"Use Your Brain!" – Neuroscience and Education
Neuroscientists are progressing rapidly in their research into areas highly relevant to education. Educators are eager to learn about their discoveries. Numerous teachers already use “brain-based” programmes in order to enhance learning. But can neuroscience really help to improve teaching? Experts at OEB 2009 called for caution.
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E-Learning and “Acculturation” – Helping Students to Study Abroad
A large number of students study abroad in order to acquire international experience and increase their attractiveness for international companies. For example, in Europe the number of students studying abroad reached 515,400 in 2006, an increase of 57 per cent in eight years (EUROSTAT). When the students start their studies in a foreign country, they have to get to know the culture and educational context of the institute at which they will be studying. More and more academic institutions are assisting in the process of “acculturating” of foreign students by offering getting-acquainted courses, summer courses or preparatory courses. At OEB, Ria Jacobi from the Netherlands’ Leiden University will present a nationwide e-learning programme for international students.
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Academic Learning Futures: E-Vacuating Oil Rigs
Dramatic actions such as saving workers from a blazing oil rig are all in a day’s work for Gilly Salmon. Only they take place online – in the virtual environment of ‘Second Life’. As a Professor of E-Learning and Learning Technologies at the University of Leicester in the UK, Salmon and her team create “academic learning futures“. In several talks and workshops at OEB, Salmon will discuss the latest trends in working with a new generation of learners, as well as how to vision future scenarios for higher education.
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The Biggest E-Learning Laboratory in Europe
A good balance between self-reliance and guidance; a strong emphasis on real life tasks, as well as peer-to-peer advisory meetings and a refined tracking system: these are the main columns of the large scale training module set up in Italy by the National Agency for the Support of School Autonomy in order to enhance teachers‘ ICT skills. Since 2001 the agency has managed to serve approximately 1,000,000 students with its platform ‘PuntoEdu’ and a comprehensive e-tutor system. OEB asked project managers Elena Mosa and Giusy Cannella to describe the logistical and didactical challenges that accompany such an enormous project.
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Fronter Implements New LMS for the University of Vienna
The University of Vienna, the oldest university in the German-speaking world and one of the largest in Central Europe, has selected Fronter to provide its central Learning Management System (LMS). Fronter was chosen to replace the former provider after an extensive tender process and intensive testing. Since March 2009, Fronter has been functioning as the University’s e-learning platform. At OEB, Annabell Lorenz from the University of Vienna will talk about the challenges that came with such a large-scale implementation and give insights into how the changeover process took place.
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Education in the Digital Age – What Does it Mean?
Is education – in a more classical sense, or “Bildung”, as the Germans say, – in danger of falling by the wayside in the digital age? Or is it possible to provide a personal learning environment that really serves a holistic, individual and lifelong learning experience? What could be done to encourage students to reflect on their own online-learning process? Frances Bell, Griff Richards and Per Skafte Hansen explore these questions from very different angles in the “Thinking About Learning” session at OEB 2009.
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Promoting Cultural Dialogue with E-Learning
A shared interest to acquaint people with cultural values and backgrounds as highly diverse as Hungary, Turkey and Japan is the motivating force that stands behind the e-learning project Learning Design of Courses Utilising ICT for Promoting Intercultural Dialogue that Dr Kumiko Aoki, National Institute of Multimedia Education, Japan, and Molnar Pal, Karolu Gaspar University, Hungary, will present at OEB 2008. On the initiative of three local media-education departments, two bi-national tele-collaborative classes were started to provide participants with in-depth information about each other's attitudes towards their varying perceptions of reality.
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Master’s Programme: Online Education in Veterinary Tropical Medicine
Infectious animal diseases are of importance with regards to domestic and wild animals all over the world. Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease or swine fever not only pose a threat to farmers in the affected area but are also frequently accompanied by hysterical media campaigns causing irritation and fear amongst the population. To handle the challenges that arise with an outbreak of an animal disease, veterinaries need to be equipped with profound knowledge and practical skills in integrated health management. The University of Pretoria developed a web-based master’s programme (MSc) in Veterinary Diseases. Dr El-Marie Mostert and Linda Venter discuss the achievements and lessons learnt during the development, implementation and presentation of the online modules.
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Keep Students Engaged – With LMS, Videos and Mobile Phones
Using videos for learning is no big deal anymore, but their flawless integration into a learning environment often seems to be hard to realise. At the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Alex Strømme used videos in his biology courses. The short clips were accessible via the university’s LMS and could also be viewed on mobile phones. Learning whenever and wherever one wanted to finally became a reality in Strømme’s courses. The parallel research he carried out also showed that students really embrace these new possibilities.
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One for All - Education Highway Chooses Fronter
Education Highway, the largest educational portal in Austria, is expanding its service by including the Norwegian Online Learning Platform Fronter. This new service, which was launched in Salzburg on November 22, will ensure that the Fronter platform is available to all schools in Austria.
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A Network of National Networks
In the EU, training vocational teachers and trainers has become one of the main objectives of occupational training policies. Quality assurance and innovative teaching methods are considered indispensable. At Online Educa Berlin 2007, the European Training of Trainers Network (TTnet) will discuss the linked potential of IT-based learning environments and give best practice examples.
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Moodle - The Future Looks Very Bright
© RCSI
“It depends on what you make of it” is something most Moodle users have internalised. In recent years, the popular learning environment, which provides a methodological frame for which the user supplies content details, has undergone accelerated development. At Online Educa Berlin 2007, Eric Clarke of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland will outline the platform’s use in a medical school setting.
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Challenges in Higher Education: E-Learning and Natural Science
To control electronic devices from a distance is an essential part of our everyday lives. We open car doors using remote controls on our key chains; we also switch TV channels and operate dozens of other gadgets using this technology. But how can remote control be used in distance learning programmes? Find out at this year’s Online Educa Berlin: Prof. Dietmar Kennepohl will present his approach to remote laboratory teaching, which enables students to take part in laboratory work and even to control experiments in real time via the Internet.
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Reviving History in the Classroom
VHA @ FU Berlin
In 2006, the Freie Universität Berlin became the first university outside of the United States to offer access to the Visual History Archive of testimonies from Holocaust survivors and witnesses held by the Shoah Foundation Institute of the University of Southern California. Breaking new ground in teaching and research, the VHA combines its aim of preserving history for future generations with the use of innovative e-learning tools.
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Studying Across Cultures
The University of Applied Sciences Berlin (TFH) and the Kyrgyz Technical University of Bishkek (KGTU) are cooperating to build up a Bachelor’s study programme in the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering. Online study modules are being used to improve the language skills of teachers and students in this unique project.
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Special Focus Session on Japan
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.
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Interview with Leonard A. Plugge, SURF Scientific Technical Council
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.
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E-Learning from a Student’s Perspective
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.
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Face-to-face and Cyberspace: Two Sides of the Educational Coin
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.
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E-Learning at Berlin's Universities
In this workshop, higher education institutions in Berlin will present their strategies for implementing e-learning structures. A special focus will be drawn to the question of how to achieve sustainability. Speakers will give an overview of what has been implemented at their organisation and which steps lie ahead …
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Small World - Global Classrooms
Digital networks are making the world shrink, enabling people to communicate with like-minded peers without ever having to leave their desk. The full potential of using web communities in an educational context has yet to be explored. They are widely spread, but researchers and users alike still find a lot of questions unanswered…
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