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News and Background Information on the Conference | |||
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Online Educa Berlin 2008: How Does Generation Y Learn?
Prof Michael Wesch
In the Thursday evening plenary, well-known e-learning commentator and guru Clive Shepherd will concentrate on the gathering forces for change in work-based learning. He will question whether change and uncertainty will make or break corporate training and development. Ton Zylstra will join Shepherd in the debate. Zylstra consults companies, government agencies and non-profits on how to adapt to the new networked reality. 
Prof Norbert Bolz Globalisation and the impact it has on companies in terms of training are the topic of a plenary on Friday, December 5, featuring Laura Overton. Overton is Skills for Business Network e-learning champion, working across the Network to promote more effective use of new technologies in learning solutions. Richard Baraniuk, from Rice University, USA, a pioneer of the open educational resource movement, joins the expert panel in the parallel plenary on Friday. The discussion looks into whether open educational resources are merely a blip on the educational radar or a phenomenon that is here to stay. Seen by many as part of a significant trend towards more openness in higher education, many questions remain unanswered about how to build in sustainability, what the best organisational model to choose is, and how to make sure high quality is maintained. Generation YGeneration Y is a key topic of studies and best-practice examples from universities, schools and corporate training. Contributions come from Belgium, Canada, the UK, South Africa and Spain to name a few. “Learning 2.0 in Europe”, an international study carried out in 2008 by the European Commission, looks into the impact web 2.0 trends are having on learning and education in Europe. Gordana Jugo from the Croatian Academic and Research Network, Ineke Lam from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Leonardo Tosi from the Italian National Institute for Documentation and Innovation and others debate and discuss the competencies needed for teaching Generation Y students. Methods and ToolsThe spread of Moodle as an online course management system has been nothing short of astonishing in recent years. The platform can now claim a large and diverse user community with over 400,000 registered adopters on the Moodle site alone. Sebastian Graeb-Konneker and Michael Repnik will describe how organisations like Shell International and the German government’s Goethe Institute are using Moodle to reach both employees and clients worldwide. The use of storytelling as a learning strategy is certainly not new, but what is new is the way in which trainers and teachers are adapting technology-enhanced learning to include some element of storytelling. Grete Jamissen from Oslo University College, Norway will describe how her colleagues and she are creating personal narrative based on incidents, experiences or reflections to support professional communication and learning. Andy Schaer from the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland will describe the use of online writing platforms in enabling children to tell their own stories and Matthew Murray from PricewaterhouseCoopers in the USA will describe how narrative devices can frame learning in a way that really attracts in-company learners. You can also read OEB’s interview with Murray. Video and Web 2.0The increased level of interest in video is a topic for reflection at OEB this year. Several sessions will be dedicated to topics like recording and publishing video lectures, with input from experienced practitioners like Daniel Tiong Hok Tan from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Lisa Gommer from the University of Twente, the Netherlands. Building on the very high level of interest in web 2.0 and social networking at last year’s conference, the agenda will again include plenty of food for thought. Presenters like Kjell Atle Halvorsen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, Ming Nie, Beyond Distance Research Alliance, University of Leicester, Reinhard Staber, Medical University of Graz, Austria and others will describe the myriad ways in which they are using web 2.0 tools and applications to improve their teaching and learning practices. Corporate E-LearningMembers of the language teaching community have always shown themselves to be early adopters of technology to support learning. Our agenda this year will feature descriptions of, for example, the customised language-learning system built for the DIRICKX Groupe in France, Talkacademy, a 3D environment created in Austria, and several highly innovative online language-testing tools being used by Cambridge ESOL and by the federal government in Belgium. Industry round tables will focus on specific sectors, including medicine, biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry as well as the banking and financial sectors. Examples of online learning initiatives from companies like Genentech in USA, the local Health Service Department in Asolo, Italy and the BRE Bank in Poland will be looked at in depth. Learning management systems (LMSs) of various kinds have been around for a quite a long time, so it’s no surprise that a considerable body of experience now exists as to how best to choose from the rich variety available. Join seasoned users of LMSs like Antti Peltonen, University of Oulu, Finland, Pieter van der Hijden of the Dutch Moodle Association and Sofia Torraoa from the University of Porto, Portugal as they share their insights on the selection and use of a range of systems. Educational Games and Virtual WorldsSerious games, educational games, business games – working examples of all types of online games are featured on our agenda this year. Games used, for example, to train German insurance executives will be presented by Patrick Blum from the Inside Business Group. Others, used to enhance the skills of Dutch police officers, are to be demonstrated by Natascha Maria Blijleven-Tebbe from the Dutch Police Academy. And games employed to teach Spanish business students will be shown by Martin Rodriguez from the IE Business School. In our increasingly mobile world, learning needs to take advantage of the latest developments in mobile communication tools. OEB 2008 will feature great examples of mobile learning. These include a description by David A. Guralnick from Kaleidoscope Learning in the US of a mobile stocking training system being used to train retail staff in shelf-stocking using a PDA. Another successful implementation to be discussed is the use of mobile phones to support a system of micro-training for truck drivers put into effect by Pieter de Vries from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and his team. The complete agenda can be found at http://www.online-educa.com/programme. September 11, 2008 |
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Cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch, Kansas State University, USA, and media scientist Norbert Bolz, Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany will open ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN (OEB) on December 4. Both dedicate their research to new media and its effects on human society. Wesch has earned worldwide popularity for his groundbreaking work in digital ethnography. Bolz pioneered research on the new digital culture in Germany. They will be joined by Roger Larsen, Founder and President of Fronter, Europe’s largest commercial open source Learning Platform.