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Thursday, February 10, 2011

An Inspirational CESI Conference


Last Saturday morning my colleague Julian Girdham and I set off for Portlaoise College to attend my first (and I believe his second) Computers in Education Society of Ireland Conference (#CESI2011). We had been pencilled in to give a short presentation on “Building & Growing a Subject Blog” in the late afternoon but were also keen to attend several of the other workshops and talks on offer in the impressive itinerary. I, personally, was eager to finally meet all those “tweachers” and edtech tweeps with whom I had been conversing with since I joined Twitter way back in November ‘09. Inspirational figures like @simonmlewis, @rozzlewis, @pajo23, @fintanmurphy, @anseoamhuinteoir, @pizievondust, @fboss, @magsamond and @lismiss (to name but a few) were all in attendance and I was excited to see each of them in the flesh. Needless to say, all were equally as impressive in person.

The day began with an inspiring and motivating presentation from @tombarrett, a powerhouse in the world of educational technology (or simply education in general). Tom spoke passionately about his views on education and offered some simple yet practical advice for getting the most out of our charges. Indeed, Tom was eager for all of us in attendance to contribute too and he asked each of us to write just one simple idea on a post-it. Since then, Tom has collated all those ideas and created a “mosaic” of all our suggestions including my own: Become a Tweacher, Connect on Twitter!

Unfortunately, so many of the presentations I wished to attend conflicted on the timetable (despite some being repeated) but I still got great enjoyment and inspiration from those I did attend, namely the excellent presentation by Ross Mahon from Google (with the guys from Camara) on Google Docs and @pajo23’s superb presentation on “Extreme Twitter”. I wasn’t sure if this was going to involve bungee cords or a parachute but it turned out to be a brilliant talk on using twitter for sharing news and information (or for the occasional treasure hunt) within the school environment – really inspirational stuff!

The day ended with a couple of hundred techie teachers singing in Zulu, all thanks to the inspiring figure of @markpentleton. And I think inspiration is surely the recurring theme of my first trip to a CESI conference. I was frankly astounded by the wealth of talent and enthusiasm amongst the delegates and workshop presenters. I genuinely feel that teachers are often excessively modest and don’t give themselves the credit they deserve, but the teachers I met as #CESI2011 warrant every plaudit. These individuals are experts in their field and in any other profession would be placed on a pedestal and praised from on high. Yet they seek no praise and do what they do, simply from a love of teaching and a willingness to share their passion with others. If that isn’t inspirational, then what is?

To see some photos from this year’s CESI Conference click here. Please leave a comment below if you were at this year’s conference and let me know which workshops you attended and who inspired you!

6 comments:

  1. Great post :D brilliant sum up of the conference and kinda makes me wanna go back again this weekend! Who's up for another trip to portlaois??

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  2. Thanks for the generous comments Humphrey. From what I hear, your own presentation was pretty inspiring also.
    I loved the CESI Meet on Friday night, and on Saturday I learned sooooh much from @tombarrett's keynote, Ciaran McCormack's workshop, and the really amazing children of "Mr Quinn's Class" who travelled from Ransboro NS in Sligo to teach us how they learn using their iPods.
    Also I loved putting faces to tweeps, and catching up with friends not seen half often enough...

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  3. "I think inspiration is surely the recurring theme of my first trip to a CESI conference"

    It was my first conference too and I'm already looking forward to next year!

    @markpentleton @simonmlewis @seomraranga @tombarrett were all fantastic

    @NL_84

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  4. Fantastic post! Although I wasn't there long, I really enjoyed the Google Sketchup workshop - however the highlight for me was getting to finally meet all my fellow tweeters! You all know you who are!

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  5. Nicely put, Humph. It's always a pity that one can't get to see everything at such conferences. It was a good one, and thanks to the CESI committee for inviting us to present.

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  6. Great post! I have attended and enjoyed the CESI conference for more years than I care to remember at this stage but I think there was really something special about this one.
    Highlights : bualadh don chéad uair le @AnseoAMhuinteor, @pajo23 ,@pamelaobrien,@ciaranmccormack, tú féin Humphry agus @tombarrett; meeting again and chatting with @higma ,@fboss @rozzlewis, @simonmlewis,@seomraranga, @_conorgalvin, @DuicheEallaigh and @ebd35 ; catching up with friends I have worked and played with in my world and last but by no means least hanging out with the guys in the wings (they know who they are).
    Quoting VanGogh ‘ I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it’ still drives me to attend the CESI Conference each year to share and learn from wonderful educators such as I have mentioned above.

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