Future of Technology in Education #FOTE12

So, we’re at that time of year again when we can start planning the trip to London for the ULCC ‘Future of Technology in Education’ conference. As with the last couple of years I’ve attended the tickets are released in two batches of 150 tickets, and the first batch this year was snapped up in a matter of hours (at least 50 in the first 20 minutes!).

So far the speakers who I am looking forward to are, and why:

• Nicola Whitton – “What is the Future of Digital Games and Learning?” I’ve been reading a little of her book (it helps to share an office with her co-author Alex Moseley) so I’m interested in her talk because of the aspect of where game-based learning and simulation-based learning are going in education.
• John Townsend – In his role at Liverpool John Moores University John has “responsibility for the development and support of information and technology services and associated strategies, tools and technologies” so is well placed to provide insight into how technology can be maximised (or not?) in the changing education sector.
• Yousuf Khan – I’m sure that the deployment of over 2000 iPads at the Hult International Business School couldn’t have been an easy process, so I’m hoping Yousuf can provide insight into how this was done, why they did it, and how they expect to improve on what they’ve learned.
• Anirban Saha – While there isn’t any information on Anirban’s talk at the moment I can’t help but be impressed on what Anirban ‘could’ be talking about considering his title at Nokia is “Head of Social Innovation & Intelligence”. This should be good!
• Cailean Hargrave – As the Further Education Business Development Manager for IBM the potential to hear about innovation in both software and hardware. In his profile, posted last year, Cailean is interested in “immersive technological environments, affording tailored educational pathways for learner success, entrepreneurial access and education for young adults”, I just hope his talk isn’t another product placement session and he provides some real insight into what is possible with the technology available.
• 140 Challenge – not 140 characters, but 140 seconds, and this is the chancefor students to share their “views, thoughts and expectations about technology in education and education itself.” Excellent!

What are you looking forward to from this years FOTE event? Anyone or anything in particular?

For those interested here are a few Instagram photos that were posted last year (see all of them on the Ink361 website):

 

I’ll be collating the Instagram photos in the Ink361 album for the #fote12 hashtag again this year: http://ink361.com/#/tag/fote12

So, I’ll be seeing you there again in October. If you see me please come and say ‘hello’, and don’t be offended if I stick a camera in your face and ask a question or two … it’s my job for the day to record speaker and delegate views for the FOTE website, so be nice. If you can’t be nice, be honest!