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09 March 2021

THE SUMMIT by SIMO EDUCATION, The Event For Talking About Innovation And Digital Skills In Teaching

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The event will take place on 7th and 8th April, online, as part of Live Connect Education Week, IFEMA’s new digital platform designed to encourage interaction between everyone in the education community, 365 days a year.

Educating For Virtuality and ICT Equipment During A Pandemic will be the topics debated in the panel discussions during the two days of THE SUMMIT by SIMO EDUCACION.

INTEF will be an active participant at the SUMMIT and will announce the winning teaching experiences in the 8th Annual Educational Innovation Awards 2020. 

IFEMA is partnering with EDUCACIÓN 3.0 to announce in advance the programme for the new online participation event THE SUMMIT by SIMO EDUCACION. It will be held next 7th and 8th April, using the new online platform, Education Week Live Connect. It aims to bring together the Spanish and Latin American educational community and the technology ecosystem in a space for reflection and analysis where we can discuss innovation, share real experiences and learn.

THE SUMMIT by SIMO EDUCACION will also be a bridge to the main annual educational technology event, SIMO EDUCACION 2021. That event will be held in its usual format from 2nd to 4th November at FERIA DE MADRID with the slogan “Learning After The Crisis.”

In line with the current situation, the SUMMIT programme will be organised around two panel discussions. Experts will discuss the current education situation from two different perspectives. The panel entitled Educating For Virtuality will answer questions and address concerns arising from this scenario. The pandemic has forced us to answer critical issues: Are all teaching methods useful for online education? Are teachers ready for the challenge of online and hybrid education? Is there a lack of training for this scenario? Is there certain fatigue with the online model? Has this crisis served to highlight more than ever the importance of face-to-face education? How can we evaluate education with a strong virtual component?

The second panel discussion will deal with ICT Equipment During A Pandemic. Teachers and technology industry representatives firms will discuss how the digitalisation process has progressed during the pandemic, trends for the future, and how to take advantage of what we have learned, and the minimum equipment and technologies schools and families need. Among other current key questions, there will be a debate on: What have we learned from this whole process? Should schools and government have been better prepared to ensure results in the digitalisation of education? Is this digitalisation here to stay? Will we go back to full face-to-face as soon as the pandemic is over, leaving all this equipment unused? What is the minimum infrastructure that schools and families will need to achieve fully online education and make the most of what they have acquired?

The fact is that lockdown and school closures during the early months of the pandemic led to the implementation of fully online education from one day to the next. This situation brought to light the weaknesses and shortcomings of a sector that, although it had been investing in digitalisation for years, was still a long way from having an infrastructure capable of dealing satisfactorily with situations such as the one we experienced.

INTEF (National Institute for Educational Technologies and Teacher Training) will be very active in the SUMMIT and will issue teachers taking part in the activities with a certificate for eight hours of training, provided that they meet the requirements. The sessions and conferences will be available to the online community after the LIVEConnect event.

During THE SUMMIT, we’ll be announcing the winning practices in the different categories of the 8th Annual Educational Innovation Awards 2020. Each year, these prizes showcase the most innovative teaching experiences being implemented and that use ICT to improve teaching and learning methods.

Live Connect Education Week  

IFEMA is taking giant strides towards incorporating available technology into its major trade fairs and focusing on digital transformation opportunities. This is an innovation context that includes, among others, the launch of the great global event: Education Week Live Connect. This event will be the biggest ever education-oriented gathering and professional and institutional networking event. We’ve designed it to enhance interaction between all actors in education, 365 days a year.

AULA will lead the way, together with the other events that make up the EDUCATION WEEK: the International Postgraduate and Continuing Education Exhibition, the RED Congress, SCHOOLS DAY, EXPOELEARNING, and THE SUMMIT by SIMO EDUCACION. It’ll kick off with the Educational Guidance Month programme from 17th March to 17th April.

And all this is made possible by the benefits of the new online platform with artificial intelligence capabilities. After the next (also exceptional) edition, it will enable us to bridge the gaps between future editions, to make them less seasonal, and allow us to manage contacts throughout the year, and make content, interactions and projects more globally relevant with access to communities in other countries, with particular focus on Latin America.