A gaggle of digital education innovators descended on the city of Birmingham to explore all things pedagogically sparkly and transformative at Digifest. Accompanying the University of Plymouth contingent were two fantastic Student Digital Champions Harriet and Ben.

Harriet and Ben have worked with us and the wider Student Digital Champion team since September and were successful in their application to attend the conference. Both Ben and Harriet had the opportunity to attend a roundtable discussion about student wellbeing with University Leaders and JISC and Harriet also joined the student Panel discussion on stage.

Emma Purnell Senior Digital Learning Designer and lead for the Student Digital Champion Project said:

‘I am so proud of both Harriet and Ben and the amazing job they did at DigiFest. They were confident, enthusiastic and a credit to the Student Digital Champion project, other students and the wider University. It was a pleasure to attend the conference with them and brilliant to see them engaged in so many conversations with different audiences and to hear them talk with such passion on a range of subjects was a great experience ’

Ben is a First-Year creative writing student:

“The experience was exciting. Getting to travel with my bosses and fellow digital champion Harriet felt like I was on my first proper business trip. Waking up in the morning and walking into the International Convention Centre was interesting as usually I would just walk through when it was raining but now, I got to actually experience proper conventions and talks.”

I took part in the Round Table discussion on why student mental health is important. I was genuinely scared to talk because, it felt so important being surrounded by university presidents and vice-chancellors but when we got talking, it got easier for me to talk and answer any questions. Everyone mentioned how nice it was to get a student’s input for the discussion and it makes me feel proud to be a representative as a Plymouth student and student digital champion. “

Harriet is a second year Oceanography and Coastal processes student.

“During the roundtable discussion I had the opportunity to speak about my views and felt very listened to. I also heard the perspectives of some people very high up in the UK education system.

This has increased my determination to effect change within UK university systems.

The highlight of the day for me was the student panel, I was joined by three students from various universities and colleges across the country and we engaged in an insightful conversation about our very different experiences and views on the use of technology within our education. The crowd was able to ask us questions using the Digifest app and it was fantastic to be able to answer them in real time.

My favourite talk of the day was the opening speech by Inma Martinez which detailed the amazing advances in artificial intelligence that are happening today. It really opened my eyes to the amazing things that humans can achieve with the help of technology.

Ben was also impressed by Inma’s opening speech:

A main highlight was the opening talk to the convention which was eye-opening and informative. I came out of that talk, having a different mindset to education as a whole and what is important for the future. The food was amazing too.

Harriet and Ben have taken away some valuable skills from their experience. Harriet concludes.

Attending this event really helped to boost my confidence in public speaking as well as given me an insight into education as a profession. I met some amazing people and had some fantastic conversations about all aspects of university from my dissertation topic to the role of mental health professionals at the university.

Anyone who has the chance to attend in the future I would 100% recommend going! It was such an enriching and interesting day – plus a cool trip to Birmingham!

Hannah Miles, Senior Digital Learning Designer concludes:

It has been a real privilege to take our fantastic Student Digital Champions to Digifest. Importantly their presence at the event, not only supports their own academic development, their contributions to discussions both among their peers and with University leaders and JISC really highlights the importance of student voice on a national stage.

As flakes of snow started to fall Digifest came to a close, the digital innovators began their journeys back to Universities in cities across the country.