EdTech 2010, some thoughts

EdTech 2010 has now finished and I have left Athlone. I opened the conference with my keynote, entitled Cultural Shifts.

The keynote looked at the importance of culture and changing culture if we are to not just embed the use of learning technologies, but create a culture that embraces new technologies and pedagogies, rather than resist them.

The feedback I got was that it went down well with the delegates at the conference and created a buzz and conversations throughout the conference.

It was my first time to EdTech and I enjoyed the conference.

I have found that attending learning technology conferences always provide something new and interesting to take away. Even if the conference is based on a different sector or in a different country, there are lessons that have been learnt that we can learn from. Despite the differences the issues and challenges we face in different countries and different sectors, what we know and what we learn is more often than not transferable and easily adapted to our own institutions and learners.

There were some really useful and interesting presentations and talks and I hope to blog about them later.

7 thoughts on “EdTech 2010, some thoughts”

  1. Hello James, I enjoyed your contribution at the conference. When you spoke of the video cameras you acquired, it struck a chord with me. When asked how they worked, your reply was basically ‘I don’t know, but let’s find out’. Excellent.
    Straight away, you transformed the situation from a more usual teacher/passive recipient transfer of knowledge, into a situation where everyone needed to become an active participant, and everyone was learning. No masters, no passive receivers, just active learners. The manual is not yet written for where technology in education has taken us today. Come to think of it, if it ever is written, it will be learners everywhere that will write it.
    Thanks again,
    Matt

  2. James, I enjoyed your keynote. I liked your hands-on approach to experimenting with new technologies. Also, that we need to change the way people think about change – not seeing every new technology as a threat to the old. We can have both print books and ebooks serving different purposes

  3. I enjoyed your keynote James and might even use some of your arguments next time I have to present to management – thanks for all the ideas.

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