These three days have been phenomenal and being part of Digital Leaders- thought group is one of the best decisions I have made in my life so far. Everyday has been a great experience, and every day I have learnt something new. Listening to keynote speakers has been a wonderful experience and the best part has been the capability to put our sentiments out there, where everybody can see our point of view related to the topics.

There were four keynote speakers, Alec Couros, Kathy Schrock, Alan Noble and Sally Ann-Williams, all of the presentations were brilliant in their own way, but my favourite was Alec Couros. The motivation behind why it was my most loved is on account of how I felt more connected with it and I could plainly see what he was attempting to say and I agreed with the majority of the topics.

Alec Couros’s theme was ‘Beyond selfies, likes and pokes’ His presentation was about how we can use technology to build a connection with people, and how technology is beyond selfies, likes and pokes. What I gathered from the presentation was that the main purpose of it was to persuade people to use technology in school to build a strong connection between students and teachers, however I don’t think that this was fully demarcated. Alec revealed the true power of technology and how we can use it to make better connections, and a better environment. Before that day, to me technology was basically just talking to friends, posting pictures and liking, however after the presentation I realised the value of the technology.

I consider myself very lucky because if I hadn’t attended #ACEC2014, I would have missed a presentation, which has totally changed my perspective on technology usage. We can shape the future with technology that we have access to, which is a very powerful tool we all have. An example would be: with networking and just social media tools we can connect to other students, teachers and share ideas and create an environment which will make education more than just going to school doing assignments and passing.

This is a change that has developed in me after going to ACEC, and after going to a Alec Couros speech I realised something that I probably never could have in my normal life.-Isbah