The annual MEITAL conference is a significant event for the learning technologies community, and a welcome event for innovators, developers and designers of technology-based learning. The theme of the conference “Insights from the past and a look toward the future” engages academics, learning designers, entrepreneurs and decision makers in the field of EdTech. We are all busy with the question of what education will look like in the future and what trends will shape the field, in Israel and across the globe, in an era of accelerated change.
In their opening addresses Prof. Eyal Yaniv, IUCC chairman and Prof. Aharon Palamon, MEITAL chairman emphasized the importance of MEITAL in creating a broad inter-institutional community, which promotes pedagogical innovation in higher education while integrating technological innovation that improves the quality of teaching and learning.
Nati Avrahami, IUCC CEO and Eli Shmueli, MEITAL Director, focused on the integration of technologies and technological innovation in the learning and teaching and noted the importance of the tools available and the wide reaching operations of MEITAL and IUCC in the field.
Throughout the conference, the strong desire and need for a learning community that can shape the future of learning in higher education was palpable. And the numbers speak for themselves: over 400 registrants participated in the conference. There were over 50 lectures presented in 12 parallel sessions, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence in higher education and discussions on the challenges of integrating and implementing AI in academic curricula.
In addition, all enjoyed the exhibition of innovative technologies and solutions by leading companies in the field.
The conference allowed an excellent framework to explore new trends together, uncover hidden treasures of knowledge and best practices for success, and provided a platform for open dialogue and sharing in research and strategic processes. The variety of lectures underscored the pedagogical and technological aspects of what is taking place in taking place in the institutions.
The workshop day at the Bynet Expo featured lectures and demos of advanced technological solutions. We rolled up our sleeves and experimented in two practical workshops. The first, led by Prof. Diana Laurillard, we experimented with a tool for designing active and social learning that presents a visual approach to designing learning that supports the learners’ needs. Gal Alon’s workshop (Medicant for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, Tel Aviv University), opened the world of using writing prompts using simple principles for maximizing the power of ChatGPT.
Presentations and the full articles, including presentations from the workshops, can be found on the conference website.
