I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Diverse 2011 conference in Dublin last week, as part of a team including Kevin Burden, University of Hull; Kristen Snyder, Mid Sweden University; and Jeff Beaudry from the University of Southern Maine. We all met at last years conference in Portland, Maine, submitting a proposal of how we would create an international project designed to leverage digital storytelling and cross cultural understanding based around the theme of 'Global Crisis'. Our proposal was succesful and and we won the opportunity to present our first years work in Dublin. More details about that shortly on my other blog.

Diverse brings together an international community of experts, researchers and practitioners in visual media and video for learning. I was privileged to be involved in presenting 3 papers and participating in a 'judging' panel for the MEDEA awards. As well as the workshops and parallel sessions there were some memorable Keynotes from Prof. Michael Wesch, Prof. Roy Pea, Prof Bridgid Barron.  From Ireland, Dr Theo Lynn, Ciaran McCormack and Yvonne Crotty all gave excellent presentations

Dublin was a great place to be, and the weather was kind. It was great to be able share the Irish music and culture in all its variations with our colleagues from the States. I think the video above gives a good flavour of Diverse. So many thanks to Yvonne and Margaret and the team at Dublin City University for a memorable event. I am already looking forward to next years conference in Lueven, and hopefully some of you reading this will be attending or submitting proposals.