Offaly school participates in first ever LOETB ‘Hackathon’

Banagher College students and teachers joined a number of other LOETB schools recently to participate in the first ever Irish S.E.L.F.I.E. ‘Hackathon’ at Laois Education Centre, as LOETB schools continue to develop the use of digital technologies in their schools.

The Hackathon event was designed to help schools use the results of a self-assessment tool called the S.E.L.F.I.E. (Self-reflection on Effective Learning by Fostering the use of Innovative Educational technologies), created by the European Commission, to develop an action plan to further harness the power of digital technologies for their schools.

Each school was represented by a team of teachers and students, who had to work together on the day to brainstorm ideas for digital innovation in their schools. Although they could work together, the teams also had to work against the clock to develop their ideas into a clear action plan for their own school, which had to be showcased to the wider group via a digital presentation before the end of the day – keeping all groups under pressure as the clock ticked down!

Fortunately Banagher College were more than ably represented at the event by a student team of Seán Daly, Ethan Cusack, Rachel Cleary and Katie Flanagan, with teachers Ms Dennehy and Ms McDowall also working on the plan. Rachel and Katie did an exceptional job of presenting the plan that the team created on the day, a presentation that was very well received by the members of the European Commission Education Team, who joined the event online.

After the successful day of innovation in Laois Education Centre, the next stop is for the team to put the plan into action in the school. If the different actions targeted for improvement are successfully implemented by the end of the school year, Banagher College, and their LOETB colleagues, will become some of the few schools in Ireland to be awarded a European Digital Schools Award title.