EDEN Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP)

Dear EDEN Member,

1. EDEN Annual Conference on 6-9 June 2012, Porto

The Annual Conference will approach the key questions of learning methodology and technology focusing on the "Open learning generations", the contexts of socially significant target groups: junior and senior e-learners. We will explore their learning cultures, technology use patterns and discuss new approaches in pedagogy and andragogy that respond to them. Call for Contributions Deadlines: Paper Submissions - 10 February, 2012 Registration Open - Mid February Notification of Authors - 31 March For more details about the event visit the Conference website

2. Reflections on the EDEN Open Classroom Conference - 2011, Athens

The recently finished event with over 200 participants has generated considerable interest with a high number of presentations, workshops, demonstrations about the efficient use and best practices of information and communication technologies enhanced learning on school level.

Following the morning sessions with visionary keynotes, interactivity, sharing, presentation of smart and practical hands-ons characterised the well attended sessions. The active involvement of high number of Greek professional community of school teachers was a special asset of the conference. The support of Ellinogermaniki Agogi been essential in the success of the event.

Keynote presentations available online

3. Annual General Meeting, 2011

The minutes of the EDEN AGM is now available on the NAP Members' Area.

4. New Members

EDEN welcomes the following new institutions having joined the Association since October 2011:

• Linnaeus University, Sweden
• Swedish National Police Academy, Sweden
• Alexandra College, Ireland
• Humanitarian Aid Studies Centre - Kalu, Spain
• Center for Creative Training Association, Bulgaria
• Eurasian Open Institute, Russian Federation
• Saint Petersburg University of Management and Economics - NOU VPO, Russian Federation
• Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS, Brazil
• Payame Noor University, Iran
  

You can check their profile at the "New Members" link on the EDEN web.

6. Highlights from EDEN Members and Partners

ACA's Mapping mobility Study is out

More than half of all foreign students worldwide are enrolled in Europe. Over the past nine years, their overall number has risen by over 80%, to more than 1.5 million. The main growth has been with non-European source countries, particularly in Asia. But about one quarter of these students have not been mobile ? they lived already in their country of study, even though they held a foreign passport. And numbers of foreign students differ radically between European destinations. They are very high in Cyprus, the UK, Switzerland and Austria ? but very low in Poland and Slovenia, for example. Outflows are also unevenly distributed ? and go mainly to other European countries. Less than 15% of European study abroad students leave their own continent.

These are some headline findings of the new study Mapping mobility in European higher education, which has now been published electronically by the European Commission, for whom it was produced. It was written by ACA and INCHER (University of Kassel), in cooperation with ACA members DAAD and CampusFrance, as well as HIS (Hannover).

Read the full article at ACA's website.

The study is available on the European Commission's website.

17th International Conference on Technology Supported Learning and Training -"New Learning Cultures"

For EDEN members a special code is provided for registration. The Online registration works as follows: To register for the conference, kindly visit http://www.online-educa.com/fees-and-registration. Please manually type "650" into the field marked "Special Rate" in the "Conference Participation - Payment" section. Please enter the term AC103 in the field "Association Code", which you will find under the "Personal Details" section. The term AC103 in the field "Association Code" will automatically validate the 650 Euro special rate.

Education+, where learning and technology partner for the future, at the Open University of Catalonia

Founded in 1994, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) has since led the way to online learning, making possible to take learning to a higher level, away from the four walls and for a diversity of communities. It is in this realm where the Office of Learning Technologies (OLT) at UOC operates, designing and developing more immersive, open, accessible and engaging learning experiences for its more than 50.000 fully online students. In its latest 2010 Projects Report, the OLT outlines a list of thirty projects, classified according to whether they are related to educational content (eContent), learning spaces (eLearning Spaces), affective computing (Emotions), sense of community (i-Community) or educational technologies. All projects are executed with UOC faculty, as well as in collaboration with other universities and companies from the technological field (i.e., Universidad Carlos III, Serious Games Institute, UC Berkeley and MIT).

1st International Seminar on Higher Education Rankings and E-learning in Barcelona

The event was hosted by the Open University of Catalonia and was held 22-23 September 2011 in Barcelona, Spain. The presentations are now avaiable online from the seminar, which featured a range of international speakers, focusing on topics including new developments in academic rankings, ranking parameters for virtual universities, quality assurance in online education, and benchmarking through rankings.

The Global Learning Trends for 2012

The emergence of informal and mobile learning is the core trend, whilst Josh Bersin (who facilitated the EFMD Future Series Webinar on September 26, 2011) foresees that by 2015 learning will be primarily about leveraging connections. Today?s borderless workplace means that we are working in an interconnected way with needs and expectations from learners that are constantly evolving.

Read more information EFMD website.

EUA launches Autonomy Scorecard report

European University Association has this week published a major new report, which compares university autonomy across 26 European countries. In addition to an in-depth analysis of the current state of institutional autonomy in Europe, the study includes four scorecards which rank and rate higher education systems in four autonomy areas: organisational, financial, staffing and academic autonomy.

Read the "University Autonony in Europe II. - The Scorecard" report here.

Doctoral Scholarships for EU&Non-EU Applicants Available Now

The Globalisation, EU & Multilateralism - GEM PhD School offers up to 10 Erasmus Mundus 3-year long PhD Scholarship funded by the European Commission.

3 specific Jointly Executed Research Projects are proposed:

• MORGANITE (Headed by the IEE-ULB www.iee-ulb.eu): Institution centered research. Focus on regional and global institutionalized multilateral cooperation.
• CITRINE (Headed by the University of Warwick www.warwick.ac.uk): Interest centered research. Focus on interactions between European policy mechanisms and global imperatives.
• AMETRINE (Headed by LUISS www.luiss.edu): Norms centered research.Focus on the normative components of European international politics.
  

Calls for application available online at www.erasmusmundus-gem.eu

Socrates Program Comenius Training Course: Innovative Educational Methodologies for Schools
Reference Number: GR-2012-178-001
Rhodes (GR), 05- 13 July 2012
Organised by University of Aegean

The aim of this teacher training course is for participants to become acquainted with aspects of new methods of teaching. Practices and methodologies will be taught that can give new incentives in everyday class forming the new contemporary educational paradigm. Special emphasis will be given to Information Technology. They also get information and access to materials developed in the framework of MUSE project and the educational materials that are available on the NEMED portal.

The training is aimed at participants receiving a Comenius 2.2 grant by their Socrates National Agency. Please, pay attention to the APPLICATION DEADLINE for Comenius 2.2 Grants 2011-12 which are set by your National Agency.

For further information, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase/index.cfm?fuseaction=DisplayCourse&cid=31481

International Training Centre of the ILO running a residential course

Theme: Introduction to participatory gender auditing for facilitators
Turin, 23-27 January 2012

Read more about the course at: http://gender.itcilo.org or click here
Apply at: http://app-gender.itcilo.org or click here

The deadline to apply is 25 November 2011.

7. Interesting Readings and Events Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Commitee of the Regions - Supporting growth and jobs- an agenda for the modernisation of Europe's higher education systems Social and Economic Conditions of Student Life in Europe Report from EUROSTUDENT IV 2008-2011

• Interview on e-learning with Dr Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google Inc
  by the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education

• Glossary - Quality in Education and Training
  The publication is downloadable from the CEDEFOP website

• The Business of Branding 2011 - An international report on branding, marketing and business school perceptions
  Executive Summary, EFMD

• Learning Bridges ? Toward Participatory Learning Environments
  from HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki

• Lifelong Learning and the Brain: Neuroscience meets Education
  by the CICERO Learning Network and the University of Helsinki

• Canadian Society for Studies in Higher Education (CSSHE) conference, part of the annual national Social Sciences and Humanities Congress
  May 28-30, 2012, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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