March 21, 2025, by Ben Atkinson

Reflections on Digifest 2025 – Part 3

In the third of a series of blog posts, Learning Technology Consultant Dave Corbett shares his reflections of attending JISC DigiFest 2025, discussing day two of the event in Birmingham.

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Following on from Sally’s post about DigiFest 25, I wanted to share some of my highlights from the event.

DigiFest 25 was hosted on March 11^th and 12^th at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham by Jisc, a non-profit organisation focussing on digital practices in the UK FE and HE sector. They partner with the University of Nottingham on a variety of projects, and continue to support us with our journey on Blended Learning, Staff and Student Digital Competencies and Artificial Intelligence.

This was my first experience of an off-site, in-person conference whilst working at UoN. Whilst I enjoyed several of the talks (more about these later), it was the opportunity to connect with others that was the most interesting and valuable part. I spoke with several colleagues from JISC who knew Nottingham well; exhibitors who gave an insight into the art of the possible with a variety of products including VR, data analytics, learning resources, media creation and assessment; and fellow delegates who are looking to collaborate and exchange knowledge, expertise and ideas around the complex challenges and opportunities we face as we look to digitally enhance our Teaching and Learning offering.

The three talks that I found particularly valuable were:

1. The initial keynote, Failing Brilliantly by Paul Icke. This talked about the positives that can come from failing. It was a really fun and engaging session but had me thinking about the need to try more ‘low-stakes’ initiatives without fear of failure. I enjoyed the idea of logging these failures and displaying them – but I’m not sure that I’m bold enough to include all of these my professional failures publicly or even on my CV as was shared in the session!
2. Workshop, Designing Blended Learning for All. This looked at the findings from the Beyond Blended report from 2023 and how Universities have been implementing their findings. The takeaway from this was around student choice and how some universities have trialled giving students choice over how they access sessions (live online, live in-person or asynchronous online) and whether this can be applied either by committing at the start of a year or on a weekly basis. There are lots of interesting findings from the report, I’d urge you to check it out.
3. Discussion, Generative AI in Education: From hype to impact’. I must admit, the conference had such an AI flavour to it that I was reluctant to attend a further optional session around it but was glad that I did. The discussion moved on to talk about what capabilities would an AI teacher need? This was thought provoking, qualities mentioned included empathetic language, gentle humour, active listening indicators, personalised feedback, the ability to ask reflective questions and to have a sensitivity to cultural environment. I’m sure there are many more as well. This chimed with an overarching conference theme where AI was referred to as ‘Additional Intelligence’ with the eventual move to using teachers to focus on the things that are of most importance and can’t be automated. I also liked the idea of an AI Driver’s License that was used by an FE college. The idea here was that they had trained their students before they could use AI to submit assessments, not just from a can/can’t position but also looking at possibilities, opportunities and potential difficulties.

All in all, it was a really worthwhile event to have attended with lots of connections made, ideas to pursue, and opportunities to collaborate and innovate moving forward.

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