When chatting with Kate and Mags last month, I asked Mags to summarise in one minute why educators should give up their first Saturday in March and make their way to Limerick and I was quickly told that a minute wasn’t going to be sufficient and after a thoroughly informative and enjoyable day in Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh on Saturday, I now understand why. The CESI conference is a unique event that brings together an eclectic diaspora from across the Irish education space all with a shared enthusiasm for digital learning. I must admit that this was my first time in over a decade at the conference and from the very start of proceedings I kept asking myself why had I taken such a long hiatus. The theme (Following on from last year’s version 1.0) for this year’s conference was “Navigating Digital Futures 2.0,” and unsurprisingly had a particular focus on the role of Generative AI in education and what might lay ahead and all things navigational were regularly referenced across the presentations and workshops.
No more so then in the conference keynote ‘Navigating our Digital Futures: Blazing trails or off the rails’ delivered by long-time CESI member Dr Enda Donlon and his colleague Dr Peter Tiernan from Dublin City University. The keynote detailed their involvement in the Erasmus+ PAIDEIA Project, which focuses on enhancing teacher education with AI, based on a blend of theoretical and field research and designed to help teachers integrate AI effectively whilst addressing diverse learner needs and improving teaching digital pedagogies.
As mooted, GenAI was ubiquitous at the conference and for me one of the standout sessions was a workshop on bias in AI, titled, interestingly ‘Data and Bias in Al, its not my job to fix it right?’ which provided important takeaways around the ethical considerations we must keep front and central as we continue to integrate AI into teaching, learning and assessment. Another excellent workshop I attended was a session on building dedicated AI powered classroom apps with PlayLab, built on ChatGPT 4. Similar, to Copilot Agents, these dedicated apps or custom GPTs seem to be where GenAI in education is at, going on the buzz at both BETT and here, My third (Of many) highlights was Bernie Goldbach and Frances O’Donnell’s Hands-on Al: Practical Workflows for Education workshop, which introduced a whole array of new (To me at least) AI-powered apps including Notion, Otter, Napkin, InVideo, and Gamma (Albeit, I had heard of that one🤔). All of same, offering novel and engaging ways to enhance digital content in the classroom.
The Conference venue itself was excellent, with the school staff and students making sure everything ran smoothly, and it provided a conducive environment for sharing experiences, exchanging ideas, and building connections which invariably is central to every CESI conference. Having. the opportunity to reconnect with old colleagues and meet new ones are just as valuable as the conference presentations themselves.
Curating a conference programme for all and ensuring the necessary logistics are in place is a significant job of work so a big shoutout to the voluntary team on the CESI National Executive for their dedication and hard work in making this year’s conference such a success.
I left Limerick on Saturday suitably enthused, optimistic but also balanced about the future of digital learning. One final note to self, no more hiatuses, roll on #CESIcon2026