As we begin the year, colleges and universities look for ideas for integrating technology in the classroom, as well as the benefits of technology in education management.

Scholars, academics, administrators and – of course, educational software companies – will have a very busy circuit of conferences, seminars, forums and events to get the best practices for quality improvement in higher education planning, administration, technology and IT trends. Here are some in 2017 you might find interesting:

January 5-7. 8th International Conference on E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Very few events combine the educational part with the management side of higher education technology. The IC4E 2017 brings together researchers, scientists, engineers, and scholar students to exchange and share their experience, new ideas and research results about all aspects of “E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning,” as well as discussing practical challenges and solutions adopted.

January 25-28. Bett Show. London.

This event is special for us. U-Planner successfully participated in the Latin American version of this event, held on October 27-28, 2016 in Mexico City. 

The original show in the United Kingdom looks “to bring together people, ideas, practices, and technologies so that educators and learners can fulfill their potential.” IT will discuss the use of cutting edge technology, for instance, to drive strategic leadership of student behavior, having a rich work experience for software developers, use technology help inspire tomorrow's talent, and much more.

March 6-8. 11th Annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference. Valencia, Spain.

The organizer, INTED, is one of the “largest international education conferences for lecturers, researchers, technologists and professionals from the educational sector.”

It has gathered 700 experts from 80 countries come together to present projects and share their knowledge on teaching and learning technologies, as well as educational innovations and experiences in technology and development.  

April 26-27. Global Educational Supplies & Solutions (GESS). Mexico City.

The event is one of the only shows and conferences in Latin America covering the entire industry of educational suppliers, who can meet educators at all levels.

In 2016, over 2,400 educational professionals from 19 countries attended. Companies use the event to launch educational products all over the Americas.

May 26-27. 13th International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society. Toronto, Canada.

The event will address a series of applications of technologies, both for human usability, knowledge sharing, its role in society and the importance of ubiquitous learning.

The conference will stress important trends in education technology, such as learning by design and networked computing, interactive and collaborative learning and the virtual university.

June 20-23. EdMedia World Conference on Educational Media and Technology. Washington, DC.

This international conference, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), “serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia, and telecommunications/distance education.”

It will address tools and content oriented applications, the human computer interaction, the architecture of educational technology systems, interactive learning environments, and virtual reality.

June 23-25. 10th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2017). Cebu, Philippines.

It is specially prepared to address an international forum research about data mining for educational research questions. “These data sets may come from the traces that students leave when they interact with learning management systems, interactive learning environments, intelligent tutoring systems, educational games or when they participate in a data-rich learning context. The types of data, therefore, range from raw log files to eye-tracking devices and other sensor data”, the organizers say.

Among the topics, they will talk about:  

• Detecting and addressing students’ affective and emotional states.
• Integrating data mining and educational theory.
• Data mining in social and collaborative learning.
• Evaluation of the efficacy of curriculum and interventions.

July 17-20. Campus Technology 2017. Chicago.

The event, developed in consultation with an advisory board of academic and administrative experts from higher education institution in the United States, brings together leaders in higher education and technology “to explore innovative solutions and to develop effective strategies for campus administration, infrastructure, teaching and learning, and more.”

July 29-31 Second Canadian International Conference on Advances in Education, Teaching &Technology (Eduteach). Toronto.

The purpose of the event is to address global education through technology, it’s challenges, issues and trends. It will gather educators, teachers, technologists and researchers both from secondary, vocational and higher education.

August 7-10. EduWeb Digital Summit. Boston.

The organizers want to create a place where professionals start a conversation about the use of digital tools to drive university community engagement. They will explore areas such as content and email marketing, social media, and the use of big data and analytics to uncover significant importation and explore “how to make insight-driven decisions” that add value to universities.

September 3-5. Times Higher Education (THE) World Academic Summit. London.

The annual event held by Times Higher Education addresses the importance of internationalization under the motto “Collaborating for a better world: new models for research universities.”

The event will also be the venue for the launch of the 2017 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

October 11-13. Conference of the Americas on International Education. Montreal, Canada.

The event is part of a series of seminars in the American continent, as space “to share paradigms, models and best practices on international education and internationalization issues that contribute to quality and innovation of higher education in national, regional and international dimensions.”

The year has just begun, and we may see new conferences and forums in the horizon. Do you plan to attend an education conference this year? Which one?