EDEN Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP)

 

EDEN wishes you relaxing holidays,
Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year

 

1. We are glad to inform that a number of new articles have been released in the European Journal of Open and Distance Learning:

• Adrian Mee: "E-learning policy and the 'transformation' of schooling: a UK case study"
• Dr. Martha Cleveland-Innes, Dr. Mohamed Ally: "Learning to feel: Education, affective outcomes and the use of online teaching and learning"
• Flávio Soares Correa da Silva, Rogério Panigassi, Carlos Hulot: "Learning Management Systems Desiderata for Competitive Universities"
• Prof. Frank Rennie: "Understanding practitioners perspectives of course design for distributed learning"

Two recent book reviews have been published in the journal:

• "Open Educational Practices and Resources - OLCOS Roadmap 2012
  (Edited by Guntram Geser)"
• "MegaTrends in E-Learning publications"

2. Network of Academics and Professionals - Steering Committee election

We kindly remind all NAP members that as the term of office of the current NAP Steering Committee will be terminated in March 2008, the Steering Committee is subject of election.

The Call for nominations has been already launched, please consult the detailed information about the election, the procedures to be followed, further the timetable at the NAP Members' Area.

The deadline for receiving nominations at the EDEN Secretariat is 18 January 2008.

3. The Observatory: Crossing Tomorrow's Higher Education Borders Today

The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE) provides global higher education with state-of-the-art research, resources, best practices, emerging trends, policy frameworks, and assessment and quality control guidelines for the effective delivery of cross-border higher education academic programs and services.

The primary purpose is to provide strategic information to enable policymakers and institutional leaders to make informed decisions relevant to their existing and/or future transnational higher education initiatives. OBHE's mission is accomplished through extensive collaboration with global higher education, government, and private sector organisations that are key stakeholders in the global higher education arena.

The OBHE is also committed to bringing together international faculty to conduct scholarly research in various areas of transnational higher education. The Observatory publishes in-house research as well as commissions specialised research topics in specific areas of cross border higher education.

We would like to draw your attention to their recent Call for Global Scholars: Contribute to The Observatory Research Agenda. The Observatory’s research agenda focuses on strategic topics that have current or future relevance to transnational higher education. OBHE is particularly interested in focused, best practices or case study research that examines a critical area of cross border higher education.

4. EuroPACE Book - European Networking and Learning for the Future

The publication collects articles from different authors involved in the development of the EuroPACE network. It positions EuroPACE in the landscape of international networked e-learning. The articles give an overview of the history of the EuroPACE network and the changes that took place in the field of technology enhanced education and training over the past 15-20 years.

At the same time, the book intends to look ahead and to focus on future developments. It draws the outlines for the new EuroPACE and defines the role of the organisation in an ever changing landscape. That way EuroPACE looks forward to another succesful 10 years!

5. A passionate critic of Web 2.0

Definitely, the most provocative keynote at the Online Educa 2007 Conference in November in Berlin was the speech of Andrew Keen in the opening plenary: “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Truth”. Keen’s related wiriting in the Weekly Standard and debate in the Britannica Blog are interesting readings.

6. SPUTNIC seminar on Virtual Mobility

The EU funded SPUTNIC project organises a seminar on Virtual Mobility in international virtual work and learning environments. This event takes place on the 19th of December 2007 and will be a blend of interactive videoconferencing between the participating 5 sites (AVNet K.U.Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium; University College Ghent, Gent, Belgium; TKK Dipoli, Espoo, Finland; Laurea, Vantaa, Finland; ITC, Enschede, The Netherlands) and hands-on experience at the own institution.

This means participants will not only learn about the presented new educational technologies through presentations and discussions, but will be offered to experiment and get acquainted with several technologies themselves during the seminar. The participation is free of charge!

Download the official invitation and register to take part in person or go to http://www.avnet.kuleuven.be/sputniclive on the 19th at 1pm (CET) to follow the seminar online

7. SINCERE on "Values and Ethics in Education"

SINCERE is a support action co-funded by the European Commission in the frame of FP6 - Priority 7 aimed at Strengthening International Networking and Cooperation in Educational Research and at promoting a reflection on the future of educational research in an international perspective.

Since its inception in 2006 SINCERE is working to enhance a process of reflection on the future of educational research in an international perspective so to contribute to the identification of the necessary steps to ensure that future research in education is relevant to the needs of society and to the globalisation trend we are all experiencing.

In the past year SINCERE has organised international conferences to facilitate the debate and the exchange of experiences and ideas among researchers, policy makers and stakeholders involved in education. The themes emerged as commonly relevant to the needs of society and to the interest of researchers, policy makers and stakeholders in the three regions involved in the project (Europe, Latin America and South East Asia):

• Values and ethics in education
• Multiculturalism and Lifelong Learning
• Gender and Lifelong Learning
• Lifelong Learning in Rural Settings

If you are interested in discussing the challenges and problems faced by educational research in the area of Values and ethics, you are kindly invited to join the virtual forum.

8. EFQUEL Annual Members Meeting, Berlin

The European Foundation for Quality in E-learning (EFQUEL) held its 2007 Annual Members Meeting in Berlin. The meeting focused on the expectations of the members and stakeholders to propose and discuss membership expectations, new project ideas and partnerships. The other focus of the meeting were EFQUEL’s new project involvements: the HEXTLEARN (Higher Education exploring ICT use for Lifelong Learning), the QUAL-C (Quality Assurance Network for Adult Learning Centres) and the QMPP (Quality Management of Peer Production of eLearning). The meeting also hosted a transnational workshop about UNIQUE, the quality label for e-learning in European higher education.

9. 11th International Conference on Interactive Computer aided Learning

The 2008 ICL interdisciplinary conference, to take place 24-26 September next year in Villach, Austria, aims to focus on the exchange of relevant trends and research results as well as the presentation of practical experiences gained while developing and testing elements of interactive computer aided learning. Therefore pilot projects, applications and products will also be welcome.

The Call is now open, for details about the topics and how to submit a contribution, please consult the conference website.

10. B-Learn products available

Are you conveying knowledge in exclusively face to face environments? Are you relying entirely on ICTs for teaching? If your answer to both of these two questions is NO then, whether you like it or not, you are a blended teacher.

B-Learn (Assisting teachers of traditional universities in designing blended learning) project aims to offer a number of tested ways that integrate traditional learning methods with methods offered by new technology. The project outputs already available are the Compendium, that gives a comprehensive overview about blended learning, practical examples and guidelines for applying different design patterns of blended learning and the Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) that assists instructional designers to develop suitable blended learning model for their courses.

11. EU Leonardo/Grundtvig Contact Seminar in Aarhus, Denmark

EDEN member, Jan Gejel, EU and multimedia project manager, on behalf of Aarhus Social and Healthcare College invites all interested to register for the official EU Leonardo / Grundtvig Contact Seminar from the 15th to the 17th of May 2008. Registration is possible directly at the above link - or you can apply for a full grant at your National Leonardo and Grundtvig agencies first. Please be aware of the deadlines for Contact Seminar applications at your National Agencies. The Seminar materials can also befound at the website.

The Seminar will result in the establishment of a number of working groups, aiming to submit Leonardo or Grundtvig applications on the new health challenges and lifelong learning for the 2009 Lifelong Learning Call.

If you have question, please contact Jan Gejel.