I can imagine that for many people who have come to this site they may well not have heard about a Gasta session.
Therefore, let us first start with what is a Gasta session and where did it come from? Several years ago, myself and a former colleague Tony Murphy of the E-learning unit in the Institute of Technology, Tralee (ITT) responded to the Irish Learning Technology Association’s (ILTA) call to host its annual conference.
As part of the call ILTA asked that potential hosts to identify possible additions to the standard conference. In our submission document I suggested the idea of a quick 5-minute presentation that incorporated a LOT of participation on the part of the audience. Not wanting to use the protected term Pecha Kucha and in keeping with the Irish nature of the conference I decided to use the Irish word Gasta indicating quick or fast or rapid.
Although ITT was unsuccessful in its bid, the idea of Gasta was incorporated into ILTA’s EdTech Conference for the first time in 2014.