EDEN Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP)

1. New Vice-President in EDEN

The Executive Committee, at their meeting held on 18-19 October in Norway, approved the election of Martine Vidal, Chargée de mission for research and The Rector, General Director of CNED, and Chief Editor of the Journal "Distances et savoirs", France as Vice-President of EDEN.

Martine has served as Executive Committee member during the past years. We congratulate and look forward to a successful further collaboration.

2. real LEARNING in VIRTUAL worlds - EDEN Sixth Open Classroom Conference

The Programme is now available for the Conference in Stockholm, 24-26 October 2007.

Live web cast of keynote speeches
Get involved in the virtual world of the real Open Classroom Conference!
The keynote speeches of the event are broadcasted live on the web and will be available in an edited version after the conference, thanks to the Swedish Agency for Flexible Learning. The web cast session opens 30 min. before the plenary sessions start.

Please, visit the detailed conference programme and the keynote panels on the conference web. We welcome as new keynote speakers: Terry Anderson, Ph.D., Editor of International Review of Research on Open and Distance Learning and Professor and Canada Research Chair in Distance Education for Athabasca University, Canada, Leo Hojsholt-Poulsen, EPICT - European Pedagogical ICT Training Programme, UNI-C, Denmark and Jeff Martin, Senior Solution Architect, HP and ELIG - European Learning Industry Group.

The following extension events will be organised to create a market-place for knowledge and best practices in the field:

• SPUTNIC Broadcasted Final Seminar. As part of the EU-funded SPUTNIC project (‘Seminars Promoting the Use of Technologies for Networking and International Collaboration’), a seminar will be organised on the use of videoconferencing in inter-university cooperation programmes in a pedagogical sound way. This seminar will be broadcasted through videoconference to several sites all over Europe and will be highly practical and interactive. More information on the SPUTNIC project, please click here.
• MobiKid European Conference - Geographic Mobility, School Performance, Best Practices, Challenges and Policies. This event is organised on the 26th of October to explore specific issues related to children's geographic mobility, the impact of mobility on academic performances and schooling continuity, the exchange of best practices related to member states' answers on these problems and the role of information technology in solutions. Participation is free of charge, conference delegates are requested to register at the downloadable registration form.
• The Learning Environment at the Stockholm Institute of Education - To be in terms with the society of information and the students of today you need to catch up with technology. To serve this purpose Lärum has created "The Future classroom" and a Digital Studio, the later aimed at art subjects. Those two environments, together with the Media workshop constitute a flexible interface for students and faculty members, companies and schools to use modern information and communication technology. You also get the chance to see our well equipped library containing a huge silent reading room and various work stations which serve as an extended part of the library.

3. EDEN is delighted to welcome the following new institutional members in the Association:

Departament d'Educacio, Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain
Laboratory for Teaching and Learning Technologies, Italy

You can check them at the "Welcoming New Members" link on the EDEN web.

4. We are pleased to report that the EDEN Executive Committee at their last meeting discussed the latest developments on the findings of the last and the future EDEN conferences, the results of the EDEN Members survey, future networking initiatives, newly accepted European projects and the upcoming NAP Steering Committee elections.

5. EFQUEL Board Meeting

The freshly elected new Board of Directors of the European Foundation for Quality in eLearning (EFQUEL) has organized its meeting in concomitance with the Open Classroom Conference in Stockholm. Next to operational issues, the Board will discuss EFQUEL challenges and opportunities in 2008 and beyond, creating a common vision for the Foundation. Members of the EFQUEL Board will also participate in a joint seminar with NEVA, the Nordic Evaluation Forum, a roundtable for organisations involved and evaluating the introduction of ICT in educational systems and accreditation.

6. New projects with EDEN's participation

Between March and May 2007 were the deadlines for the new EU Lifelong Learning Programme, and the ICT call of the 7th Framework Programme. For these calls dozens of invitations had been received by EDEN. We are happy to report that 4 submissions are proposed for approval by the Commission. In the upcoming months the following projects are expected to kick-off: Learnovation, Eliminating Language Barriers in European Prisons through Open and Distance Education Technology (ELBEP), eTTCampus 2.0 - Towards social eLearning environments, MATURE. More in depth information about these newly starting initiatives shall soon be available on the EDEN web site.

7. Collaboration agreement with the Sloan Consortium - Sloan-C (USA) and The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education –OBHE

In September, the above two reputable international organisations approached EDEN proposing long term collaboration.The EDEN Executive Committee welcomed and accepted both proposals, thus extending the network of organisations working side by side with EDEN.

8. The EDEN related "Megatrends in E-learning provision" project partnership is delighted to announce their books on "E-learning initiatives that did not reach targeted goals", and "The provision of e-learning in the European Union", accessible in electronic format for members of EDEN.

9. KITE, The European mobile worker’s kit - Plug-in pilot launched

The KITE project, co-funded by the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci Programme, was established in the context of the creation and dissemination of the electronic version of Europass, the European Community Framework for the transparency of qualifications and competencies. The project is offering an implementation of the Europass-CV, as a plugin of three open source existing weblogs: WordPress, ELGG and Dotclear. With KITE, everybody will be enabled to add to his/her personal weblog page (blog) a smart extension, based on open standards, to make his/her own professional profile more accessible, more browsable and searchable through the web. An extensive series of both electronic and face to face piloting events got started with the beginning of the 2007/08 academic year. You are invited to participate the online pilot. Please, register and experiment with the user friendly CV maker, and share your opinion and critiques about the plugin by filling in a short multiple choice questionnaire after you assembled your personalised, digital CV.

10. Reduced fees for EDEN Members at Online Educa Berlin

EDEN Members are invited to join Online Educa Berlin on 28-30 November 2007. As a courtesy of the organiser, ICWE, EDEN Members may register at a reduced rate of 600 EUR. The registration code for EDEN Members is "AC 129", those who wish to attend can register online at and insert the code in the appropriate field. They will automatically be invoiced the reduced rate at 600 EUR instead of 790 EUR.

11. Kaleidoscope Symposium

The Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence (a European research network on the scientific evolution of technology enhanced learning) is presenting the outcomes of work undertaken over the last four years at its Symposium. The aims of this two day Symposium (26-27 November, 2007 at Hotel InterContinental, Berlin, Germany) are to demonstrate the value and impact of interdisciplinary research, working with partners across Europe, to outline how synergies between research activities from across the network have been translated into concrete achievements, to define excellence in your research field - explain how it can be recognised by stakeholders from your own and other research communities, to show how learning and education in society can benefit from the outcomes of your research, to confirm Kaleidoscope's legacy and how it can continue to contribute to education and learning across Europe and beyond.

The number of spaces available for participants is limited in order to ensure maximum involvement and participation on the part of all those taking part. The organisers of the Kaleidoscope Symposium will select participants on the basis of the registration form which should be completed and submitted to the organisers, please note that registration for this two day event is free. The working language of the conference is English. For more information and registration, please visit the Symposium website.

12. The 34th EUCEN Conference on "The University as a Regional Actor: Partnerships for Professional Development in Europe"

The autumn EUCEN conference 2007 at Hannover will focus on suitable changes of university structures promoting LLL and on output and work related learning content for the promotion of employability. To learn more on registration, registration fee and programme, please visit the conference website.

13. Partner Search for Developing a New E-learning Platform

Talico, an Israeli e-learning company in formal education framework is currently searching for potential European partners for developing a new e-learning platform with FP7 programme funding. Members interested in this initiative are requested to contact: Tali Meir at Talico Resource Development.