This year, the CESI Annual Conference will take place on Friday February 5th and Saturday February 6th in Portlaoise. The CESI conference has always been highly regarded for showcasing exciting and innovative technologies for teaching and learning, presented in practical and ‘real-life’ terms (many of the presentations are made by practicing teachers). This year’s conference promises to be no different, with topics on offer including: the use of the Nintendo DS and Wii in teaching, eTwinning, Google Wave for Education, using tablet PCs in the classroom, MOODLE, Virtual Worlds in education, and using ICT in SEN, to name but a few.
The conference keynote address will be delivered by Joe Dale, a leading practitioner in the area of ICT and modern foreign languages whose blog (www.joedale.typepad.com) has been nominated for two Edublog Awards in the last three years. The Capstone Speaker is Dr. Conor Galvin, Lecturer and Researcher at UCD’s School of Education and Lifelong Learning, as well as recent chairperson of CESI and a member of the Minister’s Strategy Group on ICT in education.
As with last year, the conference will be divided into two parts. On Friday night (Feb 5th), the CESI Meet will take place in the Heritage Hotel. Based on the popular ‘Teach Meet’ model, presentations take one of three formats: Mini-presentation (5 minutes), Soap Box (15 minutes – these run concurrently to smaller interest groups) and Nano-presentation: 2 minutes. You can view the highlights of the previous CESI Meet at http://www.cesi.ie/cesimeet-autumn09. On Saturday (Feb 6th) the action moves to Portlaoise College for a full day of presentations and hands-on workshops, and with over thirty to choose from there’s something for everyone who is interested in integrating technology into their teaching.
Further details on all aspects of this year’s conference (including booking form) are available at http://www.cesi.ie/conference-2010.