A call for papers has been issued for Security and Defence Learning 2010, the forum for discussion of key issues in technology-assisted learning for defence, security and emergency services. This year's event, will once again be hosted by The New Security Foundation and follows last year's successful and enjoyable conference. As an official pre-conference forum of ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, it will be held in the InterContinental Hotel on December 1st.
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How does he manage all this? Bert de Coutere is not only responsible for the development of comprehensive e-learning games and applications; he also regularly attends and contributes to international and national conferences such as OEB, where he chaired the Battle of the Bloggers session in 2009. And beyond this, the highly engaged IBM Learning Development Europe Business Area Manager recently authored and published a book entitled Homo Competens. Let's Talk About Competent People in the Network Age, which is causing a sensation in the e-learning arena. Here he talks about what is needed to become a 'HoCo'.
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What a spectacle! The ONLINE EDUCA Debate was the setting for a clash between two intransigent and unapologetic opponents when the biologist-cum-psychologist, Dr Aric Sigman, went head to head with the unswerving champion of e-learning, Donald Clark, who was as entertaining as ever. The two were both “up for it”, well-researched, combative and determined to land a punch. Sigman’s negative view of the “anti-social web” was seconded by controversial right-wing British newspaper columnist, Bruce Anderson, whereas the Silicon Valley consultant and advocate of technology, Jerry Michalski, deftly supported Clark’s position. A post-debate vote was as close as a vote can get – another compliment to the main protagonists, who stoked up emotions, polarised opinion and did not give an inch.
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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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The philosophy at the Institute for Work Based Learning (IWBL) at the Middlesex University is not ’What can you do for us?’, but rather ‘What can we do for you?’ The Institute offers a myriad of highly customisable programmes specifically designed to provide opportunities for full-time workers who seek to build on their existing professional skills while developing new ones, in order to further their careers.
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Who is able to reflect the atmosphere, the hottest topics and the final outcome of a conference better than the participants themselves? We invited participants to share their personal OEB stories. From the feeling of being the very last presenter, to becoming aware of new responsibilities, to being blown away by overwhelming feedback, read on to get personal views on the largest e-learning conference in the world and discover the manifold opportunities OEB has to offer.
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The philosophy at the Institute for Work Based Learning (IWBL) at the Middlesex University is not ’What can you do for us?’, but rather ‘What can we do for you?’ The Institute offers a myriad of highly customisable programmes specifically designed to provide opportunities for full-time workers who seek to build on their existing professional skills while developing new ones, in order to further their careers.
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Building sustainable “strategic competence” into the DNA of a firm is what corporate learning should pursue, says strategy consultant Prof Roland Deiser. In his latest book Designing the Smart Organization: How Breakthrough Corporate Learning Initiatives Drive Strategic Change and Innovation, he describes how large-scale participatory learning can be put into practice by giving numerous examples from leading companies and organisations. ELIG has invited the renowned learning expert to contribute to its workshop on Wednesday, December 2nd at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN.
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ACS International Schools serve international and local communities from three sites in Greater London: Cobham, Egham and Hillingdon. The schools are co-educational and offer day and boarding education to pupils aged two to eighteen. They educate a multinational student body in accordance with American and internationally recognised educational principles and practices, such as the International Baccalaureate. ACS started the search for an online language-learning environment that would be accessible to pupils from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as well as catering to different learning styles and ability levels. In 2006, the school’s management chose the Rosetta Stone Classroom language learning programme to integrate its large population of international students into the school environment.
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Starting university can be a daunting experience for new students. The first few days will provide many new experiences and raise a whole range of emotional responses – from excitement and anticipation to homesickness and loneliness. To help new undergraduates find their way, Gilly Salmon and Palitha Edirisingha, both professors of e-learning at the University of Leicester, launched a podcasting project in 2006. The project, entitled “Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation for Transition (IMPALA4T)”, developed a model for capturing undergraduates’ informal knowledge and experience (‘hot knowledge’) for podcasts. Now they present the results of their research.
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As the founder of Epic Group, a board member of Interactive University, an award-winning designer of e-learning tools and author of numerous articles on the topic, Donald Clark has “seen it all” in the field of online education and shares his observations frequently on his blog http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com. Clark will be one of the keynote speakers at OEB 2009. In the following interview, he shares his excitement about the latest open learning trends.
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Every year, OEB provides a platform for a plethora of opinions on education and learning from speakers and participants, who engage in heated discussions on where we stand and what lies ahead. OEB introduced the “Battle of the Bloggers” last year as a forum for discussion of key issues raised at the conference. It continues this year and is an open summit of e-learning opinion leaders and experts. This highly interactive session not only provides a sophisticated overview of current controversies but also invites attendees to speak their mind and share their thoughts with the panel. Expect an intensive but open debate: Push your point of view; comment on other opinions; point to interesting research; get inspired – be part of the “Battle of the Bloggers”, one of OEB’s most vibrant sessions!
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Generations of medical students have prepared themselves for exams by reading mountains of books in dim light, accompanied by impersonal lectures and teaching done at patients’ bedsides. But the medical education landscape is changing rapidly as online and digital training devices are becoming increasingly popular. The advantages are clear: Students want to learn any place and anytime, which is only possible with highly flexible e-learning tools. At OEB 2009, the Dutch organisations SURFnet and Kennisnet will present two mobile-learning projects carried out in the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) using eBook readers and PDAs. Two further language and spatial mobile-learning projects will also be the subject of discussion. The audience is invited to react to statements about mobile learning through a mobile quiz.
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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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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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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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The use of applications such as Google Maps, Google Earth, and some of the applications for iPhone-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is commonplace nowadays. Nevertheless, the science of geomatics, a combination of geography and informatics, is still widely unknown, especially among young adults. For future developments, new minds are desperately needed. Dr Sylvie Daniel and Dr Thomas Michael Power at Laval University and Rob Harrap at Queen’s University in Canada, together with a dozen other colleagues, have set up GeoEduc3D, an international project whose primary goal is to raise awareness of geomatics among high school students. It involves the development of compelling computer games based on GIS technologies.
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Recorded in the run-up to OEB 2009 and during the conference itself, the podcasts will introduce you to some of this year’s speakers and allow you to hear from the experts themselves.

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Podcast 4 - Interview with Gilly Salmon: This podcast features keynote speaker Gilly Salmon from the University of Leicester, UK, highlighting the importance of envisaging the future direction of learning.
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An event that is both fun and practical, PechaKucha originated in Tokyo in 2003 as an innovative way for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public. It has developed into a massive celebration, with sessions taking place all over the world, inspiring creativity worldwide. This year, PechaKucha premieres at OEB.
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The European Learning Industry Group (ELIG) brings the debate on the role of knowledge and learning solutions in ensuring sustainable economic recovery to ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN in the form of a pre-conference workshop: "Moving beyond the Crisis Powered by Knowledge and Learning Solutions – What Is the NEXT Practice?”. This will be held on December 2nd, 2009 between 14:00 and 18:00.
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How can one reduce induction time and substantially lower attrition rates for new recruits? Home entertainment giant Sky found answers to these questions in its new e-learning programme "Get Up to Speed". The customised, on-the-job training portal, designed by Brightwave, helps new recruits to quickly orientate themselves in their still-unfamiliar working environment, thus leading to estimated annual savings of about £700,000. Kenny Henderson, Sky's Head of Talent Development Operations, will present the tool at OEB.
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Repercussions of the recent downturn in the financial sector have been felt heavily in the business world, but anyone with even a modicum of entrepreneurial acumen knows that out of something bad, something good can come. The current climate presents an opportunity to revamp corporate learning and training, swapping traditional and outdated strategies for fresh and innovative ones. What do work-based learning, cloud learning and blended learning entail, and how can they be adapted to suit different business structures? What benefits do open learning and distance learning offer businesses, and how can they be efficiently embedded? At this year’s ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, questions such as these will be the focus of numerous sessions from expert-led discussions through to real-life case studies, providing a comprehensive theoretical and practical overview of the possibilities.
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The fight against illegal drugs is a high priority for governments and citizens of the EU. The frontline of this campaign involves officers of the EU Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD), who use intelligence, analysis, investigative and legal skills in their efforts to prevent the traffic in illegal drugs from violating EU borders. Caspian Learning has developed training simulations for custom officers that are now being deployed in 27 EU countries.
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Traditional language training at the workplace is “expensive and ineffective,” says Timothy Phillips, Managing Director of the Cologne-based company SKYLIGHT GmbH. Together with Henkel, the manufacturer of home-care brands and cosmetics with 52,000 employees worldwide, SKYLIGHT has developed a new blended methodology that makes language learning directly relevant to the business. At OEB, both companies will present the “Scenario Management System” before its official launch in January 2010.
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Businesses are facing many challenges in these times of economic uncertainty, when training budgets are tight and performance is increasingly crucial. How can ICT strategies be designed and implemented in order to enhance workplace performance without breaking the bank? Tarkan Maner, President and CEO of Wyse Technology Inc., discusses the nature of thin computing and his belief that it presents a highly customisable and cost-effective solution with significant advantages for the corporate sector.  
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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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Computers and the Internet have arrived in European schools. Virtually all primary schools use computers for learning purposes, and some have even started to move away from dedicated computer labs to the use in class. But what motivates teachers to use technology in the classroom? Does it really affect children's learning? What are outstanding best practices? STEPS, a comparative study into the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in primary schools in the 27 EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, was undertaken to scrutinise the pedagogical use of technology in the classroom and its impact on learning.

Results will be presented – for the first time – at this year's OEB. The study is one of the activities encouraged by the European Commission as part of its Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL). In a full-day workshop and a conference session, Commission representatives will give an overview of the EC's key activities related to ICT for learning.
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Some of the biggest "names" in security training will be in Berlin on December 2nd for this year’s Security and Defence Learning, the annual forum at which the worlds of security and technology-assisted learning meet.
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France is a country known for its savoir-vivre, cuisine and couture – but what about e-learning and related IT innovations? At the “French Pavilion” and in a session dedicated to French e-learning providers and experts, OEB participants will have the opportunity to see original inventions such as the robot Nao, and learn about the latest e-learning trends in France.
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Sport plays a crucial social role in the integration of young people into society and now it is increasingly being used as an incentive to increase motivation for learning and training. At OEB, four fascinating e-learning projects that revolve around the world of sports will be presented. The first involves football stadiums, which serve as authentic working worlds to grab pupils’ attention and provide them with orientation for their own career choices. The second is Playing for Success, a UK project that successfully attracts young people by offering the opportunity to learn in sports venues rather than in the classroom. Next is the PC learning game Champions for South Africa, in which pupils experience the “Rainbow Nation” during the upcoming World Cup from the perspective of street kids. And finally, participants will be able to discover how video annotations improve the training of table tennis coaches and referees.
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Even Homer Simpson can help to make technology more accessible. At least, that is the view of one of the keynote speakers at this year’s OEB. ”I have always worked towards empowering people to speak for themselves“ says Dr Lizbeth Goodman, Chair of Creative Technology Innovation at the University of East London and Director of Research for Futurelab Education. And even Homer Simpson, the crude and boorish character from TV’s ‘The Simpsons’, can be put to good use by lending his voice to someone who otherwise could not speak.
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Transforming “Flatland” into an immersive 3D Learning World is the mission of Tony O´Driscoll, virtual worlds expert and Professor of the Practice at Duke University´s Fuqua School of Business. He is profoundly convinced that the demands of globalisation and a new working world with anytime, anyplace work also need an anytime, anyplace educational parallel.
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An American psychologist, biologist and broadcaster, Dr Aric Sigman is also the author of the award-winning and controversial book Remotely Controlled: How television is damaging our lives and more recently, The Spoilt Generation: Why restoring authority will make our children and our society happier. Dr Sigman’s talk at the Houses of Parliament, as well as his latest articles on the negative effect of television and the social web have caused widespread public debate. Below Dr Sigman explains his views on the biological implications of internet usage.
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In 2005, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) piloted a bespoke ePortfolio to support the training of 410 of the country’s junior doctors. Following its successful introduction, the system has rapidly grown and now supports over 35,000 trainees in medicine and the health professions across the UK. Since its inception, the ePortfolio has helped assure and improve the quality of medical education and training, which is vital for the trainees, their supervisors, and, ultimately, for the patients. At OEB 2009, NES ePortfolio Project manager Alex Haig will share the lessons he learned during the process of moving from a small-scale pilot to nationwide implementation.
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Recorded in the run-up to OEB 2009 and during the conference itself, the podcasts will introduce you to some of this year’s speakers and allow you to hear from the experts themselves.

Subscribe to this podcast series and automatically receive the latest episodes.

Podcast 1 - Interview with Jerry Michalski: The OEB keynote speaker talks about online communities and the social web, and their effect on the relationship between companies and consumers.
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Senior figures from the Swiss Police, Interpol, the Scottish Police, NATO and the UK Emergency Planning College will join other world’s leading experts of security training in Berlin on December 2nd for this year’s Security and Defence Learning Forum 2009, the fifth International Conference on Technology Assisted Learning for Security, Defence and Emergency Services.
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British academic Russell Stannard, an expert on ICT and language teaching, has produced an extensive range of online videos that demonstrate how to apply technology in teaching. He began by making screen casts with Camtasia of himself using a variety of the most common Web 2.0 tools. These videos became so popular that he launched them on his domain www.teachertrainingvideos.com. Stannard’s videos have proved to be not only very popular with teachers, but have also had an impact on the number of students applying for his courses.
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As a country dominated by space and renowned for its self-sufficiency, distance education has been part of Australia’s educational landscape for a long time. But does it necessarily mean that the nation is also at the forefront of e-learning development? Marc Niemes, founding president of the eLearning Industry Association of Victoria, talks about where Australia and other countries stand in the field of e-learning today, as well as trends in ICT.
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Sixteen years old and having failed at school, Zenna Atkins launched her first social enterprise. She aspired to help people who appeared to share her fate: a dismal future due to a lack of academic qualifications. Today she leads the UK’s school inspection, Ofsted, successfully runs her own company, and is engaged in a wide range of social welfare activities. Read on to discover what Zenna Atkins thinks about the current and future state of the education system and her views on how technology and e-learning can play a role in making things better.
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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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California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has launched an initiative to ban textbooks from high school classrooms and replace them with digital material. Traditional books are too expensive, antiquated and so heavy that the former bodybuilder and actor (‘The Terminator’) joked in June that he “could use them for biceps curls”. His state initiative is the first of its kind in the US, but it highlights the trend for more and more US schools and universities to go online, according to Dr Bob Barrett, a professor at the School of Business at the American Public University. He will give a presentation at the OEB 2009.
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World-class experts will outline their ideas on the current state and future of e-learning in plenaries at OEB. Their presentations promise to be inspiring, provocative and full of food for thought. At the premiere of the "ONLINE EDUCA Debate", speakers will examine the pros and cons of new technologies and the social web - join us and vote for the most convincing case!
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As Head of E-Learning and Knowledge Management at the German supermarket chain real,- SB-Warenhaus GmbH, Olaf Bursian is responsible for implementing an e-learning project for 50,000 employees in more than 280 locations. In a pre-conference workshop, Bursian will share his experiences, present best practice cases and show how the difficulties of implementing e-learning in retail can be overcome.
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Martin Dougiamas, best known for being “the guy who started Moodle”, understands better than most the challenges and opportunities associated with distance learning. Growing up in the remote Australian desert meant that Martin was educated via “The School of the Air”, being guided by a teacher 600 miles away. Nowadays, such learning is not unusual and Moodle is one of the latest software platforms that encourages self-learning and online community-learning. Dougiamas will participate in a pre-conference workshop and deliver a keynote speech at OEB 2009. In the following interview, he talks about the expansion and future of Moodle.
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New Security Learning, a new magazine for trainers and planners in security, defence and emergency services will be launched later this year. It will be distributed to key decision-makers and planners in many different countries and selected articles will also be available online.
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Building the school of the future: With the new School Forum – the Berlin Forum on Technology and Learning Trends for Schools, OEB aims to create a central meeting point for teachers and headteachers interested in qualified and exciting e-learning projects. By gaining insights from renowned experts, as well as inspiring and sharing knowledge with each other, educators can broaden their horizons and explore new ways of successfully employing e-learning in the classroom. Many hands-on activities will help them to personally explore “how it really works”. OEB project leader Annemieke Akkermans says that “with the new School Forum which offers intense and attractive training possibilities for teachers, OEB wants to reach out to those responsible for our children's education.”
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Reflecting and emphasising the theme of OEB 2009, this year’s conference will see the introduction of three exciting and fresh formats. The new elements are designed to enhance knowledge transfer between experts and participants, as well as to promote collaborative learning.
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It was in 1959 when Peter F. Drucker, the “man who invented management”, coined the term “knowledge worker” in his groundbreaking publication Landmarks of Tomorrow. OEB is delighted to be a partner of the Peter Drucker Society of Austria and proud to announce that on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Drucker’s birth, a high-class international panel made up of the world’s leading management thinkers, practitioners and executives will convene in Vienna to review Drucker’s ideas. Several OEB stakeholders, such as the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and Emerald Group Publishing Limited, will help this landmark event to become a catalyst for innovative approaches to learning, training and management ethics.
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“Share, learn and grow” is the motto that drives her forward, says Laura Overton, Managing Director at Towards Maturity and our latest member of the ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN Steering Committee. In her work, Overton applies her motto daily: The main task of her London-based not-for-profit organisation is to share successful implementations of e-learning at work. And in doing so, it helps companies grow “into maturity”.
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“The other 21st century learners” was an issue discussed in a session about Baby Boomers at OEB 2008 – it was considered a “natural” addition to the Generation Y focus of this year’s conference. Many diverse aspects were touched upon by the presenters, ranging from learning-needs assessments for seniors to intergenerational aspects of learning to potential improvement of workers aged over 45.
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