3 August 2016 at 9:00 am
Fourth ‘et4e’ merges with NZTech Education Technology Summit
Slightly smaller than ISTE, but just as relevant was NZTech’s Advance Education Technology Summit which took place at Massey University’s Albany campus on 5-6 July.
NZTech and ENZ combined forces again to introduce an edtech stream into a broader technology and education theme that attracted some 250 educationalists and edtech delegates.
The Minister of Education, Hon Hekia Parata, opened the summit with an announcement on the development of a new digital technologies curriculum.
“Having just returned from the world’s largest convention on education and technology, it is comforting to know that every country is struggling with how best to mix technology and education,” said Chief Executive, Graeme Muller.
“But what they all agree on is the importance of a new style of teaching, and the introduction of computational thinking and enquiry-based learning models are accepted as the way forward.”
Like ISTE, there was a strong emphasis in the sessions on the importance of collaboration between educationalists and edtech companies to identify and solve problems in the classroom.
“I found a lot of value as a member of an EdTech company in attending a conference alongside the educators that are passionate about technology in their setting,” said Louise Duffy of Invercargill-based Essential Resources.
“It gave some excellent insights into some of their challenges and how to better support technology in education.”
