Having beeen informed by the time-honoured method of Facebook Invite of its approach, I am looking forward to trying to make some (though not all) of the Conference on Youth, Media and Democracy on the 18th and 19th April next in the DIT School of Media in Aungier Street.
The Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan TD will be there, along with people who, I am assured by Estelle Clements the organiser, are worldwide luminaries in their field.
My interest stems from the idea of making a Paper Round Transition Year module for teachers to use to help their students to make sense and examine critically the media that surrounds them.
Also speaking will be Chekov Feeney, who writes on Media for Village Magazine, and more pertinantly for us, recently rescued the Paper Round Wiki from oblivion. Many thanks to him for that act of kindness. I have promised him a bun in a box.
Another conference, (which I will have to miss, sadly, as I will be in Berlin) is set for the 22nd May in Tipperary Institute. In this case it was a gnomic text from Bernie Goldbach which alerted me to the plans.
The Internet Experience in Education conference might have been a chance to enthuse some forward thinking teachers with the opportunities for inter-school collaboration which a TY Paper Round might bring.
Oh well, maybe next year.