We recently returned from Arizona and the end of a busy fall filled with EdTech conferences. We may have saved the best for last, exhibiting and presenting at the AESA Conference in Phoenix, AZ at the beginning of December. This trip out west was especially noteworthy for us for a couple of reasons. It marked the third straight year we attended the AESA and NAMTC Conferences, which are always scheduled side by side, but more importantly, it was memorable because our own Irina Tuule was presented with the NAMTC Partner in Excellence Award during the event—an honor we are all very excited about and grateful for.

The National Association of Media and Technology Centers (NAMTC) is the premier organization for focusing on the development of instructional technology and professional development resources at the regional (ESA) level. They help the over 500 ESAs across the United States make informed decisions about the technology they’re using and help maximize the reach of that technology. Through their efforts, NAMTC has made an impact in over 80 percent of school districts and helped improve the learning experiences for some 40 million students.

K-12, higher education, and regional media centers can apply to become NAMTC members as well as commercial vendors. Our relationship with NAMTC has been great and they have helped create a number of valuable opportunities for us as a company. Their services for library media and tech professionals include digital resource collections, help with tech integration, staff development and training, makerspace and STEM advice, and a lot more. To learn more about how this organization can help library and media centers, visit their website.

The Partner In Excellence Award has been presented by NAMTC at their annual conference every year (except one) since 2008. Irina joins a list of highly successful, intelligent, and innovative members of the EdTech community to receive this award. Past recipients to receive it have represented companies like AESA, PBS, Mindshine, BrightBytes, and more. We are very grateful to forever have our name tied to this award, which recognizes exemplary contributions to the field of educational and media technology. 

Irina also helped lead a very well-attended session at the AESA Conference. Titled “Learning with the Heart,” she teamed up with Diana Wendell, another longtime friend of ours at Eduporium, to discuss how MakerEd tools can help students excel when they’re combined with social-emotional learning. A huge topic in today’s education world, Irina and Diana did a great job of illuminating the benefits of tying STEAM to SEL and she said that the members in the audience seemed to enjoy it as well!

Traveling to Arizona and getting to see a lot of people we’ve worked with in the past and continue to have great relationships with was a great way for us to wrap up our unofficial conference season. We want to send a huge thank you to everybody at AESA and at NAMTC for recognizing all of the Irina’s hard work. We very much look forward to continuing to work with these organizations as well and for the next leadership summit! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all of our other news as we close out 2019.