Inventor of mobile phone to headline digital learning fest

On April 3rd 1973 Martin Cooper, then general manager of Motorola's communications system division, placed the first ever call from a mobile phone. Who did he ring? Only his competitor at Bell Labs to gloat at having beat them to conceiving the first hand held mobile phone.

This week, the 85-year-old American wireless visionary and inventor of the mobile phone, will address the Excited digital learning festival in Dublin.

Mr Cooper, who is the headline speaker for the event, is expected to advocate for the use of technology in education

Other speakers include Lord David Puttnam, Rene Tristan Lidiksen, MD of Lego Education Europe, and Tricia Kelleher, head of the UK Stephen Perse Foundation, and columnist with the Guardian newspaper

The aim of the festival is to create greater links with teachers who are working to develop new and exciting ways to enhance teaching and learning using technology with their students.

The two-day festival will take place in Dublin Castle, with more than 200 young people from all over Ireland expected to attend.

The event will end with "maths in the cloud" via Skype with Sal Kahn of the Kahn Academy, a provider of the most-used library of educational lessons on the web.