Council of EDEN Fellows established

At the EDEN Fellows Meeting in Barcelona on October 24, Fellows in attendance voted in support of the core group proposal to establish the Council of EDEN Fellows, which includes all Fellows and Senior Fellows of EDEN and that serves in an advisory role to the EDEN EC, as a think tank for future visioning, and as ambassadors of EDEN. At the same time, the Fellows also agreed to establish a Board of the Council that comprises current members of the core group: Deborah Arnold, Lisa Marie Blaschke, Don Olcott, Jr., Wim van Petegem, Albert Sangra, Christian Schumann, Torhild Slaatto, and Antonio Teixeira. Lisa Marie Blaschke was chosen by the Fellows as Chair of the Board.

Upon establishment of the Council of EDEN Fellows and its Board, the Fellows set upon the task of identifying the “wicked problems” currently challenging EDEN and its network. Major themes emerging from this workshop included: current and future open education trends within socio-political contexts; the roles, responsibilities, and values of the members of the EDEN community; and strategic development of EDEN (2030). The next task of the Council is to begin addressing these challenges within workgroups, with the Board of the Council moving forward in developing an operations framework for the Council. A progress report will be given at the next meeting of the Council of EDEN Fellows at the EDEN Annual Conference in Bruges, Belgium in 2019.

Congratulations on a productive and successful meeting in Barcelona – and to the newly elected members of the Board of the Council of EDEN Fellows!