By Danny Arati, Education Manager, Intel
The 11th Intel Education Summit took place earlier this month, with the event seeing more than 500 guests from over 30 countries explore and debate global technological innovation in education. As we look to 2015, it is obvious that technology is transforming the classroom, but how can it help close the education gap globally? This was a key point of discussion during the event, with a number of participants offering their professional insights.
Co-hosted by the Ministry of Education and the Istanbul Technical University, the event brought together a broad range of experts that included academics, ministries, NGOs and technology industry representatives from the likes of Microsoft, HP and Acer. Over the duration of the Summit, more than 30 distinguished speakers and workshop leaders took the stage to share a range of learning initiatives, approaches, case studies and ideas looking into a variety of aspects from policy to mobile education programmes.
Representatives from Istanbul shared their insight in to how local administrations support technology-based initiatives, whilst the Ministry of Education provided details about the national project called Fatih, which allows 42,000 schools and 570,000 classes to take advantage of the latest IT equipment, transforming the ways pupils are taught.
A number of experts were also present to share their expertise and give first-hand accounts of the practical application of technology in education. This included Aysen Guven, spokesperson for the British Council, who explained how its digital resources support and transform how pupils learn the English language support learners of English.
Academia was also well represented with the Open University and Reading University from the UK, Varna Free University from Bulgaria, Budapest University from Hungary and Yildiz Technical University from Istanbul. Each covered a wide range of topics, including teacher training, MOOCs and mobile learning.
Interestingly, Academia offered insight in to the practical implications of bridging cultures in education, where technology has a very positive role to play. Attendees were encouraged to share their thoughts on these discussions across various social platforms, utilising the hashtag: #intelsummit14. This was hugely successful, generating over 650 posts and discussions across the two days.
Attendees also had the opportunity to see the various educations projects for themselves. This included a visit to a local state and a private school which had been selected to demonstrate their use of Intel’s technology in the classroom. Classes included: robotics, 3D printing, multi-media design and astronomy in a 3D setting. It was a great showcase of how technology, if properly implemented and supported by the right pedagogy, truly enriches the educational experience.
Overall the summit was a great success, generating very positive feedback from both sponsors and attendees alike. We would like to thank everyone who took part. The proceedings, images and video-reel will soon be available on the Summit website.