Pre-ICT in Education Conference MakerMeet
Registration for the 2023 Pre-Conference Maker Meet is now open!
Learn practical skills, projects and S.T.E.A.M. information for your classroom!
Join us on Friday, May 12, 2023 from 18.30-21.00 at TUS, Thurles.
The 2023 Maker Meet is sponsored by TUS’s Department of Information Technology and by MakerMeet.ie.
A Maker Meet is similar to a TeachMeet. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeachMeet) The main difference being that the focus is on practical skills almost exclusively in the S.T.E.A.M. arena.
Maker Education is a fun and engaging way for students to build the 21st century skills they need to succeed in an increasingly diverse workforce. These skills include critical thinking; creative problem-solving and collaboration as students ‘make’ with others – while developing the ability to prototype, fail and continue trying.
Constructivist learning theories espoused by Jean Piaget and Seymour Papert are often referenced in Maker Education as Project-Based Learning is used to teach a wide variety of skills simultaneously in a single project.
Other skills that are often incorporated in this methodology are flexibility; leadership; initiative; productivity and social skills. In addition to these important competencies are also literacy skills such as learning how to present information through media and technology.
At the Maker Meet – presenters will show projects they have completed or are in the process of creating and presentations will last between 10 – 30 minutes. Most projects can be re-created easily in any classroom. Come join us for fun, engaging and practical workshops!
ASCII and Hitomezachi Stitching
Neil Butler
Participants will use ASCII/UTF values for our initials, converted to binary, to create unique visual representations of their names via an adaptation of Hitomezashi stitching (a traditional Japanese stitching style) drawn on a simple square grid.
Neil Butler is currently an Advisor for Leaving Certificate Computer Science with the PDST, seconded from North Wicklow Educate Together Secondary School. He is a maths and SEN teacher with interests in technology for the creative arts and making, in particular the creation of generative and algorithmic art.
Cyber Security Incident Response Escape Room
Aoife Long
This workshop/presentation will demonstrate the Cyber Skills Escape Room under development at Cyber Skills. The aim of the escape room is to engage students in an exercise to understand the diverse elements of a cyber security incident response across a business. Teams are assigned functional areas in a business and must solve challenges related to their area to regain access to their system.
In my early career I worked in engineering consultancies, initially structural engineering and later traffic engineering and design. In 2008 I moved to semi-state agency RPA as a Transport Planner. Between 2007 and 2009 I completed my MSc in Civil Engineering part-time where my research project was an environmental project related to raised bog conservation. Prior to my PhD, I was based in Lebanon as an Information Management Specialist supporting the UNICEF response to the Syria humanitarian crisis, which has been a complex political environment. I completed my PhD in Renewable Gas Systems Modelling and Policy in 2022 . During my PhD I gained an interest in Education and Public Engagement and I now work as an Education & Public Engagement Manager at the Cyber Skills Project Munster Technological University.
Richard Millwood
Families from the OurKidsCode clubs in Co. Tipperary will demonstrate the club model and their activities. OurKidsCode aims to change parental attitudes towards computing through the formation of interest clubs run by the families themselves. Parents are one of the key influences on children’s choices of school subject, higher education and career.
Dr. Richard Millwood is a Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science & Statistics, Trinity College Dublin. Current research interests include learning programming and computational thinking and in relation to this, he is currently creating workshops for families to develop creative use of computers together and recently developed a community of practice approach for computer science teachers throughout Ireland. He gained a BSc in Mathematics & Physics at King’s College London in 1976 and first became a secondary school teacher. From 1980 to 1990 he led the software development of educational simulations in the Computers in the Curriculum Project at Chelsea College London. He then worked with Professor Stephen Heppell to create Ultralab, the learning technology research centre at Anglia Polytechnic University, acting as head from 2004 to 2006. He then researched innovation in online higher education in the Institute for Educational Cybernetics at the University of Bolton until 2013, gaining a PhD by Practice ‘The Design of Learner-centred, Technology-enhanced Education’. Until September 2017, he was Assistant Professor for four years directing the MSc in Technology & Learning and supervising six PhD students at Trinity College Dublin.
Originative Origami
Pam O’Brien
Pam will demonstrate various Origami folding techniques to make different geometric shapes and structures. Relax, fold and have fun!
Pam O’Brien is a lecturer in the Information Technology Department of TUS. She is the organiser of the annual ICT in Education conference and various TeachMeet style events, which provide continuous professional development (CPD) for educators across all levels of education in Ireland. She is passionate about the integration of technology in education and Maker-based learning and is an avid origamist.