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News and Background Information on the Conference | |||
 “The future of learning is ambient, invisible, and non-formal,” predicts Dr. Peter Scott from the Centre for New Media, Knowledge Media Institute at the Open University, UK. Peter shares his thoughts and observations about learning and technology in the “Future Perspectives” plenary session. To warm up, Peter has prepared a Vlog about his presentation ..  A new deal for Europe – broadband for everybody - demands Jean Michel Billaut, the French Internet pioneer and leading innovator of the French digital infrastructure. Billaut will open ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2006 with a keynote addressing societal and political issues of the new digital culture in Europe and the world.
 Since Japan has been considered a technological giant and innovator for a long time, one might expect it to be amongst the leading e-learning adopters. In reality, in higher education institutions as well as in Japan’s economy, e-learning has lagged behind. However, worldwide economic developments as well as growing competition from overseas and the neighbouring Asian countries have led to a rethinking of national ICT policies. ICT-based education, international collaboration, and virtual mobility of staff and students are now high on the agenda. Japanese higher education institutions are currently reviewing and revising ways in which they have to transform themselves in order to meet the challenges of globalisation and economic regeneration. A special focus session led by Professor Toshio Kobayashi from NIME provides insight into trends and issues of e-learning in Japanese higher education.  The 2nd Forum for E-Learning for Defence and Security is taking place in conjunction with ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2006. The forum is organised by The New Security Programme, which conducts research into the new security environment and provides a forum for discussion of its implications for civil society. This year’s forum will focus particularly on security-related applications of technology-assisted learning in civil society. Jody Westby from Global Cyber Risk, USA, will speak in the forum about ways and means of countering cyber terrorism with cyber security.  Dr. Monika Weber-Fahr is a manager at the World Bank Institute (WBI), heading up the Institute’s efforts in the multimedia arena and in coordinating the World Bank’s engagement with Global Development Learning (GDLN). The WBI is part of the World Bank and focuses solely on designing and delivering learning and knowledge sharing activities for developing country participants. The Institute reaches about to 100,000 people annually, most of them professionals in government agencies, NGOs, and private firms through programmes that cover a wide range of development-related topics. Monika will speak at the plenary on “Future Perspectives”, talking about perspectives for e-learning from working with developing countries. Jay Cross and George Siemens have produced a podcast, exchanging thoughts and views about their meeting at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN next week. Jay comments the conversation in his blog: "Last night I read George Siemens' provocative new book-in-progress, Knowing Knowledge. (I highly recommend you do the same if you’d like to savor how what we know ain’t what it used to be.) Mid-morning today, I was reading Gmail and noticed in the margin that George was on-line. We exchanged a few lines of text in GoogleTalk and switched over to GoogeTalk audio. I suggested the two of discuss what we are thinking of talking about at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, which comes up in a couple of weeks. Unlike American conferences, the event attracts academics, government officials, and business executives: it’s a great mixing bowl. George has the first session Thursday; I’m in the same slot the next day." Here is the impromptu 20 minutes conversation:  In the field of technology-enhanced learning, Open Archives haven’t yet played an important role. Some efforts have been made to build up resources of scientific work about learning with technology, but there has been no unified movement towards a comprehensive open archive as can be found in other research fields. Kaleidoscope, the European network for research in technology-enhanced learning, has been undertaking great efforts to change this situation. With the establishment of the Telearn Open Archive, the network offers researchers in TEL the opportunity to enjoy all the advantages open archives have to offer. Dr. Nicolas Balacheff, Chief Scientist of Kaleidoscope, explains the motivations behind Telearn and highlights its benefits and possible impact on research in technology-enhanced learning. Two experts are available for you to answer your questions about e-learning: Online Educa Berlin’s media partner elearningeuropa.info has set up two user-generated interviews. You can now post your questions online about virtual mobility to Prof. Fred Truyen, from Leuven University. He works on the Being Mobile project and participates in the Virtual Mobility Forum on Tuesday, November 28, organised at Online Educa Berlin. Fred Truyen writes about e-learning, philosophy of information, epistemology and social knowledge theories. Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers is ready to answer your questions on quality issues in technology-enhanced learning. He is the coordinator of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (EFQUEL). At Online Educa Berlin, Ulf-Daniel will be chairing the sessions QUA10 on “Approaches to Quality Assurance” on Thursday, November 30, 12:00 – 13:30 hrs, as well as QUA73 on European eQuality Mark on Friday, December 1, 2006 16:30 – 18:00 hrs.  An innovative e-learning project has been established under the umbrella of the Berlin Senate’s “Future Project” Initiative, co-financed by the European Structural Funds. It targets SMEs, which are often said to be a market for e-learning that has yet to be discovered. The project designs and supports several customized approaches for the introduction of technology-supported training to smaller companies.  DaimlerChrysler is a car manufacturer whose brands are known all over the world: Mercedes-Benz, smart, Maybach, Setra, Chrysler Jeep, Dodge, and Freightliner to name but a few. Matthias Adam-Brockerhoff, head of the team e-training and CBT/WBT within Global Training of DaimlerChrysler AG, will give an overview of how the company has transformed its training services from CBT in the early 1990s to integrated distance and e-learning solutions. He will speak at the pre-conference forum on E-Learning in the Automotive Industry Sector on Tuesday, November 28.  Given the rapid pace of change in e-learning, it is increasingly important to ensure there are strong links between the research community and e-learning adopters. Online Educa Berlin addresses this topic in a plenary discussion on Friday, December 1. Leonard A. Plugge, key member of SURF's Scientific Technical Council, will focus his presentation on the question why educational innovations seem so difficult and erratic. In an interview with Beate Kleessen from OEB News, he talks about the theory and practice of the topic. 
Informal Learning "During the many chats and exchanges I have had with Jay, I always felt I learnt a lot from his insights, wisdom and wit. Therefore it seems almost a contradiction in terms that Jay is putting all his thoughts and observations on informal learning into a book, the container par excellence of formal learning, as we know it. In between the informal chats with Jay, this book will do great for me now, until our next meeting! " —Rebecca Stromeyer, Managing Director, ICWE, Online Educa.  Most of our learning at the workplace takes place in informal ways. Learning providers as well as companies and organisations have to consider this fact when they plan to deliver training to their staff. IBM has developed a reference architecture for learning that supports informal learning. Dr. Yael Ravin, who leads IBM’s worldwide research in learning and workforce management, will highlight IBM’s activities in her keynote speech in the plenary session on Informal Learning.  To support Lifelong Learning initiatives effectively, it is important to involve partners from all parts of society. Government agencies are responsible for the promotion of a national agenda for lifelong learning, which they do through the creation of national programmes to raise awareness of the subject. Public and private institutions as well as businesses also need to take an active role. The Pre-Conference Forum at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN entitled “Lifelong Learning – Policy and Practice in the UK focuses on how lifelong learning can be implemented in the national context. Brian Merison from the British Learning Association tells us more about the British way of bringing forward lifelong-learning concepts.  “I don’t have the time for this!” Does this sound familiar to you when comes to learning? Lack of time is one of the main reasons given by businesses for not investing in learning. Therefore learning processes need to be fast, just in time, and transparent. How can e-learning support employees in their adoption new knowledge and expertise without going through time-consuming learning processes? How can we benefit from technology-enhanced learning in order to solve concrete problems within complex situations in businesses? Learn and give input regarding the answers to these questions and more at a session lead by Michael Haertel from BIBB, Germany, focusing on “E-learning in the Semantic Age” at this year’s ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN.  A workshop on "ICT for children with disabilities" will take place on 29th November at this year's Online Educa Berlin. The seminar focuses on the personal growth of children suffering from severe disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism, or Cerebral Palsy, which are considered incurable.  The online publication of doctoral studies, Master’s theses, and all kinds of academic papers and presentations offers a wealth of resources for researchers and students. For some, it is a temptation they cannot resist. Online plagiarism, the unauthorised copying or citing of someone else’s work without naming the author, is illegal and undermines serious scientific work. It is increasingly becoming a problem for teachers as well as for scientists because it is often hard to detect. Ephorus is a plagiarism control tool that is able to detect copied paragraphs and documents. Assistant professor Nina Ree-Lindstad, Academic Librarian Kristin Røijen, and assistant professor Tone Vold will present different ways to use Euphorus.  Implementing successful online training is not an easy task. Many factors have to be considered until you can start your training. Ursula Hesselmann from ZF Friedrichshafen AG provides insight into online training for the automotive industry sector.  The inherent knowledge of our workforce is destined to become one of the most important assets of the global market place, observes Jonathon Levy, Senior Learning Strategist with Monitor Group, USA. Virtual collaboration could be the right means to capture this resource.  Why do the majority of higher education institutions use ICT to support education? What value does ICT add to the quality of education? How can we control the impact of ICT on education? Dr. Marc Dupuis from the University of Leiden will address these critical issues in his presentation at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN.
 What do students think of e-learning? Why do they cancel online courses for which they have registered? How have the attitudes towards ICT in higher education changed over the last few years? To get answers to these and other questions Dr. Gunilla Mårald from Umeå University in Sweden recently conducted a study about the Swedish Net University. She will present and discuss the findings of her work at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2006.  Podcasting, widely used in entertainment, journalism, and personal broadcasting, is filtering into education, increasingly catching the attention of the academic community. We urgently need to develop pedagogical models that can be used in supporting and enhancing students’ motivation and learning through these new technologies, say Professor Gilly Salmon and Dr. Palitha Edirisingha from Leicester University in the UK. The two will lead a podcast workshop, offering participants knowledge and insight into how the student learning experience can be improved through podcasts. Participants will have the opportunity to develop podcasts and e-tivities as well as experiment with recording podcasts and integrating them into VLEs.  When asked about their opinion and use of games, 60% percent of 11-16 year-olds in the UK would like to have games included in their school curricula. No wonder; kids own their own electronic products as well, most often a video game system of some kind, a CD player or a portable music player. While public discussion is still concerned with the negative effects excessive gaming could have on children’s abilities and psychology, the enormous potential for learning experience of so-called “serious games” is coming into the focus of researchers, educators and games producers. Games provide an effective and attractive way of experiential learning – in schools, higher education as well as in workplace training. To reflect the discussions and show perspectives of games in education, ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2006 is dedicating a conference stream to various applications of games-based learning.  How can you participate in the knowledge society when you cannot see or hear? Can you enroll at a university programme when you are physically disabled? What about elderly people, who often cannot keep up with the pace of technological developments? In many situations, technology is not yet fully accessible to disabled or disadvantaged people, a sad situation considering the great opportunities it offers toward helping to overcome the gap that sometimes separates members of these groups from social and technological development. ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2006 is dedicating a conference track to the various aspects of inclusivity in e-learning.
 Learning how to make learning easier can be a tough thing. Sometimes it’s more effective if you just do it: go and create something. At Online Educa Berlin, Nathan Krackauer will lead a workshop about creating games for learning during which he encourages his audience to get practical instead of just listening to other people’s work. In this session, the participants themselves will start a process of creation. |
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