Newsletter
Autumn 2000

CESI Annual Conference
The annual conference of the Computer Education Society of Ireland will take place in St Patrick's College of Education, Drumcondra, Dublin 9; on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th of November. Once more there is a rich menu of presentations and workshops to choose from. Among the speakers is Dr. David Cavallo a research scientist at the MIT Media Laboratory. His work focuses on the design and implementation of reforms of learning environments and educational systems, and the role technology can play in this change process. For more information and an up-to-date programme of the conference visit http://www.iol.ie/~cesi and also page 4 for more details.

1000 Téarma Ríomhaireachta

The wait for a standardised list of terms and vocabulary for those who use ICTs in an Irish language environment is over. Fiontar, located in DCU has recently launched its Gaeilge-Béarla and Irish-English Dictionary of 1000 most used terms in an easy-find well laid out format. (See page 3)

Europrim 2000

EUROPRIM 2000  was held at the State Institute for School and Adult Education in Soest, Germany in October. This conference which was funded by the EU, was a forum for over 60 primary teacher practitioners and researchers from all over Europe to share their current work in integrating ICTs into the curriculum and also to co-ordinate future European inter-school projects.  Five Irish primary teachers  participated. For more information on this ongoing project visit the Europrim web site at http://www.learn-line.nrw.de/angebote/europrim2000/index_e.html
CESI is a co-sponsor of EUROPRIM 2000

MediaLabEurope

During the summer MIT and the Republic of Ireland signed an agreement establishing a ten year collaboration to develop MediaLabEurope as an independent, university-level research and educational centre based in Dublin. For more information visit www.mle.ie.

Netd@ys 2000: 20-27 November 2000
Check out details of Netd@ys 2000 in your area from the ICT Advisor in your local Education Centre
For national projects and general information visit
http://netdaysireland.ie

EUROLOGO 2001- A Turtle Odyssey

Scope of the conference
EUROLOGO is a biannual scientific international conference that addresses all scientists, developers and educators that develop, use or study all kinds of Logo or Logo-based software. Furthermore also investigations of other exploratory computational environments, classroom applications of Logo philosophy and other innovative educational research and practices that are in touch with the Logo approach are covered. EUROLOGO 2001 will be held in Linz, Austria from 21-25 August 2001. The conference will carry on the work of the previous ones in Dublin (1987), Gent (1989), Parma (1991), Anavissos (1993), Birmingham (1995), Budapest (1997) and Sofia (1999).
Topics of interest
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Learning with Logo: Cognitive, cultural and cross-cultural aspects - Learning by exploring, communication and collaboration-Methodology and curriculum design
Classroom practices-Pedagogical and psychological issues- Teacher education-Children with special needs- Software environments and tools -Mental models of computation -Robotics with Logo: connecting mind and physical reality -Implementing Logo philosophy with other software -Logo in the Information Society -Logo and global communication -Challenges of the Internet
Conference language English
Important deadlines
31 January 2001:
Abstracts of papers and Proposals for workshops/tutorials
21 March 2001:
Submission of full papers
31 May 2001:
Notification of acceptance
15 July 2000:
Final Program

SPIN A WEB OPEN DAY INVITATION

The annual Spin A Web Open Day will be hosted by the Computer  Science Department in Trinity College and eircom on Saturday the 11th of November in Trinity's O'Reilly Institute. The Spin A Web Open Day provides students and teachers with the opportunity to  learn about web design while also finding out further details about Spin A Web.  There will be hands on web authoring sessions for both novices and more advanced users and lectures on topics ranging from "programming in pearl" to "writing for the web".
The Open Day sessions and lectures will be geared to post primary students and teachers at both the primary and post primary level.  For further details on the Open Day, visit http://www.spinaweb.ie
Important dates
11 November 2000:
Open Day, O'Reilly Institute, Computer Science Department, Trinity College.
2 April 2001:
Closing Date for Entries.
May 2001:
Final in Trinity College.

PRIMARY SCHOOL CATEGORY
This year's Spin A Web competition will include a 5th and 6th class primary school category. The top primary school entries will be hosted in the Showcase section of the Spin A Web site and five primary school projects will be presented with award certificates and prizes at the Spin A Web final. Primary school teachers are encouraged to attend the Spin A Web Open Day for further details.

Design Competition
At CESI conference a competition will be launched to design a new logo for CESI. It's aimed at students and further details will be available at the conference and from the website: www.iol.ie/~cesi
 
 

Presentations will focus on the use of ICTs in primary and post-primary education, including classroom experience, project work and postgraduate research.

There will be four parallel strands to the conference: Primary, Post-primary, General Education, Special Education and Learning Support, together with two workshops and commercial exhibitions.

Details of conference fee, etc. on enclosed registration form.
To register, please complete the enclosed form and forward, together with the appropriate fee, to:
CESI Conference 2000
c/o Blackrock Education Centre, Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.

Provisional Programme Outline

Friday evening:
 6.00 -  7.00 Registration (tea/coffee)
 7.00 -  7.30 Opening addresses
 7.30 -  8.30 Keynote address (Dr David Cavallo)
 8.30 -  9.30 Parallel presentations
 9.30 -  10.00 Exhibitions
Saturday:
 9.15 -  9.45:  Commercial presentations
 9.50 -  10.45:  Parallel presentations
 10.45 - 11.15:  Coffee/Tea
 11.15 -  12.10:  Parallel presentations
 12.15 -  1.00:  Parallel presentations
 1.00 -  2.00:  Lunch/Exhibitions
 2.00 -  2.50:  Parallel presentations
 3.00 -  3.50:  Parallel presentations
 4.00 -  5.00:  Open Forum and close of Conference
 5.00 -  6.00:  Cheese and Wine reception

This programme is subject to minor changes - for full up to date information on the conference, visit the CESI website at http://www.iol.ie/~cesi/

Intel Teach to the Future
Many second level teachers have recently begun a 30-40 hour course which has as its main aims to help them in the building of a port folio of lessons integrating ICTs into their school curriculum.
Intel is involved in promoting this programme in many countries and is supported here in Ireland by the National Centre for Technology in Education and the Education Centres.
This is a three year project and it is hoped that by the end of 2002 as many as 6000 second level teachers will have completed the course.

WCCE 2001
7th World Conference on Computers in Education
Networking the Learner
29th July to 3rd August 2001, Copenhagen (http://www.wcce2001.dk)

Articles for inclusion in the next issue of this newsletter should be sent before Dec 5th 2000, to:
Editor, CESI Newsletter, Blackrock Education Centre, Kill Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin. Email: tobriain@iol.ie
Editorial Committee -Tom Ó Briain (Editor), Seán Close, and Conor Mac Liam

ICT Advisors
A significant feature of the Schools IT2000 programme is the Teaching Skills Initiative (TSI) and an integral part of TSI is the appointment of ICT Advisors to the Education Centre Network.  Twenty regional ICT advisors were to work out of  Education Centres. Most of the appointments have been made. Here is the list:

Spring 2000 Newsletter
Autumn 1999 Newsletter

Editor: Tomás O Briain