conference

Jim O'Sullivan and Sally Reynolds presented the results so far of the SoRuraLL project during the CESI annual conference held 5-6 February in Portlaoise, Ireland.

This conference, entitled Creative Technology for Challenging Times brought together about 150 teachers and others working with ICT in primary and secondary schools in Ireland for a day and a half of presentations, exchanges and discussions about the effective implementation of ICT in Irish classrooms. One of the highlights of this conference was the presentation given by Joe Dale on 'New Tools, New Curriculum, New Opportunities', to find out more about Joe and the tools he recommends, visit his blog.

The SoRuraLL presentation provided an opportunity to showcase some of the blogs and websites being developed by rural schools in Co. Clare as part of this project.

Held in London from 11-13 January right before the BETT show, the 2010 Forum attracted over 1000 leaders from 100 countries including 75 ministers of education. Opened by Prime Minister Gordon Browne, the very high level of political support this event received indicates the importance the United Kingdom places on exporting its know-how and expertise in the technology enhanced learning field.

The Forum provided an interesting mix of highly interactive and engaging sessions along with several thought-provoking key-note presentations including the excellent closing plenary presentation given by Charles Leadbeater. Another highlight was the highly engaging “Be Very Afraid” event organised by Stephen Heppell which provided an excellent showcase of what is possible in schools and universities with students showing and talking about the extraordinary things they are doing with new technologies in their learning.

ATiT staff took part in this prestigious event and were part of the team leading an innovation exchange session entitled "Critical Success Scheme for Step-Change in E-Learning". Materials from this session are available on the popular Re.ViCa Virtual Campus wiki.

Despite the bad weather conditions in northern Europe, ATiT staff are planning to take part in the Learning and Technology World Forum 2010 being held in London 11-13 January.

This will include leading an innovation exchange session entitled "Critical Success Scheme for Step-Change in E-Learning" on Tuesday 12th. This session will be highly interactive and will provide an opportunity to further test the validity of the Critical and Key Success factors for e-learning that were developed during the Re.ViCa project. Participants will also receive a copy of the recently published handbook, "Reviewing the Virtual Campus Phenomenon: The Rise of Large-scale e-Learning Initiatives Worldwide" which provides a wealth of background on the Virtual Campus phenomenon as well as a snapshot of the current status of Virtual Campuses worldwide.

The ICL conference held in Villach 23-25 September provided a good opportunity to promote the Virtual Campuses wiki created by the Re.ViCa consortium. Re.ViCa team member Sally Reynolds gave a presentation about the extensive Virtual Campus inventory available in the wiki and invited conference participants to visit, use and update the wiki. She also described some of the analytical work carried out by the team supported by international experts which identified factors influencing the success or otherwise of virtual campus initiatives worldwide.
 

The 25th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology taking place in Amsterdam from 28 June - 1 July 2009 included a series of live surgery sessions, sponsored by Storz and realised by a team from ATiT.

These sessions featured four operations, broadcast live by satellite from the Heilig Hart Hospital in Leuven to the conference site in Amsterdam. Satellite uplink services were provided by Headline, the Brussels based SNG specialists.

The operations were related to laparoscopic myomectomy, endometriosis, operative hysteroscopy and transvaginal laparoscopy. Between 500 and 600 participants attending the conference site could interact with the surgeons during operations and in this way were able to follow the very latest reproductive surgical operational practices and procedures.

The DIVERSE Conference held this year in Aberystwyth University in Wales from 24 to 26 June brings together an active community of practitioners all engaged in developing innovative visual educational resources.

This year the sharing of educational video material was really high on the agenda with Obadiah Greenburg from YouTube describing YouTube EDU, Olaf Schulte from ETH Zurich presenting the Opencast community and the Matterhorn project and the team from the University of Amsterdam talking about ZOEP - this is the space to watch for how, and perhaps more importantly,  where educational videos in higher education will be found in the future.

Taking place in the lovely and surprisingly warm surroundings of coastal Wales, this community of practitioners provides a rich resource of know-how and expertise in the field of educational technology and multimedia production. You can follow the conference live here.

The first Dialogue in the series, Uncovering Barriers to Women’s Political Leadership: Virtual Dialogues Leading to the International Colloquium for Women's Empowerment took place on Thursday 22 January.

This Dialogue featuring an interview with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first democratically elected female president, pictured here during the Dialogue. More than 100 people took part from locations in Liberia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Using facilities provided by the GDLN network, this event used both videoconferencing and live streaming to connect the sites. Participants included the Minister of Women Empowerment of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Meutia Hatta Swasono and Minister for Industries, Trade and Marketing in Tanzania, Hon. Mary Nagu.

More information about these Dialogues is available on the Virtual Dialogues web site.

The Virtual Dialogues Secretariat announced today that the Minister of Women Empowerment of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Meutia Hatta Swasono,will join the first Virtual Dialogue taking place on Thursday 22 January. Dr Swasono will provide a summary of this virtual discussion on Women in Leadership which links sites in Cairo, Dar-es-Salaam,Colombo, Moldovia and of course Jakarta where she will be located.

At the heart of this Dialogue will be an interview with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first female President and it will include local discussions as well as an open moderated discussion with President Johnson-Sirleaf linking participants in all sites. Visit the Virtual Dialogues web site for more information.

The Women's Dialogue is a 3 part series of virtual dialogues starting on 22 January 2009 featuring live interviews and participation of current and former female Heads of State including Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and President Tarja Halonen interacting with a global audience of future leaders. The purpose of these dialogues is to produce recommendations and solutions on how to break down barriers to leadership which will be presented to the Women’s International Colloquium being held in Monrovia, Liberia March 7-8 2009.These dialogues are facilitated through the GDLN network of centres and are being produced by ATiT.

The video report of eLearning Africa is now available online. Featuring the voices and opinions of participants, speakers and exhibitors, this video provides an insight into why participants took part and what their concerns are for the future of eLearning on the African continent.

Those interviewed highlighted just some of the challenges faced including the lack of affordable access and described what it meant to be part of such a large and international gathering. ATiT staff collaborated with ICWE, the organisers of eLearning Africa in the production of this video. eLearning Africa 2009 takes place 27-29 May in Dakar, Senegal.