Artificial Intelligence (AI), What is it and what are the opportunities and challenges for FET?

In the last year, there has been a huge interest in the profound potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the realm of Further Education and Training. This presentation will cover the basics of AI, demystifying its core concepts and exploring its real-world applications. We will focus  on Chat GPT, an advanced AI language model through the lens of a FET teacher or tutor. AI can  assist educators, administrators, and students alike, providing personalized support, generating educational content, and promoting engagement. But AI in education is not just about convenience; it's also about the opportunities and challenges it presents to educators. Explore the vast potential for AI to streamline administrative tasks, enhance teaching materials, and adapt learning experiences to individual student needs. We will discuss the challenges and potential threats AI poses to educators in the FET sector, addressing concerns about job displacement and the changing role of teachers/tutors/trainers. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the future of education where AI and human educators collaborate to create more effective and personalized learning environments. Discover how you can harness the power of AI to elevate your teaching practices and unlock new possibilities in Further Education and Training.

The target audience for this event is: All FET staff members, including teachers, tutors, trainers, instructors and those in a co-ordination and/or quality teaching, learning and assurance roles.

Facilitation: John Heffernan and Susan Dunne both from Tipperary ETB

John Heffernan is the Technology Enhanced Learning Co-ordinator for Tipperary ETB. John's career, prior to teaching was in IT, working for a number of start up companies. He has taught or worked in ed tech for more that twenty years including two years as a PLC teacher. He is moving to MSLETB as PD co-ordinator in the near future

Susan Dunne brings 13 years of experience as an educator in post-primary education, teaching Business, Accountancy, and IT.  She was part of one of the first schools to achieve recognition as a Microsoft School of Excellence in Ireland.Over the past four years, Susan ventured into Further Education, where she teaches QQI Level 4 and 5 courses. Within her teaching, she uses OneNote E-portfolio extensively for teaching and assessment purposes. Alongside her practical teaching experience, she holds a postgraduate qualification in Special Educational Needs. Her enthusiasm for technology is constant and she continually explores innovative ways to incorporate it into her teaching practices.Throughout her career, she has dedicated time to enhancing her pedagogical skills, delving into various teaching methodologies, including Assessment for Learning and becoming a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) facilitator.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows, we can offer your booked place to another person.

Thursday, 19th October 2023 - 14.00 to 16.00

A link to this online event will be emailed in advance. 
Please keep an eye on your Junk/Spam folder in case the e-mail with the link to the online event ends up there.

Monday 27th November 2023 - 16.00 - 17.00

As a follow-up to the recent PD event Artificial Intelligence (AI), What is it and what are the opportunities and challenges for FET? we are offering an AI Clinic. This Clinic will be facilitated by FESS and John Heffernan (MSLETB) and Susan Dunne (TETB) who delivered the PD session on AI will be available to answer your queries. Both Susan and John have extensive knowledge  of AI and the use of AI apps that might be useful in teaching, learning and assessment in FET.

This session is participant led and therefore in order to get maximum value from the session, please come with questions/queries.   

A further clinic is being planned for December and the date will be published shortly 

Thursday 14 December 2023 - 16.00 - 17.00

As a follow-up to the recent PD event Artificial Intelligence (AI), What is it and what are the opportunities and challenges for FET? we are offering an AI Clinic. This Clinic will be facilitated by FESS and John Heffernan (MSLETB) and Susan Dunne (TETB) who delivered the PD session on AI will be available to answer your queries. Both Susan and John have extensive knowledge  of AI and the use of AI apps that might be useful in teaching, learning and assessment in FET.

This session is participant led and therefore in order to get maximum value from the session, please come with questions/queries.   

A further clinic is being planned for December and the date will be published shortly 

  Jigsaw Self-Care session for those working in FET

Following this session, participants will:
• Have a greater understanding of what self-care is
• Have a greater understanding of the importance of self-care in their role in education
• Explore the challenges to supporting self-care practice Be more aware of their own self-care needs
• Be able to develop their own self-care plan.

The target audience for this event is: All FET staff members, including teachers, tutors, trainers, instructors and those in a co-ordination and/or quality assurance role.

Facilitation: This event will be facilitated by Carrie Budds. Carrie is Youth Mental Health Coordinator with Jigsaw, working in the FET and Higher Education team. She has worked in health and wellbeing for the last 8+ years and is qualified in health promotion, specialising in workplace settings.
She has worked in a wide variety of industries, including corporate and private industry, the HSE and other public sector agencies and in tech. She has worked closely with senior leadership teams in the development of health & wellbeing policies, strategies and interventions. She has also managed her own business, helping to support employees’ mental health in the digital age by improving behaviours around digital technologies.
Carrie is particularly interested in the topics of resilience, culture change and the area of online as a setting for health promotion, and brings a wealth of experience to the Further and Higher Education setting.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows, we can offer your booked place to another person.

 Tuesday 24th October 2023 - 10.00 – 12.00 

A link to this online event will be emailed in advance. 
Please keep an eye on your Junk/Spam folder in case the e-mail with the link to the online event ends up there.

This hands on and interactive workshop will invite participants to explore what it means to view and facilitate formative and summative assessment in FET through a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) lens.

By the end of this session participants will have had opportunities to:
• Reflect on the principles of assessment, with a focus on equity, and what this means for both formative and summative assessment in their context
• Revisit the important of constructive alignment in assessment design
• Critically examine their own approaches to assessment of, as and for learning and identify multiple methods of action and expression for learners in their individual contexts
• Identify areas of feedback and/or assessment that could be reshaped or redesigned through a UDL lens.

This stand-alone session will follow on from the FESS series of five assessment sessions ( September / October)

The target audience for this event is: All FET staff members, including teachers, tutors, trainers, instructors and those in a co-ordination and/or quality assurance role.

Facilitation: This session will be facilitated by Carrie Archer. Carrie's pronouns are she/her. She has been working in Further Education and Training for 15 years and is the Professional Learning and Development Coordinator with City of Dublin ETB. Carrie’s interests are coaching, leadership, Communities of Practice, Universal Design for Learning and championing belonging, equity, inclusion, and diversity. She is passionate about the representation and visibility of LGBTQI learners and staff and is currently specialising as an ADHD coach. She facilitates a Professional Learning Network for support teachers in FET colleges and mentors in Technology Enhanced Learning and inclusive pedagogy in City of Dublin ETB. She was a part of the design team with City of Dublin ETB and Trinity College Dublin for a Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma and Masters courses focusing on Diversity and Inclusion in FET. She also currently lectures on Postgraduate programmes in the National College of Ireland on diversity and inclusion, and on assessment and feedback for educational practice in FET.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows, we can offer your booked place to another person.

Wednesday, 8th November 2023 - 10.00 to 12.00

 A link to this online event will be emailed in advance. 
Please keep an eye on your Junk/Spam folder in case the e-mail with the link to the online event ends up there.

 Unlocking the Potential of Rubrics in Teaching, Learning and Assessment

Please note: This event is a repeat of a previous FESS PD event on 'Unlocking the Potential of Rubrics in Teaching, Learning and Assessment' first delivered online in Autumn/Winter 2022 and Spring 2023.

This online event aims to assist FET staff in the development and use of rubrics to support teaching, learning and assessment activities. This is an interactive event where participants will be provided with information, have the opportunity to engage in discussion and participate in a rubric development workshop.

This event will:

• Provide an overview of what we mean by rubrics
• Explore the purpose, types and benefits of rubrics
• Explore the use and relevance of rubrics for teaching, learning and assessment
• Provide participants with the opportunity to begin the development of a rubric
• Provide the opportunity to share some examples of rubrics for different purposes.

Learning together in this event will help us to consider the range of possibilities rubrics can bring to teaching, learning and assessment.

The target audience for this event is: FET staff including teachers, tutors, trainers, programme co-ordinators and QA staff.

Facilitation: This event will be facilitated by FESS.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this event unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows we can offer your booked place to another person.

Further Information, Date and Time

Wednesday, 15th November 2023 - 10.00 to 12.00

A link to this online event will be emailed in advance. 
Please keep an eye on your Junk/Spam folder in case the e-mail with the link to the online event ends up there.

   Building a Competency Framework for Soft Skills/Transversal Skills in FET

This session is a follow-on from a previous session introducing the importance of soft skills/transversal skills for the future world of work and the key position that FET holds in the delivery of these skills.

This session will focus in on those identified priority soft skills and showcase some work already carried out across the education sector. This will form a starting point for the discussion of the requirements of building a soft skills competency framework within FET. Methods of teaching these skills will be addressed and case studies and scenarios will be shared as a basis for the discussion. This is very relevant to the development of programmes for FET.
Recognising the expertise of those in attendance, outcomes from these conversations will be integrated into future research and will feed into the development of the competency framework.

The target audience for this event is: FET staff including teachers, tutors, trainers, co-ordinators, managers.

Facilitation: This event will be facilitated by Marie Cleary. Marie is founder and director at ThirdSpace Consultants. She has extensive experience working with senior management and their teams to deliver strategic management interventions, facilitate change, develop leaders and build high performance teams. Before moving into Consulting, Marie was a teacher of Music and English at second level for 10 years. Her 20+ years Consulting career has spanned both public and private sector internationally. Her qualifications in Business, Education, Finance and Psychology, coupled with her previous roles in management of EU funding, gives her an expansive skillset to work in a variety of settings. She recently completed Doctoral Studies on Future Skills. Marie is a coaching psychologist with extensive experience as an executive coach and has worked at a senior level to assist clients resolve challenging issues, build resilience and enhance leadership capability. Marie is passionate about intercultural education and is closely connected to the work of Leargas across the fields of Youth, Further Education and School Education.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows, we can offer your booked place to another person.

 Further Information, Date and Time

Thursday 16th November 2023 - 10.00 to 12.00

A link to this online event will be emailed in advance. 
Please keep an eye on your Junk/Spam folder in case the e-mail with the link to the online event ends up there.

   Trauma Informed Approaches for FET Settings

Jigsaw is a youth mental health charity which offers a range of mental health supports and services to both young people (aged 12-25 years) and those around them in the settings where they live, learn, work and play.
The Jigsaw Youth Mental Health Promotion team for FET and Higher Education aims to increase the mental health knowledge, skills, and resources of young people, and those around them across FET and higher education settings.

Trauma-informed practice uses knowledge and understanding of how trauma affects people’s lives (biologically, psychologically and socially) to ameliorate rather than exacerbate these effects. Any teaching or person-helping professional can become trauma-informed in their work, and in doing so support the development of psychologically safe learning environments for all.

Session Objectives:
• Understand trauma and its impacts on FET learners
• Consider behaviour as communication
• Explore factors which contribute to being a trauma informed FET learning setting
• Receive tips on creating a trauma sensitive environment and trauma informed relationships with learners
• Consider your own self-care in this context

*Note that while Jigsaw focuses on supporting the mental health of young people aged between 12-25, the strategies and approaches from this workshop can be applied to all age groups*

The target audience for this event is: All FET staff members, including FET staff including management, teachers, tutors, trainers, instructors, programme coordinators, guidance counsellors, learning support staff and wellbeing officers.

Facilitation: This event will be facilitated by Tara Mulhern and Dr Emma Hickey, Jigsaw

Tara Mulhern is Clinical Lead for Education at Jigsaw, and works primarily on their Further and Higher Education Team. Tara is an occupational therapist with 16 years’ experience working with young people and adults in various community based mental health settings, including having previously worked as a Regional Clinical Manger for Jigsaw. She has significant experience supporting learners to be effective and fulfilled with their student role through occupational therapy and more recently through mental health promotion. Tara has particular interests in trauma informed practice, occupational balance, sensory integration, mental health promotion and clinical education. Tara has previously delivered content on trauma informed practice to schools across Ireland.

Dr. Emma Hickey is a Clinical Psychologist and Senior Clinician with Jigsaw Limerick. She is interested in making sense of distress collaboratively with young people and is particularly drawn to understanding how we can communicate and reflect on the idea of power in an accessible and meaningful way to support young people to understand what may be maintaining distress levels in their lives. Emma has also been involved in practically implementing the principles of trauma informed working at a local and national level in Jigsaw.

Please note: Pre-booking is essential. Please do not book onto this session unless you are sure that you will attend / have approval to attend (if required). If an emergency arises, please inform us ASAP (cpdcancellations@fess.ie) as we operate a waiting list system and if time allows, we can offer your booked place to another person.

 Further information, Date and Time

Thursday, 30th November 2023 - 14.00 to 16.00

A link to this online event will be emailed in advance. 
Please keep an eye on your Junk/Spam folder in case the e-mail with the link to the online event ends up there.