Informal learning
EC-TEL 2013: Eighth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning
The European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL) is a unique opportunity for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to address current challenges and advances in the field. Through EC-TEL, established and emerging researchers as well as practitioners, entrepreneurs, and technology developers explore new collaborations, strengthen networks, and complement their core experience. This year's theme is "Scaling Up Learning for Sustained Impact". We invite contributions for demonstrations, workshops and project meetings, as well as original research papers. A doctoral consortium will also be organized concurrently with the workshops. Please find all details at the EC-TEL 2013 website.
Technology Enhanced Learning Livinglab for Manufacturing Environments
The TELL-ME project (Technology Enhanced Learning Livinglab for Manufacturing Environments) aims to develop and trial in authentic contexts (SME-driven human-centric and service-oriented manufacturing workplaces) an innovative cross-enterprise methodology and IT platforms for continuous education and training in heterogeneous business ecosystems, blending Precision Teaching (PT) lifelong learning and Living Lab (LL) participative co-creation aspects in ways that can address more business needs than traditional training
This responds to several EU 2020 Strategy indicated in several Flagship Initiatives like "An Agenda for new skills and jobs", "An industrial policy for the globalisation era", "Innovation Union" and "Digital Agenda for Europe" and summarised in the two questions below:
- How can SMEs blue collar workers in less advanced industrial sectors keep the pace of innovation of technologically advanced ones?
- How can TEL-based training be positioned and improved, in order to have more impact on industrial sectors' innovation and resilience?
Five main challenges have been identified as fingerprints of the TELL-ME proposal:
- Human-centred manufacturing and the increasing need to consider human factors and workers wellbeing in the production processes;
- Service oriented Manufacturing and its increasing need to open, breed and govern globalised business ecosystems;
- Learning Ecosystems are the new frontier of collaborative value networks on a global and cross-sector market;
- Living Labs of SMEs and their need to constantly develop business-technical-social-market innovation via co-creation and inspirational environments;
- Learning at the Workplace and its need for fast, punctual and personalized life-long learning that takes account of fluency-driven approaches to training, and trends in using TEL and OER for self-regulated learning.
EDEN Announces Keynote Speakers for its 2013 Annual Conference 'The Joy of Learning' in Oslo
The European Distance and E-learning Network unveiled today its first list of keynote speakers for the 2013 Annual Conference to take place on 12-15 June 2013 at the University of Oslo, Norway. This year, Prof. Sugata Mitra, Dr. Bernard Luskin, Anna Kirah, Pierre Mairesse, Kirstin Clemet and a representative of the Norwegian Nobel Committee was invited to inspire the EDEN conference participants.
Underpinning the conference theme, “The Joy of Learning”, the EDEN 2013 Annual Conference includes three days of keynote speeches, paper presentations introducing high quality scientific research and applied solutions, hands-on interactive workshops often blended with webinars, short on-the-spot poster sessions with visualised practices and project presentations. EDEN's community of members and partners that are driving innovation in TEL, e-learning, open and flexible learning meet every year to discuss the latest developments in this fast growing field.
Prof. Sugata Mitra is Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. He is best known for his "Hole in the Wall" experiment, and widely cited in works on literacy and education. Prof. Mitra is a leading proponent of Minimally Invasive Education, a solution that uses the power of collaboration and the natural curiosity of children to catalyze learning. During his most known experiment, 'Hole in the Wall' conducted first in 1999, a computer was placed in a kiosk created within a wall in a slum at Kalkaji, Delhi and children were allowed to use it freely. The experiment aimed at proving that children could be taught by computers very easily without any formal training. This experiment inspired Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat to write Q & A, the novel adapted into the multiple Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire. See his TED talk on the experiment here.
Dr. Bernard Luskin, President-Elect for the American Psychological Association (APA) Media Psychology Division is widely known for his major study 'Media Psychology and New Technology'. Dr Luskin was central to the launch of Jones International University, the first accredited fully online university in the USA and the Mind Extension University, a precursor for many of the online university programs of today, including what are now being called emerging MOOC strategies. Dr. Luskin has received lifetime achievement awards from the UCLA Doctoral Alumni Association, University of Florida, California State University, Los Angeles, Long Beach City College, the Irish Government and European Commission. Read his blog 'The Media Psychology Effect' featured on 'Psychology Today'.
The partnership of the Norwegian Association for Distance and Flexible Education guarantees the smart involvement of the national distance and e-learning community and effective liaison with the Nordic stakeholders.
About EDEN
Established in 1991 as an international educational association and not-for-profit organisation, EDEN is open to institutions and individuals dealing with e-learning, and – more broadly speaking – open and distance education. It’s aim is to share knowledge and improve understanding amongst professionals in the field and to promote policy and practice across the whole of Europe and beyond. With more than 200 institutional members and over 1200 members in the Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP), EDEN assists a wide range of institutions, networks and individuals to become involved in professional information and networking activities. It does so through the organisation of acknowledged European conferences, its publications and information services, and by taking an active role in a wide range of important EU projects. EDEN has also proved successful with thematic activities such as the Open Classroom Working Group (school level distance education), and by contributing to, and promoting, ‘cutting edge’ research in the field. In addition, EDEN has also provided extensive secretarial support to the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL).
Further readings:
EDEN website
Conference Website
EURODL
Hole in the wall official website
The Child-Driven Education, TED talks 2010
'The Media Psychology Effect' blog
Norwegian Association for Distance and Flexible Education
University of Oslo
The Joy of Learning - Call for Papers
The European Distance and E-learning Network – EDEN announces its next annual conference to take place on 12-15 June 2013 in Oslo, Norway at the premises of The University of Oslo. The conference is organised in collaboration with NADE – Norwegian Association for Distance and Flexible Education. The EDEN 2013 Conference will discover and present the latest best practice in e-learning, open, distance and flexible learning, share progressive concepts, inventive solutions, and promote joint-thinking and collaboration. The Conference launched its Call for Contributions to academic staff, researchers, professionals and practitioners of the field. This year’s special strand focuses on mapping new technologies in school level education and training. The deadline for paper submissions is 5 February 2013, while registrations open mid-February.
The Conference
Academics, researchers, practitioners gather every year at the EDEN Annual conferences to discuss the latest developments of e-learning, open and distance education. These have been increasingly important fields of intellectual excitement and innovative development. The challenges posed by the new technologies are permanent, and students constantly keep teachers under pressure to develop. In Europe, despite economic and social pressures, there is a collective drive towards realising the creative potential. Learning is becoming more and more individualized and self-managed. Personalization helps foster engagement and supports awareness and motivation. The 2013 EDEN Annual Conference thus explores themes such as “Engaging and challenging learners” „Enhanced learning experience by participation and collaboration” or „Joy, Fun and ICTs”.
Call for Papers
The Call for Contribution launched recently invites full paper proposals for presentations in parallel sessions, poster submissions for short poster sessions as well as interactive, often with webinar combined workshops and short demonstrations that relate to the conference themes. The Conference Committee double peer reviews submissions and upon acceptance, paper submissions are published in the electronic Conference Proceedings and Book of Abstracts. The Best Research Paper title is awarded after the selection process takes place in collaboration with the Ulrich Bernath Foundation for Research in Open and
Distance Learning, with the support of a distinguished Jury. All full papers accepted for the conference quality automatically for the selection. The Award Ceremony takes place at the Conference Dinner.
The conference will be intensively supported and accompanied by social networking, sharing, online and virtual presence and involvement possibilities.
Hosted by...
Norway is a world leading country in openness, digitisation and modernisation of education. The University of Oslo is a top higher education institution in the country and
will ensure a stimulating environment, making the conference experience unique. Oslo has a special combination of city life and easy access to the great outdoors, the Oslo fjord and the forests. You may enjoy the view on the roof of the new Opera House, the new Ski Jump Holmenkollen, the old Vigelandparken Sculpture Park with 212 wonderful sculptures, the world's two best-preserved Viking ships from the 9th century and also the polar ships in Bygdøy. Or you may pay a visit to the Munch Museum and the Nobel Peace Center where all Nobel Peace Prize laureates throughout the years are presented on digital screens. Oslo is sometimes referred to as a most expensive city and this is true in for certain categories of services and goods. The average conference traveller however may be able to find reasonable solutions and there are still ways to enjoy the city without maxing out your credit card.
The partnership of the Norwegian Association for Distance and Flexible Education guarantees the smart involvement of the national distance and e-learning community and effective liaison with the Nordic stakeholders.
About EDEN
Established in 1991 as an international educational association and not-for-profit organisation, EDEN is open to institutions and individuals dealing with e-learning, and – more broadly speaking – open and distance education. It’s aim is to share knowledge and improve understanding amongst professionals in the field and to promote policy and practice across the whole of Europe and beyond. With more than 200 institutional members and over 1200 members in the Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP), EDEN assists a wide range of institutions, networks and individuals to become involved in professional information and networking activities. It does so through the organisation of acknowledged European conferences, its publications and information services, and by taking an active role in a wide range of important EU projects. EDEN has also proved successful with thematic activities such as the Open Classroom Working Group (school level distance education), and by contributing to, and promoting, ‘cutting edge’ research in the field. In addition, EDEN has also provided extensive secretarial support to the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL).
Issue 31 of eLearning Papers on Learning and Work published!
eLearning Papers Nº31 explores a range of challenges that emerge when learning experiences coincide within the workplace. The articles presented here show how technology can support new learning approaches and new skills, competences and qualification systems to match users’ personal knowledge development plans.
It looks at how educational technologies transition between educational and professional contexts. In the In-Depth section, T. Coughlan's article looks at how OER can expand beyond higher education, sharing an analysis of the potential role of scholars in the voluntary sector. M. Bonacci's paper sheds light on how better networking to improve and validate TVET systems can improve the employability and mobility of workers.
Most people working in the knowledge economy want to create their own personal learning environments with tools that suit the way they work, gather information, and learn. Two From the Field reports look at how these tools affect learning and pedagogy.
Faced with an increasing demand for flexible and personalised tools, now more than ever solutions are needed that go beyond Learning Management Systems to address tacit knowledge management or performance support. This issue has several contributions that look at the problems posed by the need to develop intercultural competence, and the role of technology in this training.
eLearning Papers 31 that has been guest edited by Fabrizio Cardinali, CEO eXact learning solutions NA and Chair of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), and Tapio Koskinen, www.elearningpapers.eu, Director of the Editorial Board, includes the following articles:
In Depth articles
From the Field articles
Reflekterende læring på jobbet – MIRROR-modellen, apps og seriøse spil
Denne rapport diskuterer de første resultater af et 4-årligt RP7-forskningsprojekt, som udviklede en teoretisk model og arbejdede på udarbejdelse og evaluering af en række forskellige ”Mirror”-apps baseret på vores Mirror-refleksionsmodel. Resultaterne viser, at disse apps samt seriøse spil kan fremme refleksion på jobbet, idet medarbejderne får redskaber til at lære ved at reflektere over deres arbejdspraksis og personlige læringserfaringer.
Distancelærings-studerende: Bør vi anvende teknologi eller pædagogik for at overvinde forhindringer på jobbet og i vores hverdag generelt?
Efter at have fulgt tre distancestuderendes historier – kandidatgrad i folkesundhed – præsenterer denne artikel resultaterne, som viser, at hvad angår distancelæringsprogrammer, så er både teknologi og pædagogik vitale og indbyrdes afhængige faktorer. Vi påviser, at online vejledere påtager sig roller, som rækker ud over det almindelige undervisningsområde: De er ofte nødt til at påtage sig rollen som omsorgs- eller hjælpepersoner, som sandsynligvis ville passe bedre til en rådgiver eller en fagperson fra en anden branche.
SKILL2E: Online refleksion for at oparbejde interkulturelle kompetencer
Projektet SKILL2E har til hensigt at udstyre studerende i international arbejdspraktik med interkulturelle kompetencer. Modellen foreslår en cyklus med double loop-læring (de studerende lærer at forstå årsager), hvori en delt online dagbog med undersøgelsesspørgsmål anvendes til refleksion. De foreløbige resultater illustrerer, at denne kollaborative tilgang er befordrende for oparbejdelse af interkulturelle kompetencer.
Åbne uddannelsesressourcer skal nå bredere ud: En ny rolle med en akademiker, som har kontakt med den brede offentlighed via et webforum
Åbne uddannelsesressourcer (OER – open educational resources) og, på det seneste, åbne uddannelsespraksisser (OEP – open educational practices) er i bred udstrækning blevet promoveret som en metode til at øge åbenheden inden for videregående uddannelse. Indtil videre har denne åbenhed været begrænset af, at OER typisk er leveradørdrevet og holdes inden for grænserne af videregående uddannelse. I et forsøg på at finde måder, hvorpå OEP kan blive mere behovsstyrede gør vi os en forestilling om en ny rolle: En akademiker med speciale i OER, som arbejder med den brede offentlighed. Dette skulle indebære, at akademikeren arbejder med et webforum online for at finde og udvikle OER, som imødekommer deres behov.
For at undersøge denne rolles omfang fokuserede vi på den frivillige sektor, som vi mente, kunne have særlig gavn af et sådant samarbejde. Vi evaluerede fire repræsentative fællesskaber for bevis på, at de var selvuddannende (derved kunne tilbyde muligheden for bidrag fra akademikere) og for enhver eksisterende læringsdimension, og vi fandt ud af, at der var et område for en akademiker med speciale i OER, som arbejder med den brede offentlighed. Vi udarbejdede derfor detaljerede retningslinjer for udførelse af denne rolle. En rolle, som har potentiale for i stort omfang at udvide den fordelagtige virkning, eksisterende OER har ved at tilskynde institutioner til at frigive nye OER for at imødegå behov hos personer uden for det videregående uddannelsessystem.
werkstatt.bpb.de – Digitale Bildung in der Praxis
Das Projekt werkstatt.bpb.de – Digitale Bildung in der Praxis ist eine (Online-) Werkstatt, die in Kooperation der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung mit der Kooperative Berlin, Lichtschliff e.V., seine Umsetzung findet. Thema ist die zeitgemäße Vermittlung von Zeitgeschichte und Politik im Alltag deutscher Schulen und in der außerschulischen Bildung vor dem Hintergrund aktueller Herausforderungen wie Migration und Digitalisierung. Die Online-Werkstatt ist ein redaktionell betriebenes Blog über die mediale Vermittlung von Zeitgeschichte und Politik im Alltag deutscher Schulen.