OPENING
| 14:00 | WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
Our Formal Education Session hosts, Ilse and Frank will welcome attendees and bring you through the format of the afternoon. Technology in education has long promised to enhance education, increase student engagement, personalise the learning for each student, save the educator lots of time and ‘produce’ well-rounded individuals who are ready to change industry and society. But has it delivered? In this interactive session, we explore the dynamic between the EdTech industry and education systems and dive deeper into the complexity of the topic with our expert speakers and panelists. |
Ilse White, Senior Researcher at Learnovate
Frank O’Reilly, Corporate Learning at Learnovate |
KEYNOTE
| 14:10 | THE FUTURE OF OER (OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES) IS NOW
For the last ten years, the OER Project has worked to create free, high-quality instructional materials for classrooms around the world. More than just digitizing the textbook, a modern approach also focuses on creating resources to help teachers make effective use of these materials, as well as capturing the wisdom of the classroom to improve them. Explore
Takeways
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Rachel Phillips, Research Lead and Curriculum Developer at OER Project Gates Ventures |
PANEL DISCUSSION
| 14:40 | DELIVERING THE EDTECH FOR A 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION SYSTEM
Education technology has long promised to disrupt and revolutionize the world of education. Some argue that the EdTech industry has delivered on this promise with technology in widespread use in the classroom – either as a communication tool or as a support for students, teachers, parents, schools and institutions. Others argue that EdTech has not (yet) fulfilled its promise and that despite the creation of a big industry that offers many products and solutions, the impact on education and teaching are small in comparison. During this conversation we will explore to what extent EdTech has lived up to its promise. Our panelists bring a wealth of experience and insight to the conversation and debate around the success of introducing technology in education. |
Chair: Ilse White. Corporate Learning Research Specialist at Learnovate
Peter Baxter, Managing Director at Createschool Aaron McKenna, Managing Director at UCD Professional Academy Dr Mary Kelly, Academic Dean at Hibernia College Daniel McCrea, Head of Partner Services at Adaptemy |
LEARNOVATE RESEARCH PROJECT
| 15:10 | ALPACA
Learning to read is one of the most complex human endeavours. Up to 20% of children in classrooms struggle to acquire proficient levels of reading and the longer these difficulties are left, the more arduous, damaging and time-consuming they are to remediate. ALPACA (Assessment of Letter knowledge and Phonemic Awareness Classroom App) aims to change this. ALPACA is being developed to support teachers in assessing and monitoring young children’s literacy skills as early as possible in order to cultivate an inclusive classroom environment for all beginning readers. |
Dr Jennifer O’Sullivan, Lecturer in Education (Literacy) Marino Institute of Education |
| ASSESS21C
The practice and development of 21st Century Skills (Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, etc.) are playing an increasingly important role in higher and further education (HE & FE) as educators seek to prepare their students to meet the evolving needs of a changing workplace. These skills do not readily lend themselves to traditional assessments, what is needed is a cross module real world assessment of students based on behaviour. Assess21c is an exciting project looking to solve this problem through project based learning initiatives, peer and tutor assessment leading to a 21stC evidenced skill map for students to take with them after they leave college. |
Peter Gillis, Innovation Services Lead at Learnovate |
COFFEE BREAK
| 15:40 | COFFEE & NETWORKING |
WORKSHOP
| 15:50 | FORMAL EDUCATION WORKSHOP
This workshop is aimed at exploring what the future of education technology might look like. Participants will work in small groups to discuss challenges around the use of technology in education that have been submitted by Learnovation attendees. This activity will take the form of a short ‘brainstorming sprint’ where, in the first half, each group will be encouraged to use divergent thinking to explore different aspects of the challenge they have been given. In the second half of the sprint, each group will be asked to use convergent thinking to bring together their ideas using Edward de Bono’s Plus Minus Interesting (PMI) technique. All outputs of the workshop will be shared with participants in a digital format. |
Ilse White, Senior Researcher at Learnovate
Frank O’Reilly, Corporate Learning at Learnovate |
CLOSING
| 17:15 | FORMAL EDUCATION SESSION WRAP UP | Dr Ann Devitt, Academic Director at Learnovate
Associate Professor of Language Education at the School of Education Trinity College Dublin |
AFTER PARTY
| 17:30 – 20:00 | DRINKS RECEPTION | The Ash Suite, Croke Park |