Hands-on Workshops, Best Practices and Tools Tracks

We welcome submissions for hands-on workshops, best practices and tools demo tracks. 

The accepted submissions in these tracks of T4E2026 will appear in the proceedings published by EdTech Society.

 Hands-on workshops 

Hands-on workshops can be proposed on any topic related to the conference themes. They are intended to provide an introduction to a topic of immediate interest and usefulness to the community, and should be designed as interactive sessions on a focused topic that is of current interest to the community. Significant time in the workshop should be devoted to hands-on activities such as structured group work, collaborative design or editing, programming or data analysis activities. The exact workshop duration will be decided later, but they should be designed to range from 1½ - 2 hours.

Submission Guidelines

Workshop proposals should be two - four pages in length, adhering to the following template: 

T4E 2026 Workshop Template

Please ensure it must include the following information:

• What are the objectives of the workshop?

• Who is the intended audience for the workshop?

• What will be the take-away from the workshop for participants?

• What is the motivation and rationale for including the workshop in T4E 2026? How will it address the overall themes of the conference?

• What is the outline of the content of the workshop? Please include the topics to be addressed and approximate times required for each topic.

• What is the format of the workshop? Since the workshop should encourage interaction among participants, please specifically include - what types of hands-on activities or interactive strategies will be used during the workshop?

• What is the prior experience of proposers relevant to the workshop? Have the proposers conducted similar workshops before?

• What equipment is required?

• What, if any, is the preferred number of participants?

• References relevant to the proposal.

Review Criteria

The proposals will be evaluated based on relevance, anticipated interest, utility and quality, and subject to the availability of appropriate facilities. The selected workshop submissions will appear in the proceedings published by EdTech Society.

 Best Practices / Teaching Demos 

The Best Practices / Teaching Demo track is the practitioner's stage. It is designed for educators who have developed and tried a teaching strategy, learning design, or technology-mediated pedagogical approach  and want to show it working, not just describe it on paper.

The emphasis is on enacted knowledge: you bring us into your classroom or learning space, demonstrate your practice in action, and help peers understand how to adapt or adopt it. This is not about reporting a study. It is about making your expertise shareable and your practice visible.
Engage attendees through live demonstration, and open a dialogue about design, implementation, and the decisions behind what they do. Think of it as a pedagogical performance with a reflective debrief, not a lecture about teaching.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions must be 2–4-page extended abstracts adhering to the following template: 

T4E 2026 Best Practices & Teaching Demo Template

The proposal should clearly address the following:

• The Practice: Give the practice a name that is clear, specific, and memorable enough to be used beyond the context in which it was developed.

• The Context: Describe where the practice was used, with whom, and how many times. Specify whether it was conducted online, offline, or in a blended format, and whether the setting was a school, college, training room, or another learning environment.

• The How: Describe the practice in sufficient detail for a reader to understand how to carry it out. Include the stages, sequence, materials, and time required.

• The Role of Technology: Explain how technology was used in the practice, whether as a scaffold, a provocation, a record, or a tool, or whether it was something you had to work around.

• What You Noticed: Describe what you observed during the practice, including what students did, what surprised you, and what you would change if you were to do it again. The focus does not need to be on results alone.

•  The Demo Plan: Describe how you intend to demonstrate the practice at the conference. Use the Demo Options below as a guide to the format and approach you will take.

• References: Include the references that informed the practice and any sources you draw on in describing or discussing it.

The Demo: How Presenters Can Do It 

The conference slot is typically 20–30 minutes. A Best Practice Demo is not a slideshow about your practice. It is your practice, presented in a shorter format. Choose one of the following formats, or propose your own in the submission: 

• Model A: Live Micro-Experience: Run a compressed version of the practice with the audience as learners. Debrief what just happened and how it works at full scale.

Best for: Games, discussion protocols, creative tasks, generative AI prompts. 

• Model B: Show and Tell with Artefacts: Bring student work, screenshots, or activity artefacts. Walk the audience through the practice using these as anchors, then debrief what you designed for and what surprised you. 

Best for: Design-heavy or context-specific practices. 

• Model C: Walkthrough and Try It : Structured walkthrough (5 min) → audience tries a version (10 min) → collective reflection (10 min). 

Best for: Tools, frameworks, or structured inquiry approaches. 

• Model D: Recorded Evidence and Live Q&A: Show 3–5 minutes of the practice in action, explain the key design decisions, and then open the session for dialogue.

Best for: Practices tied to specific learner populations or physical contexts.

What this track focuses on:

• Core question: How do you do what you do? The focus is on sharing a teaching practice that others can understand, experience, and potentially use.

• Primary output: An enacted pedagogical strategy. The submission should show a teaching practice in action, rather than simply describe an idea or present findings.

• Theoretical grounding: Light-touch and practice-forward. Theory can support the practice, but the emphasis is on what you actually do.

• Methods section: Not required. The focus is on explaining and demonstrating the practice rather than presenting a formal research methodology.

• Live demonstration: Expected. Presenters should demonstrate the pedagogy in practice and involve the audience where appropriate.

What This Track Will NOT Accept

This track is intended for enacted pedagogical demonstrations, not presentations about teaching. Please note, this track will NOT accept: 

• Practices not yet tried

• Submissions that summarize a research paper

• Commercial product pitches

• Abstracts with no demo plan

Review Criteria

Submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria, weighted equally:

• Clarity of Practice: Named, described, replicable from the abstract alone.

• Contextual Grounding: Tried, tested; honest about conditions and limitations.

• Transferability: Adaptable across disciplines, levels, or contexts; addresses a real T4E theme.

• Demo Design: Participatory, not merely observational; audience leaves with something usable.

To whom might this track be of interest? 

This track welcomes students, school and college teachers, teacher educators, trainers in organizations, pedagogy consultants, and implementation partners in NGOs and civil society - anyone whose practice has been tried, tested, and is ready to travel. 

 Tools / Product Demo 

This track invites demonstrations of interactive tools, software applications, platforms, learning environments, and technology-enhanced solutions designed to support learning, teaching, assessment, or educational research. 

The track provides an opportunity for participants to showcase innovative educational technologies, engage attendees through live demonstrations, and discuss the design, implementation, and impact of their solutions in authentic educational contexts.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions must be 2–4-page extended abstracts adhering to the following template: 

T4E 2026 Tools/Product Demo Template

Submissions should clearly describe:

• The educational problem or need being addressed

• The intended users and target audience

• The context of use (e.g., K–12, higher education, workplace learning, informal learning)

In addition, submissions should address the following:

• The educational purpose, design rationale, and key affordances of the tool or product

• What the tool enables, improves, or supports for learners, educators, researchers, or other stakeholders

• A realistic usage scenario and the planned live demonstration format

• Evidence from pilot studies, deployments, user feedback, evaluations, or iterative design processes (where available)

• How the tool operates and what conference attendees will experience during the demonstration

• Submissions can include up to two figures/screenshots and relevant references may be included. 

Important: This track is intended for educational technology demonstrations rather than commercial product pitches. Submissions that are primarily promotional in nature will not be considered. Authors wishing to present implementation experiences, lessons learned, or institutional case studies should consider submitting to the Experience Report Track instead.

Submissions will be reviewed based on the novelty/innovativeness, relevance and readiness of the tool/product. Abstracts of accepted submissions will appear in the proceedings published by EdTech Society.  

Review Criteria

Submissions will be evaluated based on:

• Educational relevance and significance

• Design rationale and alignment with educational goals

• Evidence of usefulness, impact, or contribution

• Innovation and originality

• Quality and feasibility of the proposed demonstration

To whom might this track be of interest?

We welcome submissions from EdTech companies, startups, NGOs, academic institutions, independent researchers, practitioners, and open-source initiatives.