifteen people for most of its four presentations (pdf of agenda). I wanted to share some of the presenters' and attendees' key ideas, as well as some of the thoughts that popped into my mind during the sessions.
Organizing Processes for Educators and Students
I now have a handout titled Many Ways to Bring Your Data into ArcGIS Online. (It and other docs are here.) It details 10 different ways to bring "internal" and "external" data into ArcGIS Online. This is how an educator thought to teach other educators about the various processes. I searched the Web a bit and could not find any other document arranged quite this way. Educators think about teaching/learning/organizing differently than others.
Reinventing the Wheel
While we explored the different ways to bring in data, specifically downloading and publishing data from the Maine Office of GIS during the above workshop, one attendee spoke up. He asked in essence, why the state does not offer these data as feature services. He asked educators and GIS professionals to let the states (and I'll argue any other orgs) know the value of these services to educators and their students.
Professional vs. Educational Software
I was reminded as presenters and attendees got lost among menus and had error boxes pop up, that ArcGIS is not designed for education.It is designed for professionals/experts. This is a blessing and a curse for educators and students.