The Global & Gifted 2013 conference on the use of technology in gifted education was held at the University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, on the 3-5th July. It was organized by the Iggy network (International Gateway of Gifted Youth), a social network designed to help gifted young people between realise their full potential, which gives members access to great educational resources and encourages them to work with top academics and other gifted young people around the world. The focus on technology offered a new perspective to think about the future education of high potential students.
The keynote lecturers, as well as the seminar speakers were experts of various professional backgrounds, but with a common enthusiasm towards digital education and networking. During the three days 6 keynote speeches were delivered, and 27 seminars were offered. The first keynote speaker, Ian Warwick, the founder and senior director of London Gifted & Talented spoke about how to create intellectual curiosity and independence in students with disadvantaged background, especially through online learning materials. Matt Kelley, the owner and writer of a website dedicated to the advancement of understanding giftedness and the owner of Chicago Gifted Services focused on the role of internet and online games in the socio-emotional development of the gifted. The second day of the conference opened with the lecture of Csilla Fuszek, the director of European Talent Centre, Budapest, who spoke about social media networks for the talents of Europe, and outlined a possible way of European networking. Stephen Carrick-Davies, the director of Munch, Poke, Ping Project drew our attention to internet safety, with a special focus on understanding the language of safety and responsibility. On the third day we heard two interesting lectures: Ben Betts, a gamer, entrepreneur and learning geek spoke about how online games may foster 21st century working skills, whereas Sara de Freitas, the director of Research of Virtual Environments at Coventry University and Serious Games Institute introduced the basic concepts of gamification and learning. The seminars offered various topics in technology, gifted education and networking, some of them with the actual use of modern technologies in the form of a video conference. One of the most impressive seminar presentations was the one of the Iggy junior commission, composed of ten bright 13-17 year-old teenagers from all over the world, who presented their recent research findings about the future of education and the internet, and then proposed a professional conversation about the topic. All of us were affected by their intellectual brilliance and modesty.
The wonderful conference venue, the award-winning conference centre, Scarman House at the campus of the University of Warwick provided a place of conformity, which allowed for idea flow and inspiration for all the participants to be more committed to the use of technology in gifted education.
