The growing impact of technology on the way we teach and learn in our schools and colleges will be the subject of a major education conference, hosted by Institute of Technology, Sligo, next June.
EdTech2017 comes to Institute’s campus on June 1st and 2nd.
The two-day event is organised by the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) – a community of professionals committed to the development and exchange of knowledge by sharing expertise and the promotion of best practice in technology-enhanced learning.
The conference, which is now into its eighteenth year, brings together approximately 300 leading academics and practitioners from all sectors of education and training, including institutes of technology, universities, and industry in Ireland, as well school teachers, lecturers and researchers in the field of e-Learning and information and communication technologies.
“Education Technology provides opportunities for teaching staff to develop and experiment with new pedagogies such as ‘blended learning’ and facilitates students through new modalities of learning.” explains Gavin Clinch, Programme Manager at IT Sligo’s Centre for Online Learning.
“IT Sligo’s national reputation as a leader in the provision of online education, together with its impressive conference and lecture hall facilities – including the new 280-seater Aurivo Auditorium – these were all factors in the Institute’s selection as the host venue for 2017,” he says.
This is not the first time that IT Sligo has hosted the EdTech conference. The inaugural event in 2000 was staged in Sligo, and Brian Mulligan from the Institute’s Centre for Online Learning, who is also a founding member of ILTA, says it is gratifying to see how the conference has evolved and developed over the years.
“When it began 18 years ago, the EdTech conference was a small operation with very limited resources. Since then, it has toured the country and has been driven by the needs of our community members, and this is reflected in the novel changes in format from year to year.
“Our priority is to present a dynamic programme of events, along with plenty of opportunity for informal networking and discussion.”
EdTech2017 will take place at IT Sligo on June 1st and 2nd 2017.
Registration for the event will open in the New Year.
For more information, visit www.ilta.ie or email clinch.gavin@nullitsligo.ie.
Photo caption:
IT Sligo’s Centre for Online Learning Programme Managers are: (L-R) Kieran Tobin, Gavin Clinch & Brian Mulligan.