Talent, Technology, and Transversal:
A Three-Pronged Approach to Benefit Gifted Education

Dublin City University (DCU) is home to the Irish Centre for Talented Youth (CTYI) and the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL). The NIDL is a world leader in developing new digital-enabled learning models, while CTYI is the largest and most extensive university-based program for gifted students in Europe.

The COVID-19 crisis presented many challenges for parents and guardians of high-ability students, with many gifted programs cancelled. Despite their best efforts, homeschooling during 2020 resulted in significant numbers of gifted students not having their diverse needs adequately stimulated or challenged. However, the pandemic also created a unique opportunity for some programs to move from face-to-face delivery to a digital format.

Using the three-pronged approach of Talent, Technology, and Transversal, this talk will share insights from the 2020 DCU experience and examine how we can use digital learning to redesign and reimagine traditional delivery models to benefit gifted students. Coming from an institution with an enabling culture that encourages an ambitious and transformative mindset promoting creative solutions, this talk will demonstrate how CTYI moved a large gifted program for over 6,000 students fully online.

Using a Talent Development model, we will discuss how new digital technology, when anchored in lessons from the research literature, can help educators transverse new places and spaces for authentic and meaningful learning, creating valuable opportunities to develop transversal skills for gifted students. In the post-pandemic world, we argue this three-pronged approach paves the way for the future transformation of gifted education.

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