Digital Education Conference 2024 at SETU
Date : Tue 10 Dec - Wed 11 Dec
O’Connell Bianconi Building, SETU Cork Road Campus
Accelerate Digital Education; Health and Sustainability
DEC24 brings educators, researchers, industry, funding agencies and policymakers together to share and discover innovative uses of technology in an ever-changing teaching and learning ecosystem.
Building on the inaugural DEC23, this conference is an in-person event that encourages listening, sharing and learning, creating new knowledge and networks to enhance your professional self.
The conference will take place over two days, Day One provides attendees with panel insights into student experiences of Digital Education, a Keynote and it will be followed by active learning workshops in the afternoon and our traditional GASTA fire-rounds. Day Two focuses on paper presentations to stimulate active dialogue around all things Digital Education, Generative AI and Immersive Learning opportunities, challenges and the potential long-term implications of disruptive technology for education, research and industry. Our keynote and sponsor talks will ignite the urge for more collaborative engagement and networking to find soluions to todays digital education challenges.DEC24 brings educators, researchers, industry, funding agencies and policymakers together to share and discover innovative uses of technology in an ever-changing teaching and learning ecosystem.
- Digital Health and well-being Education - digital health platforms, systems and holistic approaches, access to experts, virtual equipment and seamless compatibility.
- Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) - to promote sustainable practices and mindsets. The role of technology and innovation in enhancing ESD, examining the tools and strategies to transform learning environments for a brighter future.
- Entrepreneurship Education - social and green entrepreneurship education, innovation in sustainability.
- Educational Creativity & Immersive learning- dynamic interplay between creativity and pedagogy; fostering innovative thinking and problem-solving skills; interdisciplinary approaches and digital tools such as VR/AR/XR.
- Intersection of innovation, technology, and pedagogy; looking at complexity, urgency and understanding of AI, algorithms and other technology in society that impacts education and digital literacy.
Each abstract is required to address one or more of the conference sub themes.
All research must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another conference, however if you are presenting research already submitted to a journal you are welcome to present it and reference it. The following paper categories are welcome in the abstract submission:
DEC24 invites interested parties to submit a 300-500 word abstract (word or PDF Format)
Deadline: Nov 22nd
Notification of acceptance: 26th Nov
Please indicate type of abstract when submitting:
Research Paper: Presentation of original findings and how they offer, inform or link to existing research.
Practice Paper: Details of new and innovative digital educational programmes or activities.
Active Workshop: Host a workshop, get participants involved (before-during-after) 2 hour slots available.
Poster: Presentation of ongoing research or practice in Digital Education. DEC 24 posters should be submitted directly to the conference email address.
GASTA: Presentations to be included in the GASTA (5-minute lightening talks) should be submitted directly to the conference email address.
Each abstract should address the following:
- Title
- Background
- Rationale
- Design (optional)
- Conclusion
All submitted abstracts will go through a peer- review process
Conference Co-chairs:
Dr Zeta Dooly, SETU.
Dr Gina Noonan, SETU.
Dr Paul O’Leary, SETU.
Programme Committee
Dr Daithí Ó Murchú, Education Consultant.
David Denieffe, SETU.
Dr Gearóid O’Suilleabhain, MTU.
Dr Frances Cleary, SETU/Walton Institute.
Dr Brian Casey, SETU.
Damien Raftery, SETU.
Dr PJ Wall, TUD.
Dr Lisa Moran, TUS.
Dr Ray Griffin, SETU.
Dr Moira Maguire, DKIT.
Dr Yvonne Kavanagh, SETU.
Dr Carina Ginty, ATU.
Dr David Allen, SETU.
Dr. Deanna Santoro.
Antoinette Jordan, SETU.
Dr Aisling Tuite, SETU.
Corey Shanahan, SETU Students’ Union VP for Education.
Dr Nataliya Romanyatova, SETU.
Kate O’Keeffe, SETU.
Jared Smyth, SETU.
Our speakers for DEC24
Day 1 Keynote: Prof. Martin Curley, Maynooth University, who will discuss digital transformation within the health sector.
Day 1 Plenary: Dr. Aidan Walsh, SETU, who will offer insights on broader digital transformation themes within our Irish hospitals.
Day 2 Keynote: Dr. Leigh Graves Wolf, UCD, who will focus on emerging technologies including GenAI and critical digital pedagogies.
Workshops and Guest Speakers: where we will delve into topics including education for sustainability, using emerging technologies in the classroom, and scaling up through digital education strategies.
We are also delighted to welcome Dr. James Diamond, John Hopkins University to the event this year and our Gasta Master, Dr. Tom Farrelly, MTU will be making a welcome return
Prof Van Hout holds PhDs in Public Health (Teesside University) and in Law (Liverpool John Moore’s University), along with LLM and M.Sc qualifications in Health Professions Education, in Health Promotion, and in International Addictions.
Prof Van Hout has an extensive track record in inter-disciplinary global health research and knowledge transfer, with over 300 peer-reviewed journal publications, and €14 million in research funding ( EU, Irish, UK Research Councils, and pharmaceutical industries).
Prof Van Hout has actively consulted for WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS, Council of Europe and EUDA as a substantive human rights law and health policy expert.
Prof Van Hout was first appointed as Lecturer int WIT in 2004, and in 2017 was promoted to Senior Lecturer (School of Health Sciences). She became Professor of International Public Health at Liverpool John Moore’s University in late 2017, where she also served as Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange, and Head of Global Health at the Institute for Health Research. She holds adjunct Professorships in Ireland, the UK, Portugal, South Africa and the US, and is Vice Chair of a MSCA Life Sciences Panel.
Martin Curley is Professor of Innovation at Maynooth University and Director of the Digital Health Ecosystem at the Innovation Value Institute at Maynooth University, Ireland. Most recently Martin was Chief Information Officer and Director of Digital Transformation for Ireland’s National Health Service (HSE) and previously was Senior Vice President at Mastercard and head of Global Digital Practice. Martin is chair of the UNGA Digital Health Symposium and has previously been Vice President, Senior Principal Engineer and Director of Intel Labs Europe as well as Global Director of IT Innovation at Intel Corporation.
PHe has held engineering management positions at Philips and General Electronic also. Martin has been identified as a top 10 global influential, inspiring and impactful health leader/educator by a number of international publications and was awarded European Chief Technology Officer of the year in 2015. He is author of eight books on Innovation, Digital and Entrepreneurship and has keynoted and led executive education across the world. Recently he was a senior advisor to Saskatchewan Health Authority, Canada and is currently a senior advisor to Bearing Point. In 2020 Martin and his HSE Digital Transformation team received the world public sector innovation award from ICC and in 2024 Martin was awarded national digital transformation leader of the year for his work in Digital Health Transformation.
Aidan is a Lecturer in Management Studies in the School of Business at South East Technological University and has more than 25 years’ experience in higher education. He is a Programme Director of the Lean Enterprise Excellence Programme portfolio at SETU. Aidan has co-developed courses and curriculum with industry partners to meet their capability development needs.
Aidan is a Co-Lead of the Academy of Lean Enterprise Excellence in the SETU RIKON research centre. His doctoral research investigated competencies for managing lean improvement activity in hospitals and his research interests include lean implementation in healthcare and the people dimension of Lean Industry 4.0 integration
Tom has worked as a Social Science Lecturer in ITT/MTU for over twenty years on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. An advocate for digital education he describes himself as a critical technophile. He has recently been promoted to a Senior Lecturer Academic Developer role with the N-TUTORR project in MTU and has also recently been awarded Senior Fellow status with Advance HE. His approach to research and practice dissemination at conferences, the Gasta, has its origins in his frustration with session chairs that let people go way over time, often leaving the final speaker little or no time. Hence, with Tom, five minutes literally means five minutes! The Gasta format has been used in Ireland, the UK and Canada and if you want to find out a little more about Gasta and Tom you can check out his blog: Can You Gasta?
Dr. Deirdre Lillis is Assistant Secretary General in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in Ireland, with responsibility for the Research, Innovation, Evidence for Policy and EU/International Division. A proven senior executive, her prior experience includes university leadership roles in university-enterprise engagement in TU Dublin and as Head of Computer Science in Dublin Institute of Technology. She has a track record of research capacity building and transformation in higher education including principal investigator for an unprecedented national investment of €17.5m in university-enterprise engagement (www.convene.ie), the €4m global HubLinked Knowledge Alliance (www.hublinked.ie) and Marie-Curie RISE GETM3 Global Entrepreneurial Talent Management programme.
She is a Chartered Director and has served on the Board of the Higher Education Authority in Ireland, the Senate of the National University of Ireland and the Board of the Irish Writers Centre. Her research interests include national research and innovation systems, higher education policy, university-industry innovations and young talent management. She has won European awards for her sustained commitment to developing the careers of female academic staff and for increasing the participation of females in technological higher education programmes.
Leigh Graves Wolf is teacher-scholar and an Assistant Professor in Educational Development with Teaching and Learning at UCD. Her work focuses on online education, critical digital pedagogy, educator professional development and relationships mediated by and with technology. She has worked across the educational spectrum from primary to higher to further and lifelong. She believes passionately in collaboration and community.
Jim Diamond is a researcher in the field of digital media and learning, focused primarily on the use of educational games to enrich K–12 learning and teaching for students and teachers.
Diamond uses design-based research methods to create and study technologies that foster individual learner agency in real-world learning settings. He has extensive experience in educational research, design, and evaluation, and his areas of interest include history, social studies, and civics education; STEM education; computational thinking; and disciplinary literacy. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation’s HASTAC Digital Media and Learning Initiative, the Gates Foundation, and the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund. Diamond has a BA and an EdM from Boston University, and a PhD from New York University.