The 19th Annual EDEN Conference in Valencia was again a great success with near 400 delegates from 49 countries from all over the world. The event was rich both in content and in collaboration opportunities.
The Plenary Sessions were recorded by Elluminate. You can download them from here:
The Annual General Meeting held on 10 June in Valencia at the Annual Conference, approved the election of Morten Flate Paulsen, Professor of Online Education, Director of Development, The NKI Internet College, NKI Distance Education, Norway as President of EDEN.
Morten has served as Vice-President and, since 2007, as a member of the Executive Committee.
We wish a lots of success to Morten as President of the Association!
The Annual General Meeting elected as new members of the Executive Committee:
Gilly Salmon, Professor of University of Leicester, UK
Costas Tsolakidis, Professor of University of the Aegan, Rhodos, Greece
Deborah Arnold, Project Manager, Videoscop - Université Nancy 2, France
Airina Volungeviciene, Head of Distance Study Centre, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Ene Koitla, Head of the Estonian e-Learning Development Centre, Estonian Information Technology Foundation, Estonia
At their first meeting, right after the AGM, the new Executive Committee have elected Alan Bruce as Vice-President.
We congratulate Gilly, Costas, Deborah, Airina, Ene and welcome them warmly in the EDEN Executive and wish lots of success to Alan Bruce in his new position!
With expiration of their term of office in the Executive Committee, Alan Tait and Dangoule Rutkauskiene have retired. EDEN would like to thank them for their service in the Association.
You can read the President’s Report presented at the AGM here.
At the EDEN 2010 Annual Conference in Valencia, EDEN Senior Fellow title was granted in recognition of his contribution to the development of open, distance and e-learning in Europe and for his valued commitment and support to the evolution and progress of EDEN to:
Michael G. Moore, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Martine Vidal, Distance et Savoirs, France
Morten Flate Paulsen, EDEN Senior Fellow Michael G. Moore and Alan W. Tait
EDEN Fellow title was granted as expression of acknowledgement of professional merit for NAP members, who have demonstrated excellence in professional practice in the field of flexible and distance learning:
Deborah Arnold, Videoscop - Université Nancy 2, France
Berit Johnsen, Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, Norway
Antonio M. Teixeira, Distance Education, Universidade Aberta, Portugal
Airina Volungeviciene, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
EDEN Best Research Paper Award and Award for Leading Practice in Learning Impact
With the support and coordination of The Ulrich Bernath Foundation for Open and Distance Learning, the EDEN 2010 Best Research Paper Award was presented by President Alan Tait during the Conference dinner of the EDEN Annual Conference in Valencia, Spain, to
The Award for Leading Practice in Learning Impact was presented by President Morten Flate Paulsen and Lisa Mattson from IMS Chief Operations Officer IMS Global Learning Consortium, Imc.
Following EDEN's involvement in the past years as ELIG (European Learning Industry Group) Consultative Group member, which relation has been most successful in developing relations with the corporate sector, a Document of Understanding on EDEN-ELIG Partnership, a new framework of collaboration has now been signed. The agreement is focusing on communication, professional collaboration and promotion elements of mutual benefits for both organisations which should also be useful for members directly.
Visitors are kindly invited to read the new post on the blog.
Morten F. Paulsen, President of EDEN, in his recently uploaded posts "Homage to a President, Chief Editor and Mentor" and "Inaugural reflections", writes about major developments during Alan Tait's Presidency and the challenges he faces when taking over this post. He recalls the beginnings of EDEN, the developments since 1991 and highlights the most important visions for the future of the Association.
You can read previous posts written by Alan Tait and Executive Committee members at the Past-President's blog page.
As result of common interest and commitment which we discovered with enthusiasm, the Secretariat staff decided to develop our headquarters into an environmentally conscious office. Following a systematic self-evaluation, a series of measures have been implemented, not only checking and changing the related office functions (less copying/printing, use of recycled paper, selective waste collection, energy saving measures, etc.) but also purchasing environmentally friendly detergents, measures to improve ergonomic and healthy workplaces, and even encourage colleagues to use bike and public transport instead of cars.
We are delighted to announce that the Book titled "Distance and E-learning in Transition – Learning Innovation, Technology and Social Challenges", was published jointly by ISTE and Wiley. The book is a selection of the best EDEN conference papers from the past years, revisiting research, innovation and professional practice in distance and e-learning.
Great news: the latest Lifelong Learning Call resulted five interesting projects' start in the coming autumn. The projects entitled SEVAQ+, Te@ch.us, EquNet, FREE and LINKS-UP are all promoted by prestigeous partnerships with the objective of further developing the European knowledge society. Topics of the projects include:
Enhanced quality evaluation model for Technology Enhanced Learning systems in Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training institutions;
Web 2.0 communities for teachers;
Accessing Higher Education for marginalised groups with technology enhanced learning;
A tool to councilors, tutors, trainers working with unemployed people for competence development;
Research on whether Learning 2.0 does really empower excluded groups and thus change the learning landscape.
After a successful face-to-face launch in June, the public is now invited to participate the online testing of the SEVAQ+ tool, developed to facilitate self-evaluation of quality in e-learning for Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training, based on an innovative combination of the Kirkpatrick evaluation model for learning and the EFQM excellence model.
HEXTLEARN
The project is looking for quality-focused institutions wishing to participate in an institutional Peer review process about ICT use for learning. The process focuses on quality of academic and student services. The methodology used: “Virtual Peer Review Approach”, offered for free during the runtime of the HEXTLEARN project.
TESPiS
Based on the experiences of an international language course and exams for chemists, Testing English for Specific Purposes in Science project addresses the needs of linguistic skills in industry. It develops definitions of language levels based on the Common European Framework for professional use as well as methods, guidelines and examinations. A short web-based course for new examiners is a further feature of this project.
EdReNe
The Final EdReNe report marks the conclusion of the EdReNe - Educational Repositories Network as EU financed project. By May 1st 2010, EdReNe turned into a self-sustained network, with members interested in a continued sharing of experiences on educational repositories.
The picture below shows the panorama of Budapest and buildings of the University seen from the office of the Secretariat. You can explore the broader view of the panorama by moving the mouse over the picture.
