The Computer Education Society of Ireland (CESI) annual conference will be held on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th February 2011 in Portlaoise. The theme for this year’s conference is “ICT in Education – Changing Landscapes“. The Friday evening event is known as a “CESI Meet” which combines a mixture of mini-presentations (7 minutes), followed by some thought provoking Soap Box dissertations (15 mins) and finishing with a series of nano-presentations (2 mins). The Saturday event consists of a Keynote speech followed by simultaneous 30-40 minute talks or 90 minute workshops. It is intended that this year’s conference will be more “hands on” than ever before so there will be plenty of opportunity for teachers to “learn by doing”.

The Computer Education Society of Ireland (CESI) is an association of practicing teachers from primary, post primary and third level with the common interest of using ICT to benefit teaching and learning. CESI supports the development of methodologies that help to marry new technologies with a sound pedagogy. I’ve been to the last two conferences and have come away enthused by lots of new ideas put forward mainly by classroom teachers who use technology in interesting and innovative ways. As well as attending the conference again this year, I’ll also be doing a little presenting on Friday night and conducting a workshop on Saturday. Registration for the conference is now open. You can register to attend either the Friday or Saturday events or both. Friday night has less capacity and books up much quicker. So the advice is: book to atted the conference soon.