EducationTechnology News: 4 forthcoming events

Event 1: ResearchEd

Tomorrow, ie Saturday 10th September, sees the annual ResearchEd conference in London. I attended my first one last year, and was extremely impressed. Looking at this year's agenda, there is plenty of variety -- and I'm delighted to see that Marilyn Leask, Sarah Younnie, Jon Audain and Christina Preston are speaking. Why delighted? Because I know them, know their work and I like the fact that the conference is affording academics the opportunity to bring their findings to a wider audience.

I'm not entirely sure I can attend myself although I hope to. If I do, I'll report on it in the next issue of the Digital Education newsletter. If you attend, feel free to offer an article for the newsletter as well.

I wrote about two ResearchEd conferences earlier this year, and interviewed Tom Bennett, the founder. In case you missed them, you'll find those articles in my pre-Bett newsletter.

The articles are called:

• ResearchEd: Interview with Tom Bennett
• A question of assessment
• ResearchEd Tech

I should point out that this is a general research-oriented conference, not one focused on education technology. However, such a lot of nonsense is written about the impact of technology on learning outcomes (or lack of it), that I think it's worth attending a conference that is concerned with evidence rather than wishful thinking.

You will find the details of tomorrow's conference here: ResearchEd 2016.

Event 2: Digital News Media conference

This Westminster Forum takes place on Tuesday 13th September. Again, this is not about education technology as such, but digital media: news and other content. It's an area I'm very interested in as a writer and author. I hope to be reporting on that too, either in my Reviews for Writers newsletter or Digital Education.

Conference details: Digital news media

Event 3: Digital Education newsletter

In the forthcoming Digital Education newsletter I'll be reporting on my survey into what computing-related qualifications schools in England are going to be offering.

The situation here is that the Government has decided to discontinue ICT qualifications. A few months ago I produced a comprehensive list of relevant qualifications that were still approved, such as ones in the field of digital media. The list is free to subscribers.

Incidentally, another freebie (one of many, in fact) is a list of 70 kinds of blog post for schools. If you're stumped for ideas about how to keep your school blog vibrant, this list will help.

Or you could ask me to write it of course! See this page for details: My Writing.

Event 4: Reviews for Writers newsletter

I am hoping to be able to publish the first issue of this newsletter soon. It's aimed at writers, and will consist of reviews of stuff that will be of interest to them. Hence the name!

Details of these newsletters and a subscription link may be found here: Newsletters.