empowerment
MOOC Design Principles. A Pedagogical Approach from the Learner’s Perspective
The debate around Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is much more focused on the social, institutional, technological and economical aspects than on the need for development of new pedagogical approaches that provide consistent guidance on how to design for this emergent educational scenario.
A new understanding of knowledge production and learning challenges the core of learning design, demanding innovative and appropriate approaches to teaching and learning. We present a set of learning design principles drawn from the learner’s perspective. They focus on empowering learners in networked environments for fostering critical thinking and collaboration, developing competence based outcomes, encouraging peer assistance and assessment through social appraisal, providing strategies and tools for self-regulation, and finally using a variety of media and ICTs to create and publish learning resources and outputs.
Digital Agenda for Europe – Background Analysis
The overall objective of the study (SMART 2007/0030) was to provide analysis of the impacts of different policy options for the preparation of the Digital Agenda for Europe, one of the flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy. The final report contains an individual assessment of several policy areas: next generation access deployment; net neutrality and digital rights; digital content; user empowerment and the role of the EU in the international ICT arena. The analysis included outcomes from existing studies, surveys, hearings and consultations.
Call for the e-inclusion 2012 awards
The European Commission has established the e-Inclusion Awards to raise awareness, encourage participation and recognise excellence and good practice in using ICT and digital technology to tackle social and digital exclusion across Europe.
The scheme ran for the first time in 2008 (view the winners).
The 2012 eInclusion awards will underline the work done by intermediaries and encourage the dissemination of good training practices in the special award category "we are the champions". The other award category is "I am digitally driven" and will highlight the impact of digital skills on life prospects, with special focus on employability, re-skilling, visible improvement in socio economic situation of groups at risk of exclusion.
Participants are asked: "Show or tell me your personal story of digital empowerment: How did ICT make a difference for you? And how we can use that learning to better support digital champions around Europe?
Method of participation to the call will be submission of audiovisual material.
Key criteria for selection will be:
1) demonstrated positive impact of the initiatives presented on individuals' employability and wellbeing
2) creativity and quality of the material submitted in support of the entry. The story told should inspire and encourage other organisations and individuals to take part in e-inclusion initiatives
The winners will be announced towards the 2012 Digital Assembly, where the Commission's reports on the progress of the Digital Agenda for Europe.
No monetary prize will be given.
Winners will be selected by independent experts.
Selection criteria, conditions for participation and details on how to enter will be available shortly on this page and announced in the e-inclusion newsletter.
The Awards will be opened to public administrations, private sector, voluntary organisations and individuals - within the EU Member States, Candidate Countries and EEA countries.
The call will be open for a duration of six months.
Growth & jobs focus for regional cohesion funding 2014-2020
Proposals aim to improve funding for the EU’s regions and focus more on high-impact growth and jobs programmes.
Economic development, productivity and employment opportunities differ widely across the EU.
About a third of the EU’s budget goes on reducing these disparities – helping its least developed regions benefit from the EU market.
Funding is given to programmes with aims such as developing the skills of local workforces, encouraging entrepreneurship, improving infrastructure and protecting the environment. Millions of Europeans have already benefited from targeted regional funds.
EU budget proposals for 2014 to 2020 allocate €376bn to such programmes. The Commission is also proposing a new approach to make this round of funding more effective in achieving the long-term aims of Europe 2020, the EU's growth and jobs strategy.
The proposals aim to concentrate funding on a smaller number of priorities – in line with these goals.
Each country would agree with the Commission on a partnership contract, setting priorities for investment and targets to be achieved.
Funding conditions would be introduced before aid is granted. Better monitoring would ensure programmes meet their agreed objectives.
Additional funding would be available for programmes that deliver the biggest contribution to growth and job creation.
Common rules would be introduced for the various funds targeting social development, rural areas, coastal areas, cooperation between border regions, fisheries, and less developed countries. Programmes would be able to combine support from some of these funds.
Applying for funds would be made simpler – to reduce administrative burdens, particularly for small companies, and cut costs for all concerned.
While all EU countries would benefit from the funding programmes, support would be concentrated on those with a gross domestic product below 75% of the EU average.
Next steps
The proposals should come into effect in 2014, if they have been approved by national ministers (in the Council of the EU) and the European Parliament in 2012.
Regional representatives will discuss the new proposals from 10 to 13 October at the annual Open Days 2011 in Brussels.
Report from the workshop 20 "Digital Literacy and e-Inclusion" DAE action 66
The workshop noted that digital literacy and eInclusion is a journey: from awareness, through inclusion, engagement and ultimately to empowerment. Sustainable and scalable solutions are needed. There are diverse and various routes to eInclusion (different models, places, partnerships). On a policy side strong and clear argument becomes visible for Digital literacy for inclusive society and competitive economy.
Is the world open?
We talk about open societies, open innovation, open standards, open ecosystems, open source and open architectures. The idea of “openness” is emerging as a dominant attribute of key developments in our economic and social fabric. Richard Straub argues in this paper that “openness” is the defining quality of 21st century globalisation.
In today’s world of business we experience every day what openness means and what benefits it brings to bear. Openness is associated with values such as tolerance, individual freedom, lifelong learning, participation, empowerment and cooperation, as opposed to typical closed-world values of command and control, top-down management, centralized and bureaucratic governance, over-regulation and collectivist dominance over individual freedom. Monopolies or near-monopolies are examples of the closed world as are traditional hierarchies with their burgeoning bureaucracies and disconnected silos are typical manifestations.
The rise of social networking sites, virtual worlds, blogs, wikis and 3D Internet give us a first idea of the potential of the “interactive and collaborative web” dubbed Web 2.0. Now we have the infrastructure and tools to operate in new ways in open systems. While many of the thoughts about openness and the need for more open social systems have been around for some time, this new infrastructure and new tools accelerate the movement.
An open world is a world of great opportunity and challenge. It requires changes in our individual behaviours and attitudes and it demands major institutional adjustments. How can business respond to it? This article has been published previously at Global Focus, Volume 2, Issue 1 (2008). Publisher: European Foundation for Management Development www.efmd.org