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Gamifying Education: Not Just Playing Video Games

The observed motivators which engage children in free play are tantamount to the key elements found in games (1). Further, it is no question that video games are a dominant entertainment form in the twenty-first century and have the capabilities to engage users (2). Such game mechanics are beginning to be applied outside the immersive environments of games themselves, to create engaging experiences for participants in the real world. Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking and game elements to engage users in solving problems and increase users’ self contributions (3).

The gamification of education is NOT just playing video games in the classroom – sometimes it doesn’t involve digital technologies at all.

Research reveals that the longer students stayed in school, the less likely they are to attend and feel engaged in their classes (4). Yet, game players regularly exhibit persistence, risk-taking, attention to detail and problem solving skills – all behaviors that would be ideal for students to possess in the classroom. Games are important as they embody four elements associated with how people learn; games are “immersive, they require players to have goals and make frequent decisions, they adapt to each player, and they unfold within the context of a community that supports the social dimension of learning” (5). Through the new media literacies of play and performance, players of games have the capacity to experiment with their surrounding as a form of problem solving, and can practice improvisation from varying perspectives (6). Guiding learners through the curriculum by encouraging thought and action is the foundation of intellectual engagement and aids students in the development of original work, collaboration, and confidence as knowledge-builders (4).

I synthesized my understanding of academic literature to create this visualization of the key elements of gamification:

Special thanks to @TyRiddick for his input.

The gamification of education supports the constructivist theory where knowledge is not simply transmitted from teacher to student, but actively constructed by the mind of the learner (7). Games allow for role play and the immersion in experience through situated practice (8). Well-designed games allow for players to “construct understanding actively, and at individual paces, and. . . enable players to advance on different paths at different rates in response to each player’s interests and abilities, while also fostering collaboration and just-in-time learning” (1). Since the cycle between choice and result is much shorter in games than in life, hypotheses are regularly tested and refined, lowering the emotional stake of failing and encouraging risk taking (6). With this increased willingness to experiment, players continue to make choices, contextualizing facts and information as tools for problem solving (9). The intrinsic motivations instilled in players of games is only increased through extrinsic positive or negative reinforcements such as awards, achievements, or loss of power often found in games. This sort of operant conditioning affects the users’ choices if faced with a similar scenario later in the game (10). Students are forced to use their power of reasoning to construct knowledge for themselves when immersed in a game, no matter their age. The relevance of these capacities beyond a games context, form the basis of a modern literacy that should be developed by all young people.

See my (first) stop-motion video explaining the four principle elements in game that make them engaging to users:

James Paul Gee is a psycholinguistics researcher who has crossed over into literacy and learning. His book “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy” is an excellent account of gaming principles and discuses how these elements can be applied to the k-12 classroom.

Again, gamification is not playing video games – it in the idea that the elements of video games can be applied in other areas.

See the video below for an overview of his work:

  1. Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S. and Salen, K. (2009). Moving learning games forward: Obstacles, opportunities & openness. The Education Arcade. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    2.Prensky, M. (2001). Chapter 5: Fun, play and games: What makes games engaging. Digital Game-Based Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  2. Deterding, S., Sicart, M., Nacke, L., O’Hara, K. & Dixon, D. (2009). Gamification: Using game design elements in non-gaming contexts. Vancouver: CHI.
  3. Willms, J. D., S. Friesen, & P. Milton (2009). What did you do in school today? Transforming classrooms through social, academic and intellectual engagement — First national report. Toronto, ON: Canadian Education Association.
  4. Mouza, C. and Lavigne, N. (eds). 2013. Chapter 1: Emerging technologies for the classroom. Explorations in the Learning Sciences, Instructional Systems, and Performance Technologies. New York: Springer Science and Business Media.
  5. Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media Education for the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  6. Piaget, J. & B. Inhelder (1967). A child’s concept of space (F. J. Langdon & J. L. Lunzer, Trans.) New York: Norton (Original work published 1948).
  7. New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review. 66(1), 60-92.
  8. Gee, J.P. (2003). What video games can teach us about literacy and learning. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
  9. Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan

Finding Free-to-Use Content for Multimedia Projects

I once tried what I thought was a fantastic idea as an English teacher: have students create a movie trailer for a book they had read to present to their classmates. Students did an excellent job carefully piecing together images, footage and background music using a variety of editing software. When they presented in front of their peers, we filmed their presentations and posted them privately on YouTube.


Then YouTube took down the majority of my students’ videos 
for copyright infringement. Oops.

I had to backtrack and learn more about copyright laws and teach this information to my digital citizens:
I also created a student-friendly printable “cheat sheets” to help students find content for their multimedia projects:
Please feel free to copy these materials and use them for educational purposes.

Copyright: The War against Piracy is Stifling Creativity

As an educator who utilizes technology in her teaching, I had so many questions about copyright that no one seemed to be able to answer:
What does copyright mean?
Where can I find free-to-use content?
Do Fair Use principles cover me as an educator?
My pursuit of answers that led me down a rabbit hole of information, contradictions, and legal jargon. Unfortunately contemporary copyright laws are convoluted and full of “grey areas”. The hypocrisy of how most laws have been established (through large corporations looking to cash-in) has stunted culture and put limits on creativity in the digital world. While I do believe direct copy and paste piracy should be illegal, today’s restrictions may be crippling today’s Creative Class of learners.

Information Processing Theory and Impact on Learning

The Information Processing Theory is an approach to cognitive development that suggests a way in which humans process the information they receive. This theory contrasts a behaviourist that humans simply respond to stimuli. This theory suggests that information is processed in stages, much like the way in which a computer processes data (Orey 2002). Information enters the brain (or computer) through our senses (mouse/keyboard). Next, the information is processed in our working memory (processor/ram), where it is stored and recalled from specific areas of our long-term memory (hard drive). This recalled information can lead to an output response to the stimuli (monitor).
Turple, C. (2016).
Our sensory memory intakes information through seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. If we decide to pay attention to certain stimuli, it moves into our short-term memory, also known as our working memory as it is the place where we process information. In order for information to be stored in our long-term memory and formally learned, the information must be elaborated on through rehearsal to consolidate the new data.

Turple, C. (2016). Adapted from: Lutz, S. & Huitt, W. (2003).
We can then organize new information into existing knowledge sets (if information is similar to prior information) or create a completely new knowledge structure if the new information is unlike anything we have experienced before. Once information is stored in our long-term memory, we can later recall this knowledge back into our working memory to compare to incoming information or help elaborate on our knowledge experiences.
Many of these operations involve executive function to pay attention to new information, attend to rehearsal practices in the working memory and help consolidate information into our long-term memory. Unfortunately, new information can be lost at all stages of information processing.  If incoming stimulus is not paid attention to in our sensory memory, our brain does not notice the information. In our short-term memory, only a maximum of five stimulus can be used at once – if this information is not encoded within 15-30 seconds it will be lost altogether. In long-term memory retrieval, there are also chances of encoding failure during information consolidation if elaboration does not occur or the information cannot be properly organized in existing knowledge structures. Finally, information in long-term memory could be lost through a retrieval failure or “overridden” if new information contradicts something previously learned.
Watch my visual breakdown of the stages of the theory and applications to classroom practice:
When considering the stages of the Information Processing Theory, there are 5 easy steps teachers can take to support students in the acquisition of new information.
RECEPTION to ensure teachers gain students’ attention using an abrupt stimulus change to focus students’ sensory memory on the lesson. 
I like to use music or short video clips to gain students’ attention. Catchy songs such as this Information Literacy Song or the Literary Devices Rap work well.
RETRIEVAL educators should stimulate recall of prior learning and skills from students’ long-term memory into their working memory.
I like to use kinesthetic warmups that gets the students moving around and talking to peers other than their elbow partner. Simple activities work great such as having the students move around the room and when the music stops (often I use the songs above), I yell out a number. Students must form a group with that many people and answer a question about the content from the previous lesson. Scholastics’s Mind Up Curriculum books are full of such activities.
RECEIVE information transmitted by the teacher that should have distinctive features and suggest a meaningful organization of ideas for students. 
I started “branding” my lessons by using the same template and colour scheme for all lesson within a unit. For other skills such as the MYP Approaches to Learning, I always use the same cover slide. I have also started using less unconnected slides and utilising animations to put together the “pieces” of a slide. Finally, acronyms and step-by-step procedures have become the focus of my lessons. For example, when I was teaching my students about how to find reliable online sources, I began the lesson by playing the research song, played the kinesthetics warmup game, then introduce an acronym to help them remember the criteria for reliable websites:
RESPOND or experience the information for themselves to absorb knowledge into their preexisting knowledge sets by eliciting performance from students. 
Arguably the most important step in student learning! Students need to immediately do something with their new knowledge. When introducing the CRAP acronym for determining reliable resources, I had students decide whether example websites are reliable or not. One issue I often run into for this stage is running out of time when I have 30 minute class time blocks. What I have come to learn is it is better to break up the learning into smaller pieces where students have the opportunity to immediately respond to new knowledge, rather than using a whole block to introduce content and the following block as a work period.
REINFORCE by providing ongoing feedback to students and especially give them additional performance opportunities to apply the feedback. 
Encouraging students to make mistakes and learn from those “failures” is key. I try to give as many opportunities for students to experiment with new ideas by offering several chances to practice new skills. I aim to give my students individual verbal feedback once a week and written feedback every other week. Since I utilise Google for Education Apps Suite in my teaching, this is often done through the comments function. I have learned to create one ongoing template my students work in throughout a unit so all of my comments and their work is in one place. This way, it is easy for both myself and students to see their ongoing progress.
Turple, C. (2016).

More than anything, learning about the Information Processing Theory reminded me of the importance of lesson warm-ups and “hooking” students into a learning activity. The theory also offers a simple explanation of how memory may work and is something I have even taught my students to make them more away of their own learning behaviours.

References
Lutz, S., & Huitt, W. (2003). Information processing and memory: Theory and applications. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/infoproc.pdf
Orey, M. (2002). Information Processing. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Information_processing

The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing

Innovations in technology have changed the way in which society acts. As classical scholar and university librarian James O’Donnell points out in the 1999 radio broadcast “From Papyrus to Cyberspace,” one generation’s frontier becomes the next generation’s reality. One can assume that with each new frontier there are gains and losses. For example, the invention of the automobile sparked a transportation revolution, but with this improved accessibility we also implicitly accept thousands of car-related deaths each year. Advancements in writing technologies have unpredictable changes in human roles and geography. Printing presses led to the spread of unorthodox ideas across the world and new forms of democratization, while the shift from a primarily oral to literate society brought with it new lines of exclusion between those who could read and those who could not.

James Engell, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard, highlights the point that such revolutions of technology do not occur suddenly but are instead a gradual shift within societies. Just as manuscripts continued to be produced well after the invention of the printing press, it is common for information from the internet to be written down on paper. Thus the challenge with emerging digital technologies is not that such societal shifts are occurring, but finding the most effective way new technologies can be integrated with the way things are currently functioning. Learn more about the impact of the typewriter on literacy in my short documentary The Shift from Handwriting to Typewriting:

Full List of References and Media Content Sources

The shift from handwriting to digital text and their associated issues continue to plague educators as one-to-one devices become the norm in schools. My English Department meetings often consist of heated debates concerning whether students should complete their coursework on paper or digitally. The topic seems to polarise the teachers within the department and we cannot collectively decide on the “correct” answer.
“students who write out their notes on paper may actually learn more” (Mueller & Oppenheiner, 2014).
In 2012, scientists find that the brains of preliterate kids respond like a reader’s brain when they write their ABCs, but not when they type or trace the letters (Pauly, 2016). Another research team reports that college students who transcribed lectures on their laptops recalled more information than those who took notes by hand because the use of laptops results in shallower processing (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014). Across three experiments, researchers had students take notes in a classroom setting and then tested students on their memory for factual detail, their conceptual understanding of the material, and their ability to synthesize and generalize the information. The two types of note-takers performed equally well on questions that involved recalling facts, laptop note-takers performed significantly worse on the conceptual questions (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014). This research suggests that perhaps completing tasks on paper may be more beneficial for students.
However, sometimes the purpose of note taking is simply to collect information. During novel studies I often have my students take notes to record key quotations or details from the book we are reading under the categories of the elements of fiction (e.g. setting, characters, style, theme). When forced to write on paper, I find students’ notes quickly become disorganised and chaotic. Factor in that a novel study last several weeks – sometimes months – I find students’ paper notes become more of a hassle than helpful.
Instead of making the paper-or-digital choice for my high school students, I share research findings and we collaboratively discuss the benefits and advantages of each format. I then prompt them to make the choice for themselves and give them the opportunity to change formats if they feel they made the wrong choice. In Benedict Carey’s book “How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens” he refocusses attention away from a mono-solution to the learning conundrum, by prompting learners to consider the task at hand:
“It’s not that there is a right and wrong way to learn. It’s that there are different strategies, each uniquely suited to capturing a particular type of information. A good hunter tailors the trap to the prey” (Carey, 2014, p. 44).
My vision for my students is for them to discover for themselves how they work best in a time where they are living and learning during this technological revolution. The following is a lesson to prompt a discussion surrounding the ambiguity of the paper of digital argument:
While reading and writing remains at the heart of education, emerging technologies will continue to alter the concept of literacy itself. As we continue to move from written text to digitized information, educators must adapt their didactic methods to coincide with modern technologies. The technologies of handwriting and typewriting need not exist in a binary relationship in our postmodernist culture. They can co-exist, offering us a multiplicity of ways to communicate where each is geared for its own different purpose.
References
Mueller, P. A. & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychological Science, 25(6).
O’Donnell, J. & Engell, J. (1999). “From papyrus to cyberspace” [radio broadcasts]. Cambridge Forum.
Ong, W. J. (1982). Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.
Pauly, M. (2016). A Brief History of Handwriting. Mother Jones, 41(5), 60.

Reasons Why You Should Attend College

Getting a college degree is one of the most fundamental steps in a person’s life and it has become a central part of the dream of many nations. Going to college, getting a job, buying a house, and raising a family. This may not be that simple. Nonetheless, it always begins with your college education and essay writing. college

Getting a college degree incorporates opening up opportunities in life in a primary manner. Not only does it prepare you in an intellectual manner but also in a social manner for both your career and adult lifespan. The benefits of a college education incorporate career opportunities such as well-paying and skillful jobs. However, studies reveal that college education also leads to stability and overall happiness. Many people wish they would get to attend college. But, the majority often ask, “Why is college important?” This is because they do not know why and how it would enrich or impact their lives in a positive manner. If you are one of these people, you need not worry about anything. According to CustomEssayOrder, below are some of the advantages of going to college.

An acquisition in your future

One of the benefits of going to college is that it is an investment in your future. A college degree is a guarantee of a fruitful future. Going to college is a primary obligation of time and money. Nevertheless, it is a down payment of success. Getting your degree helps you identify and recognize your objectives in your career and life. Receiving a college degree needs a lot of hard work. Nonetheless, that work prepares you for a perplexing or stimulating and recompensing career. Additionally, it guarantees you a more fruitful life. “If you served in the military, you can even find and enroll in online college for military veterans.”

Better job opportunities

Getting a college degree is an ideal pathway to a better career. When joining college, not everyone knows the career paths they wish to pursue. However, most people know they want to have successful jobs – one that not only pays well but also guarantees them security and satisfaction. This combination of benefits of higher education is the reason why most people invest time and money to go to college.

In most cases, what you study is not that important, but the fact that you get to study something. In addition to becoming an expert in a particular field, attending college helps train you to think in an analytical manner, comprehend difficult subjects, and convey your critical thoughts and ideas about them. Additionally, it instills, vital skills such as self-discipline, ability to finish tasks and organization.

And since college equips you with an array of skills, many graduates do not pursue careers which relate to their fields of study. The benefits of attending college are that it paves the way for unexpected opportunities which are not often available for those who have no engagement with a higher level of education.

Personal progress

One of the other benefits of a college degree is that it helps in your personal development. A college degree is advantageous for various practical reasons which range from your high competitiveness to your likelihood of landing a promotion. However, many people underrate the degree of personal development that they will experience while working through their degrees. College education necessitates you to overcome adversity and it prepares you for the workplace as well as dealing with day-to-day challenges.

Some of the skills you can pick up while in college include organization and time management. These are necessary when navigating through the courses you will take as well as tackling your tasks in a successful manner. Quizzes, homework dates, and tests can be confusing more so when you are handling numerous tasks. But, with good organization skills not only will you manage your responsibilities, but also be able to use these skills after you earn your degree.

Generate more income

Generating more income, for many people, is the driving force behind attending college. Post-secondary degrees are the most typical routes to careers which demand higher skills and offer better pay. Studies reveal that college graduates generate more income throughout their lifetime than students who receive high school education. What you earn depends on your field of work. Some professions pay well than others, for instance, medicine and education. A doctor or nurse earns more money than a teacher or tutor. So, it is crucial that you join college and enjoy the college education benefits which come along with it.

Reimbursements for you and your family

It is without a doubt that making more money is a core benefit of getting your college degree. However, many jobs will need professional, doctoral, bachelor’s or master’s degree to grant you more benefits. For instance, travel, retirement investment, and health care among other perks. Such perks are not on offer for high-school level jobs.

One of the major benefits of a bachelor’s degree is that it promises you employment in the future whose merits are fundamental in that they provide stability to your family, more so in relation to health care.

The merits of college education go beyond generations. Families with college graduates have better economic and social statuses. So, you should not wonder about the positive impacts of college education in your life but instead, consider looking at it as an investment in your family’s future.

Higher feasibility or practicability of high-quality remunerations

When the economy improves, firms and organizations find it hard to attract top talent. This is because companies need to hire more which puts highly-qualified personnel in high demand. In return, these workers are apt to reject working for another company to favor another. Attending college equips you with numerous skills which make you more qualified. It is easy for employers to lure such people with incentives than good pay. These incentives include beneficial packages which incorporate better healthcare options and vacation time among others.

Job safety and satisfaction

A college degree leads to better job safety. Persons who do not have degrees are not valuable to their employers. When push comes to shove, it will be very easy for your employer to replace you with somebody else, more so someone with high school education level. Thus, attending college is essential if you want to secure your future.

Make contacts

It is easy to think of the benefits of a college degree in relation to promotion opportunities and future earnings. However, people do not talk about the benefits of networking as often as they should. Networking plays a significant role in opening up job opportunities. Many people often get jobs on the basis of recommendations from friends. In other cases, a professional network enables you to learn more about upcoming job opportunities before other people. So, it is fundamental you create a professional network while in college. This will help make it easy for you to find a job or get a promotion.

In conclusion, earning a college degree is fundamental in the lifetime of an individual. This is because it opens up many opportunities which can help secure your future. So, you should not wonder how joining college would enrich your life but rather consider enjoying the college benefits which come along with it such as the ones above.

Call for Papers IJR

International Journal of Research (IJR) publishes regular papers and special issues on specific topics of interest to international audiences of educational researchers.
The aim of the journal is to help them better understand each other’s role in the overall process of education and how they may support each other. The articles should be original, unpublished, and not in consideration for publication elsewhere at the time of submission to International Journal of Research (IJR) and one month thereafter.

How to Submit Papers

Send papers through mail to ijr@ijrjournal.com

Scope of Publication in IJR

The topics related to this journal include but are not limited to:
•Educational systems architectures
•Computer-mediated communication
•Distance education/learning
•Distance learning systems
•Distributed learning environments
•Educational multimedia
•Human-computer interface issues
•Hypermedia systems/applications
•Interactive learning environments
•Learning by doing
•Multimedia systems/applications
•Network-based learning environment
•Online education
•Simulations for learning
•Web based instruction/training
•Intelligent learning environments
•Intelligent tutoring environments
•Collaborative learning & environment
•Didactic/pedagogical issues
•Teaching/learning strategies

International Journal of Research (IJR)

International Journal of Research (IJR) serves as a forum for academics, policy makers and health care managers and professionals to communicate and discuss issues from the perspective of health economics and policy. This journal publishes rigorous empirical, analytical, and methodological research using advanced economic and policy analysis techniques applied to compelling topics in health research.376.jpg

Send papers for publication in International Journal of Research (IJR)

How to Submit Papers

to ijr@ijrjournal.com 

Scope of Publication

The topics related to this journal include but are not limited to:

•Medical Economics
•Behavioral Economics
•Mental Health Economics
•Asymmetric Information
•Barriers To Entry
•Healthcare Markets
•Health Administration
•Health Policy Analysis
•Philosophy Of Healthcare
•Health Care Reform
•Health Crisis
•Health Insurance
•Health Promotion
•Health Law
•Public Health Law
•Quaternary Prevention
•Two-Tier Health Care
•Universal Health Care
•Unnecessary Health Care
•Vaccination Policy

Welcome to No Download Slots Land!

Today, you can play slot machines without leaving your home. Just go online and launch no download slots on a gambling platform of your choice.

games.jpgWith the Internet available in every corner of the globe, any user can feel the exciting atmosphere of playing on a slot machine right at his or her home – and this is absolutely free. Such casinos have become a popular entertainment for thousands of people from all over the world. That is why the choice of games is so wide, as developers are striving to cater to the users’ needs. Unlike in real casinos, their analogs on the Internet allow their guests to choose whether they want to play for real cash or simply try their luck without risking their wallets.

Finding a gambling machine to play for free, without registration and tedious downloads is a great opportunity to relax and have fun, while still earning some money. Modern gaming platforms open up the possibility of playing online without losing time and patience when trying to download heavy slots. Also, users are offered demo versions to feel like playing a real slot machine. However, there are also certain disadvantages: you don’t have access to all the features available to users who choose a full version of slot machine emulators. So, why limit yourself when you are free to find plenty of exciting games that can be played via a browser or through an app without any strings.

When you want to give yourself a piece of Las Vegas, all you need to do is choose a suitable game, and you can start! Good Internet connection is the only requirement of this gaming world with exciting themes and impressively realistic graphics. Long and painful flights to Nevada are in the past. Now, casinos themselves come to visit you. Play amazing slot machines and win monetary prizes without any downloading issues.

Reasons to attend a Conference in your domain

You might be wondering why in this age of information where anybody can learn about their favorite topic of interest right from the comfort of their own home, why attending an international conference is still advantageous. The simplest answer is that there are some things that one simply cannot learn online on a computer or gadget. Listed below in detail are the many ways in which attending an international conference can have a tremendous positive impact on your career and work.

 

  1. Regaining the Initial fervour and Passion That You Had

Very often, researchers, scientists, and academicians find that they no longer have the same love for their subject and work that they did when they first began. Gradually over the years, many of these researchers begin to forget how much their work really means to them because of several factors including discouragements, lack of results, lack of funding, etc. A number of such researchers have found that by attending an international conference and learning new things as well as meeting new people, they have been somehow become inspired and have managed to regain the “beginner’s passion” that they once had about their work.

Conference-Listing

  1. Face To Face Meetings with Influencers

Even if you do somehow manage to connect with top influencers in your field via social media, nothing can live up to a face-to-face discussion with someone whom you look up to in the industry or an influencer. Technology with all its advances still cannot replicate the magic of a face-to-face meeting. There are some things that just cannot be said over a video call or conference with an influence who draw inspiration from. By meeting a person face-to-face you get the measure of that person, otherwise impossible over a text, voice or video conversation.

  1. Get Up-To-Date On the Latest Industry Trends

An important of a researcher’s career is to stay up-to-date with all the advances and developments in their respective fields. Getting to know about such developments and breakthroughs can prove to be incredibly beneficial to your own line of research, even though they might be completely unconnected. A number of veteran researchers have attested to the fact that they have managed to come up with solutions to their own research after learning about how someone else solved a completely unrelated problem.

  1. Crucial Networking

Although your new company or research work might be in the works and not completed yet, you might want to make some serious industry connections that are guaranteed to be a benefit sooner or later. Making a connection with someone in the industry over a coffee break, during lunch or during pauses at an international conference is one of the best ways to network. In fact, most attendees at international conference are there for the sole purpose of making valuable connections with key members in the industry.

  1. Awareness of All the Latest Tools

International conferences are often where a lot of companies choose to advertise or spread awareness of their products and tools. A researcher who is aware of the existence of these new tools can now choose to shift to more productive and reliable methods of performing their research, than someone who has no idea about their existence and is continuing to use old and outdated tools that yield unsatisfactory results.

  1. Connecting With Peers

Any researcher, scientist or academician worth their salt will tell you that being positive plays a crucial role in the long-term success of your work. Very often being positive is easier said than done. That is why it is highly recommended that researchers, who are in a rut with respect to their research and work, attend international conferences where they will get to meet like-minded people who are undertaking the same journey as them. Connecting and talking to such people can give you an idea of how they solved problems that you are currently facing or even how not to commit the same mistakes as they did.

Do you encouraged to attend an international conference after reading all the above advantages, but do not know how to find out about conferences to attend? Not to worry!  At Conference Alerts, we are dedicated to being a highly reliable and trusted source of any and all information regarding top-level international conferences happening across the globe.