EDEN Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP)

1. EDEN Fourth Research Workshop "Research into Online Distance Education and E-learning: Making the difference" 25-28 October, Castelldefels/Barcelona, Spain.
The workshop now boasts five keynote speakers, each one a world leader in research in e-learning. The Scientific Committee, chaired by Tony Bates, has approved 66 peer-reviewed papers for parallel sessions. There will be two panels: one on Theories and the Theorists with Borje Holmberg, Michael G. Moore and Otto Peters and one on European policies for e-learning research, c haired by Claudio Dondi, 20 topics for discussion at 'crackerbarrel' tables, and four sessions on e-learning research design.

The Programme with schedule of plenary and parallel sessions, registration information and several other useful links about how to join, is available at: http://www.eden-online.org.

2. EDEN is delighted to welcome the following new institutional members in the Association:
- Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia
- HCI Productions Oy, Finland
- University of Bradford, United Kingdom
- Universitá degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata", Italy
- E-learning Network, University of Belgrade, Serbia
You can check them at the "Members List" link on the EDEN web, http://www.eden-online.org/eden.php?menuId=10

3. 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 sponsored by the World Bank Insititute 27-29 September in Seoul, and held a keynote speech about "e-Learning Standardization and Quality Assurance". Prior to that conference she participated at the Asia-Europa e-Learning Colloquy, organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation, the Korea Open National University and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development The theme of the conference was "University Co-operation - e-Learning for Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities". Ingeborg Bo had interesting talks with both the Deputy Minister of Education, the Director General of International Affairs and the President of KERIS, Korea Education and Research Information Service, and also with influential people from the Korean National Open University (KNOU).

4. EDEN Institutional member, CONFORM - Consorzio Formazione Manageriale held their Annual Assembly and the International Conference "Competence-based Learning in Education and Vocational Training at European Level" on 15 September in Avellino. The aim was to discuss the European experience in cooperation: local development, mobility, employability, social inclusion and to exchange views on the new system of life long learning: the training value chain, the EU standards, evaluation and transparency. Ingeborg Bo was invited to give a key contribution at the event.

5. The 22nd ICDE World Conference took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3-6 September 2006. EDEN Secretary General, Andras Szucs held a presentation about "E-learning and Lifelong Learning for European Competitiveness" at the event. He had discussions about the further steps for collaboration with ICDE representatives, Helmut Hoyer President and Reidar Roll CEO, further with Fredric M. Litto, President of ABED, the Brazilian Association for Distance Education, host institution of the World Conference and Carlos Reis, Rector of Universidade Aberta, Portugal.

6. RUISNET - Regional University-Industry Strategies Network RUISNET is gathering experts on University-Industry Relations and Regional Development. The I Convention, held in Valencia, the 25th and 26th of September, represented a meeting point for professionals and European Networks dedicated to the University-Industry Relations and Regional Development. EDEN is member of the Advisory Council of the Network.

The goal of RUISNET is to show the economic and innovative opportunities that can develop from University-Industry Cooperation, and how the technology and knowledge transfer from the universities can have an important influence in our business, our regions, and our society.

Details about the project are available at the official web portal: http://www.ruisnet.net

7. An Erasmus Mundus Action 4 project, EduContact (European Distance Universities Contact) has just been launched. EduContact services will promote European distance higher education worldwide. Personal information and counselling about European distance higher education can be obtained in French, English, German and Spanish furthermore a selection of courses offered by the European partners of the project is also available. The pilot of the project is CNED - Centre national d'enseignement a distance For more information, visit the project website: www.educontact.eu

8. We are pleased to report that the European Economic and Social Committee at their plenary meeting on 13 September, approved the own initiative opinion "The contribution of IT-supported lifelong learning to European competitiveness, industrial change and social capital development". Andras Szucs, EDEN Secretary General, delegate of the EESC Consultative Commission on Industrial Change was co-rapporteur of the policy paper. The official publication of the paper is due in October, when EDEN members will be informed in details.

9. EDEN Institutional member, NKI, Norway has developed a new service for their students, called: "Learning partner" aiming at providing online service for successful distance education. An article about this innovation in online education, written by Torhild Slaatto from NADE - National Association for Distance and Flexible Education, can be read at http://www.nade-nff.no/filer/2006sommer_hoest/Innovation.pdf

10. eContent Incubator and Polyglot Digital Library - Call for partnership
In frames of the recent eContent-plus Call, the eContent Incubator (a service framework for eContent tenders and projects) core consortium invites partners for building up the Polyglot Digital Library, using the Polyhistor portal frame system which has won the ERASMUS EuroMedia 2006 award. Content providers in the scientific, cultural and educational contents, and also those who would like to create and offer hyper-books, knowledge repositories in the frame of the Polyglot Digital Library, within and outside of a tender project are awaited. Also, a Project Co-ordinator with strong financial background and EU grant expertise would be welcome.
For more information please visit http://cognitron.info/cpro/ppub/kbase/index.php?action=print_kbase_content&kbid=2&kbcid=29 or contact: Janos Jelen: jelnet@jelnet.hu, or Janos Bak, Phone: +36-20-333-4444

11. EDEN individual member, Walter Zeller coordinator of ESP:C, an English course for chemists, presented the project at the EDEN 2006 Annual Conference in Vienna. The ESP:C, that can now be checked in its final stage will be finished by 1 October. A tutored language course of ESP:C will start on 15 October 2006.Further information about the contents and other details can be found at: www.esp-c.org (user name and password leonardo2)

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