Interview with Panel Discussion Members

Amy and Cara interviewed members of the panel discussion from today’s Leargus Forum. The panel was made up of Conor Galvin (UCD), Cristina Iancu and Dean Murray (NYCI Young Voices), Kieran Brosnan (Holy Family Senior School) and Tony Geudens (SALTO Inclusion).  In the panel discussion many themes were raised and we teased those out with the panel members in the interview. These themes were:

  • The rise of hate speech and what we can do to counteract .
  • The need to engage with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
  • The need to provide young people like ourselves with a voice.
  • The impact that youth groups have had on some of you and the young people you work with .

Amy and Cara,

Youth Media Team.

Interview with Hazel Chu

Cara and Amy interviewed Councillor Hazel Chu from Dublin City Council. In the interview she spoke about her background as an Irish born child to immigrant parents. Hazel told us how she was the first in her family to get second and third level education. She explained how she became a Councillor and the work she undertakes in this role. She then shared her thoughts on today’s theme “An Inclusive Europe- Stronger Together”. Finally, she spoke of the importance of events like today.

Cara and Amy,
Youth Media Team.

Interview with Prof Brian O’Neill

Denis, Cara and Amy interviewed Prof Brian O’Neill at the Media Literacy Ireland Conference. Brian spoke about how the media literacy network has grown from approximately 30 in 2017, to over 120 in 2019.  He shared  the work undertaken by the network in that time, and the plans for the future. Finally, he shared some advice to young people around media literacy.

Denis, Cara and Amy,

Youth Media Team

Interview with Dr Aralynn McMane

Cara, Amy and Denis interviewed Dr Aralynn McMane at the Media Literacy Ireland Conference. Aralynn spoke about her background and the work she is undertaking. She also explained the protégé effect and how we can use it to deepen our understanding of various topics. She shared her thoughts on young people being media literate. Finally, she explained the Cyber Senior Project and how projects like this can be used to connect different generations and promote media literacy.

Cara, Amy and Denis,

Youth Media Team

Interview with Sean Gallagher

Jack and Amy interviewed Sean Gallagher at the CESI conference. Sean spoke about how his role as both teacher and principal in a primary school and Deputy Director of the PDST has informed his practice. He also spoke passionately about how digital technologies can be integrated across all subjects in the curriculum. Liston the interview to hear about the school’s escapades with a sparrow hawk …

Finally Sean shared his thoughts on the themes of creativity, collaboration and practice fro today’s conference.

Jack and Amy
Youth Media Team

Interview with John Hegarty

Jack and Cara interviewed John Hegarty at the CESI Conference. John spoke about his workshop today incorporating microblocks, micro:bits and buggies. He also shared his experience as a teacher in the pilot for Computer Science at Leaving Certificate.

Jack and Cara
Youth Media Team

Interview with Richard Millwood

Amy and Denis interviewed Richard Millwood at the CESI confernce. Richard spoke about mental models and they can be used to solve problems and to predict the outcomes of solutions to those problems. He then shared his thoughts on the broader concept of computational thinking.

Richard is currently facilitating CESI Computer Science Community of Practice workshops which you can check out here.

Amy and Denis
Youth Media Team

Interview with Conor, Thomas and Una from the JCT Coding in Action team

Jack and Cara interviewed Conor Power, Thomas Boyle and Una Fleming from the JCT Coding in Action team. Conor spoke about the National event which they held yesterday which was both a CPD day for Teachers involved in the first phase of the Short Course in Coding and also a celebration of the end of the the phase. Phase 2 is now open for applications and schools can apply. Conor and Thomas shared what their schools are doing from a coding perspective and Una spoke about how research from phase 1 will inform the CPD offerings for Phase 2.

Jack and Cara
Youth Media Team

Interview with John Heffernan

Denis and Jack interviewed John Heffernan. John has come back from working in Albemarle in Charlottesville. John shared the differences between classrooms here in Ireland and those in the United States. He spoke about the broad diversity to be found in schools in America and how that impacts that has in the classroom.

Jack and Denis
Youth Media Team

Mags Amond on Creativity and Collaborative Communities

In her keynote presentation Mags Amond spoke passionately  about “Creativity, Collaboration and Practice” which are the main themes of the conference.   She shared many examples of creativity as well as the importance of collaboration and why teachers need to think about their practice.  A central theme of the presentation was the idea of community and the people who support us and challenge us to reflect on our practice.  We touched on all of these topics in our interview with Mags.

Cara and Amy

Youth Media Team