On 14 – 16 May 2025, I helped host Connect More. Packed with sessions on how educators are navigating today’s challenges, here are my takeaways from the fantastic free, three-day event.
Future-ready educators
Digital and AI literacy are in-demand skills so how can teachers make time to adapt? Chris Melia, collaborative and digital practice lead and 2022 community champion, opened Connect More sharing how the University of Central Lancashire is supporting person-centred development. With the DigiLearn programme, they give practitioners the freedom to explore bespoke pathways, building confidence around AI, podcasting, creative pedagogy and online synchronous activities.
Enriching student skills with immersive classroom experiences
We saw how technology is improving student confidence when exploring crime scene investigation with Josephine Grech, technology enhanced learning manager at Cardiff and Vale College. Using VRChat, learners explore rooms to find fingerprints and evidence and the team tackled motion sickness concerns by using the teleport feature.
Daniel Mitelpunkt, director of Digital Media Lab at Imperial College runs the Digital Media Lab , engineered for collaboration. With digital twin labs, students experience a laboratory exactly like the real thing creating a suite of experiments to improve confidence and practice safely. They also created bespoke VR controllers to address learner gaps in pipetting skills, overcoming how scarce the space and resources are.
On day two, Gerald Elder, immersive learning lead, emphasised how making immersive experiences personal and practical, is helping students develop their skills at Sunderland College. They harmoniously linked performing arts, counselling and art students to create a stunning performance around masks that represent different identities and human characteristics.
Worldbuilding and creating a greener future
Matthew Moran, head of transformation at The Open University inspired us to imagine and design a new future – no small task in 30 minutes, helping us gain a deeper understanding of motivation and values.
For the final day, Lou Mycroft, nomadic changemaker and facilitator at Fircroft College talks about how we turn good intentions to transformational change to create a greener future with the Green Changemakers programme. They have developed a virtual green skills hub, for anyone to drop in and explore resources which launches in June 2025.
Community is our superpower
Meaningful technology can transform the classroom, but the heart of transformation is a community of passionate and inspiring people. To close Connect More, I hosted a panel discussion with 2025’s community champions; Gary Holden, teaching, learning, and digital lead at Kirklees College, Nurun Nahar, assistant teaching professor at University of Greater Manchester and Stephen Taylor, learning technology lead at Regent’s University London. These community superstars advocate to improve education and their practices. They are collecting and sharing wisdom to inspire others. It creates opportunities outside of the norm, and that’s where the magic happens.
What communities are you using?
During our panel discussion, we asked what communities you use and why you love them. These were the responses:
- Accessibility community
- Adobe education exchange
- AmplifyFE
- Anthology community
- CILIP
- CreativeHE
- Cyber security community
- Digital accessibility SIG
- Digital Northants
- Digital Promise Playful Learning Community
- eLearning Learning community
- JoyFE community
- FE and skills digital sustainability community
- FE Library LRC community
- Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert
- Playful Learning Association
- Sherif shared e-resources
- Techtober 2024
- Tirigogy
Whether they help you find examples of great teaching, improve your CPD or be a part of something bigger, community is the common thread connecting Connect More topics this year.
You can watch the recordings until the 27 of June or email connectmore@jisc.ac.uk if you didn’t register for access. There are more sessions on bilingual design in education, student chatbots, promoting critical thinking in the AI and AI copilots, evidence based digital assessment tools, podcasting and more.