Dear Reimaginers,

August may be coming to an end, but the relentless stream of educational innovation we’re seeing from our global community certainly isn’t. This week, the 5000^th application since we inaugurated Reimagine Education in 2014 was opened: a huge milestone for an initiative that began with just over 250. Since then, we’ve seen nearly another 100 commenced, and we’re delighted to see that more and more of the world’s best universities and most promising edtech companies are sharing their work with us. There’s still more than enough time to be one of them: our competition closes on 15^th September.

There is still – just about – also time to submit if you’d like to be a judge, speaker, or to run a workshop at the event. However, those calls must close on Sunday at 23:59 GMT, so it truly is now or never (well – at least for 2019) if you’d like to participate in our program.

Call for Judges

Call for Speakers and Workshop Proposals

All speaker proposals will be reviewed early next week, and all applicants will be informed of the outcome of their submission by next Friday.

For those currently underway with their Awards competition application: Serena and I are very keen to do all within our power to make applying as smooth as possible. To this end:

1. If you have reached Stage 4, please note that, due to a small glitch in our system, it is not currently possible to select ‘Not Applicable’ when coming to choose your disciplinary category. This issue is currently being rectified. In the meantime, please continue with your application and choose any of the available categories, before sending me an email notifying me that, upon rectification, you would like your Disciplinary Category to be changed to ‘Not Applicable’;
2. If you would like me to organise a call with you to talk you through the application, please email me at [email protected]: I will be glad to provide further assistance.

Content and Contributions

This week’s contributions come from:

• Sophie Bailey at the EdTech Podcast, whose issue this week focuses on geographies of learning. She examines the impact of genetic disposition and geographic lotteries on learning, on the double-edged sword of international rankings, and the problem with coercion as the basis of learning. She also explores the tricky question of how to measure impact without creating norms and exclusivity. Sophie’s also launching a new series on adult and vocational training, whose launch will take place in London on 18^th It promises to be a characteristically compelling session, and those able to attend should register here;
• Neil Morris, Dean of Digital Education at the University of Leeds. We’re pleased and proud that Neil will be leading a session on Best Practices in Online and Distributed Learning at Reimagine 2019, where his immense expertise and experience will make for an essential session for those working on these forms of learning. As part of our series introducing you to this year’s speakers, Neil and his team have prepared a short introductory piece about the range of projects that they are overseeing at one of the UK’s leading institutions, including: Online Distance Learning, collaborative lecture theatres, MOOCs, lecture capture, Open Educational Resources, Virtual Learning Environment and mobile voting;
• Shane Dillon, who is CEO and co-founder of the world’s largest community of international student graduates and alumni focused on lifetime employment support and engagement back in home countries. Started by an Australian entrepreneur in Vietnam in 2016, the network – named Cturtle – has grown to over 400,000+ members across 20 countries. Learn more about them in Shane’s introductory piece;
• Jamie Smith, CEO at Statistics24 and Executive Chairman at C-Learning. Uniting the campus and the cloud, UK-based Google Premier Partner C-Learning solves a problem for the 40 million users of Google G-Suite for Education through its ‘Classroom Toolbox’ solution, which enables educators to innovate without the need for specialist support or expensive software. To discover how C-Learning are trying to make life easier for educators, and to inquire about a free trial of Classroom Toolbox for your institution, check out this month’s article.

Finally, we’re pleased and proud to introduce you to our newest partner, Ukraine’s Sumy State University. It was the first Ukrainian university to pass the independent QS Stars audit in 2014, has over 200 partners around the world, and is increasing its global network apace. A full list of this year’s partners and sponsors can be found on our website, and if you’d like to join us in inspiring international innovation, please do reach out to our Partnerships Success Manager, Serena Ricci, today!

Anyone who wishes to submit an article on their work, research, product, or paper for our newsletter is, as ever, welcome to contact [email protected] with an 100-word summary of their proposed topic. Until then – keep innovating!

Regards,

Jack Moran
Editor
Reimagine Education