EDEN Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP)

1. Ulrich Bernath, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany was elected as Vice-President of EDEN at the last Executive Committee Meeting on 24 October in Barcelona. We congratulate Uli and wish a successful term of office.

2. The EDEN Fourth Research Workshop, 25-28 October, Castelldefels-Barcelona aiming to share experience on the design, results and implications of research into e-learning was a memorably successful event. Its character, being a "workshop" rather than a conference or symposium encouraged discussion, interaction and networking. There were over 210 participants representing 35 countries of Europe and other continents, five outstanding keynote speakers, 20 parallel sessions with 60 selected papers, a poster session, a research design workshop and a real crackerbarrel session with 16 topics and tables. A separate communication about the workshop will be issued soon.

3. EDEN is delighted to welcome the following new institutional members in the Association:
- Ankara University Distance Education Center, Turkey,
- Universidade de Guadalajara, Mexico
You can check them at the "Welcoming New Members" link on the EDEN web, http://www.eden-online.org/eden.php?menuId=207

4. The Minutes of the 15th Annual General Meeting, held 17 June 2006 in Vienna, Austria have been approved by the Executive Committee and will be mailed to members. You can find it at the password protected NAP members' area on the homepage. If you would need assistance for the password, please ask the EDEN Secretariat.

5. EDEN President Ingeborg Bo, upon the invitation of the Korea Education & Research Information Service (KERIS) took part at an international conference on ICT in education hosted by the Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development on 27-29 September in Seoul and held a keynote speech about "European Policy and Status of Quality Assurance of E-learning within Higher Education". Prior to the conference she participated at the Asia-Europa e-Learning Colloquy. The theme of the colloquy was "University Co-operation -
e-Learning for Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities". Ingeborg Bo had talks with the Deputy Minister of Education, the Director General of International Affairs and the President of KERIS and also with representatives of the Korean National Open University.

6. We are pleased to announce that the Proceedings of the 2006 Annual Conference held in Vienna, Austria "E-Competences for Life, Employment and Innovation" are now accessible in electronic format for members of EDEN. If you would like to receive information about how to access the papers, please send a message from your email address as it is registered on the eden-members mailing list, with the subject: 'Proceedings download request' to the EDEN Secretariat addressed to cser@eden-online.org

7. Nikitas Kastis, member of the EDEN Executive Committee, Chair of the Open Classroom Working Group was invited keynote speaker at the 2nd International Open and Distance Learning Symposium organised by the Anadolu University on "Lifelong Open & Flexible Learning in the Globalized World" in Turkey, 13-15 September 2006. Nikitas delivered a speech about "The European state-of-play for Distance and e-Learning: Evolutions and Trends".

8. The European Foundation for Quality in eLearning, in which EDEN is a member, is organizing a Forum for members and those interested in learning about the activities of the Foundation. The meeting will take place on November 29th, 2006 in concomitance with the Online Educa Berlin 2006.
The theme of this year's EFQUEL forum is "Networks, Structures and Opportunities in European eLearning Quality", presenting the progress of establishment of a European Quality Mark for eLearning and of the EFQUEL eQuality Award. More information is available at: http://www.qualityfoundation.org/

9. EDEN member Universitat Oberta de Catalunya UNESCO Chair in e-Learning is organising its Third International Seminar "Open Educational Resources: institutional challenges" in Barcelona, 22-24 November 2006. The seminar will tackle the challenges higher education institutions face as a result of the creation, introduction, use and dissemination of Open Educational Resources. More information is available at: http://www.uoc.edu/catedra/unesco/seminario/english

10. EDEN member EUCEN - European Universities Continuing Education Network has been working in a EU project called Dolceta to produce two modules of on-line learning for adults on consumer issues: consumer rights and financial services. The two modules are available in all the official languages of the EU and adapted to all 25 Member States (www.dolceta.eu). EUCEN is organising a Dolceta workshop on 16-18 November in Paris. Information about the workshop is on the website: http://www.upmc.fr/eucen/

11. eTTCampus Closing Conference, 21 November 2006
The eTTCampus project (EU eLearning Initiative) consortium is organising its closing conference at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The project's final product is a virtual learning space, a self-training centre, where the visitors may enrich their knowledge about the possibilities of ICT supported teaching and learning, and they can learn about the pedagogical, competency-based teaching and accessibility aspects of e-learning.
At the event (1) You may hear about the newest results, tendencies and fields of development related to e-learning from the presentations of prominent speakers; (2) In an interactive workshop you can experiment with some parts of the electronic teacher training campus, eTTCampus (http://www.ettcampus.org/elearning); (3) In a round table discussion you may listen to the opinion and experiences of your colleagues with regard to e-learning and you may share your ideas with others about the theme.
The participation at the conference is free of charge. Please complete the online registration form at http://www.eden-online.org/eden.php?menuId=185 until not later than 10 November 2006.

12. The MegaTrends project (EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme) tries to identify, survey and analyze European mega providers of e-learning. The project focuses on distance learning situations with more than 5000 course enrolments per year or more than 100 courses on offer on any one time. So far, twenty institutions have been nominated as mega providers (http://www.nettskolen.com/in_english/megatrends/nominated.html). The project partners would like to get the list as complete and correct as possible. Therefore they request help to identify additional institutions that should be listed.
The MegaTrends project will also study important e-learning initiatives that did NOT reach targeted goals. Relevant information about contact people, articles, PowerPoint presentations etc. will be appreciated. An updated list of resources and links to further information about e-learning initiatives that did not reach their targeted goals is available at: www.nettskolen.com/in_english/megatrends/workpackage6.html

13. International Astronomy Contest - SkyWatch 2007
The SkyWatch contest is organized within the framework of the DSpace project (e-Ten program of the European Commission), and is supported by the European Schoolnet (EUN) and EDEN. The D-Space "visual observatory" has created a network of robotic telescopes and gives the opportunity of observing from distance, even in real time. The SkyWatch 2007 is carried out with the use of these services.
The contest is addressing high school students and teachers as well as the wider public (adults). The 9 best projects will be invited to be presented to the International Conference "Advanced Technologies in Education", on January 26th-27th in Athens. Special prizes will also be awarded to the winners, while all of the contest participants will be granted 1 year access to the services of the D-Space "Virtual Observatory".
The deadline of project Submissions (1st Phase) is 20th of November 2006. You are invited to visit http://www.discoveryspace.net/skywatch2007/ to learn more about the contest and to submit your proposals.

Members are kindly encouraged to send relevant brief news for the next issue of EDEN Newsflash.