Coming July 9th: South West Digital Educators Conference #swdec

Last July saw teachers from across the South West of the UK coming together to share their most innovative ideas to support learning, along with inspiring keynotes to kick things off. On the 9th July this event returns to Plymouth University, and I am looking forward to sharing a new set of inspiring ideas for digital teaching and learning, as well as keynotes from Gary Spracklen (IPACA academy), Steve Wheeler (Plymouth University) and Ian Usher (Buckinghamshire CC).

One of my favourite aspects of this conference is that much of the content is drawn from teachers across the South West. These teachers apply for their digital learning projects to be included, these are then shortlisted by colleagues from the South West Grid for Learning and Plymouth University, and the best 9 are invited to run workshops at the conference. Last year we had a huge variety, from innovative uses of technology for secondary science, to using social networking in an infant’s school, to whole school projects for integrating technology into teaching and learning.

All the shortlisted teachers present, and the participants are then encouraged to vote for the project they think has the most impact for the ‘South West Digital Educators Award’, with prizes of iPads for the schools of the top teachers.

If you are doing innovative work in the area of digital learning you still have until Friday 7th July to submit your project for consideration using the form here.

This year’s theme is ‘Impact on learning’. Innovative and engaging projects in this area have been developing for many years, and we want to move the conversation on from ‘how can we make best use of technology?’ to ‘how can we ensure the biggest impact on learning?’.

The sharing and conversations on the day will be a great opportunity to develop thinking around how digital technologies can make that lasting impact on learners, and I am looking forward to learning from and with the presenters and other attendees.

If you would like to join us, we have just extended the early bird ticket price of £99 for a few days until Friday 7th June. Tickets and more information are available at http://www.digitaleducators.co.uk.

There have also been some interesting discussions around digital learning bubbling away on our Facebook page here, and prompted by our twitter account here. ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ to share our pick of technology ideas, examples of projects, and thoughtful discussions with digital educators in the south west.