xx I’d been working on another blog post today, but have just heard the sad and shocking news of Seamus Heaney’s death. Along with many others, I feel as if I have lost a friend. Seamus Heaney walked alongside us for many years — through his poetry, his activism, his human presence. The photograph above…
Summer 2013. It’s midway through August; our new and returning students will be joining us soon, both physically and virtually. It’s been a productive and exciting academic year and an outstanding summer here in Ireland. Next year promises to be even more interesting… today I learned that I have received funding for beginning work on…
My thanks to the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) for inviting me to give a keynote at the EdTech13 conference at University College Cork recently. My aim was to capture a moment in time — of ourselves as educators, the education structures within which we operate, current narratives about Higher Education, and this historical moment…
Newly published this week, Internet Research, Theory, and Practice: Perspectives from Ireland is a welcome addition to the literature in this growing field. The editors, Cathy Fowley, Claire English and Sylvie Thouësny, have assembled an impressive range of new work which will be of value to both researchers and practitioners. All work is peer-reviewed…
“Why can’t we be tested on what we learn, rather than learning what we’re going to be tested on?” – Colm Keady-Tabbal, secondary school student When asked to give a keynote at the ICT in Education conference “Student Voices” at LIT Thurles recently, I knew that it would be impossible to speak for 40 minutes…
Something special happened in County Tipperary last Saturday. At the ICT in Education Conference at LIT Thurles, Pamela O’Brien and the conference organisers stretched the boundaries of the usual conference format. The conference theme of “Student Voices” was embraced, with young voices to the fore. As described by Pam Moran in her conference reflection: at…
On Saturday, May 11th, educators from across Ireland and beyond will gather at LIT in Thurles, County Tipperary for the annual ICT in Education conference. As described by its organiser, Pam O’Brien, it is a conference “by teachers, for teachers”, and that includes teachers in the broadest sense — primary, secondary and third levels, adult…
Over the coming weeks, 2nd year Computer Science & IT students at NUI Galway will have the opportunity to collaborate with students in Spain (Barcelona), Germany (Berlin), New Zealand (Auckland) and the UK (Salford) on the iCollaborate or #icollab project. The project, now in its third year, is described by Helen Keegan as “a community of…
Like many educators I know, the start of 2013 has been about MOOCs. I’ve been participating in #etmooc — the Educational Technology & Media MOOC started by Alec Couros, Alison Seaman and a great team, and #edcmooc — E-learning & Digital Cultures, organised by another great team at the University of Edinburgh (and hosted by…
As with most MOOCs, the first week of #etmooc was a whirlwind of navigating new spaces, connecting with new people (as well as some old friends) and getting an overall sense of the course and the community. There’s a positive vibe in #etmooc that I’m enjoying. The Google+ community is proving to be a great…