EDEN 2018 Annual Conference: #EDEN2018
17-20 June 2018, Genova, Italy

Exploring the Micro, Meso and Macro:
Navigating between dimensions in the digital learning landscape

CONFERENCE STRUCTURE, KEYNOTES, EDEN AGM

CONFERENCE HOME | NEWS | KEYNOTES | PROGRAMME| REGISTRATION | VENUE

There has been an impressive response to the Call, showing high level compliance with the theme and concept. The relevance and diversity of submissions is reassuring for a conference rich in content and networking opportunities.

Registration is open!

The EDEN Secretariat is taking care of the registration for the Annual Conference. The registration fee includes access to all conference facilities, the electronic Conference Proceedings, the Welcome Cocktail, lunches and refreshments during the conference days. The fee does not include accommodation and the conference dinner.
 

Preliminary conference structure

The Conference programme includes plenaries, parallel sessions with paper presentations, workshops, trainings, moderated poster and demo sessions and the synergy strand. The event starts on Sunday afternoon on 17 June, with registration, followed by the Welcome Reception and ends with a Farewell Coffee on 20 June.

The preliminary structure can be viewed here.

EDEN 2018 Annual General Meeting in Genova - Pre-Announcement

In 2018, the tradition of organising the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association during the Annual Conference will be continued. The EDEN Executive Committee decided to hold the AGM this year in the afternoon of the “Day 0” of the conference, Sunday 17 June, 16-18 hrs.

EDEN member institution representatives are kindly requested to organise their travels so that they can attend the AGM, thus arriving on Sunday.

This is a pre-announcement of the date of the AGM. The Annual General Meeting will be convened formally with agenda and details of procedures in May.

Get to know some of our keynote speakers

• Alan Tait - Professor Emeritus The Open University, UK

Professor Alan Tait is a former EDEN President and NAP SC Chair, as well as EDEN Senior Fellow. Alan is currently Director, International Development and Teacher Education at The Open University in the United Kingdom.
Prior to his current position, he was Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Editor of the journal Open Learning, joint Series Editor of the Routledge Series Studies in Distance Education and Co-Director of the Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance Learning. Learn more about him.

• Anthony Camilleri - Policy Consultant, Senior Partner&CEO, Knowledge Innovation Centre, Malta

Anthony F. Camilleri is a tertiary education policy consultant. He holds qualifications in law from the University of Malta, and was also active in the Malta national students’ union and the European Students’ Union. He works on topics related to Quality Assurance of Higher and Vocational Education, Social Dimension of Education and Innovation in Education. Currently Anthony is a senior partner at the Knowledge Innovation Centre.

• Maren Deepwell - CEO Association for Learning Technology (ALT) UK and OER18

As chief executive of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), her vision is for Learning Technology to become an effective way for all to learn, teach and assess - informed by open practice, innovative research and global policy.
Maren is particularly interested in innovation, for example having led the launch of ALT’s first MOOC, ocTEL. She was part of the development of the HEFCE-funded Changing the Learning Landscape programme led by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. Learn more about her.

Conference dinner

The Conference Gala Dinner will be held at the world-famous Aquarium of Genova, which is the largest aquarium in Italy and the second largest in Europe.

The aquarium offers spectacular views of the Old Port of Genoa - it is located on the centuries-old wharf of Ponte Spinola. The aquarium was inaugurated in 1992 for the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World. It now houses over 15.000 animals belonging to 400 species.

Call for Contributions closed

The Call for Contributions is closed. In eventual justified cases authors may wish to contact the Conference Secretariat directly by email to check whether their contribution might be accommodated in the evaluation process.

Synergy and Training submission remains open until 30 April 2018.

For more details on the conference, please visit the conference website.

Hosted by the University of Genova

In co-operation with ITD-CNR

In co-operation with EMEM Italia

Save the date: 10th EDEN Research Workshop

The EDEN Research workshop will be held in Barcelona on 24-26 October.

EDEN’s 2018 Workshop theme focuses on the crucial and changing roles of teachers in supporting student learning in the digital world. This includes the creation of enabling conditions that encourage learning personalization, learner agency and self-direction.

Experiences of learner empowerment resulting from balanced “guide on the side” teaching, timely teaching interventions, consistent feedback and feedforward, explicit teaching of learning-to-learn strategies, assessment for learning, and technology-based adaptive teaching will provide a substantive background for reflection and discussion.

The Research Workshop will also feature a PhD Student Symposium. The PhD Student Symposium has been designed to foster the exchange of experiences and knowledge among doctoral students doing research in the area of the event’s theme, “Personalized Guidance and Support for Learning”, while providing a discussion forum for the advancement of doctoral research. More details coming soon.

Education and Culture debate

On March 14 in Brussels in the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, together with Culture Action Europe, the Lifelong Learning Platform and civil society organisations including EDEN carried out a debate about European education and culture. Near 100 stakeholders and high-level policy makers convened at the BOZAR to discuss and explore the potential of diverse learning environments, including how learning mobility can enhance cultural awareness. Keynote panel included the acting Director General of DG EAC, Jens Nymand Christensen, and Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, former Minister of Education, Culture and Research of Luxembourg and UNESCO.

In the break-out session about Digital learning co-organised by EDEN, Executive Committee Member Diana Andone and Secretary General Andras Szucs were speakers.

Diana Andone's intervention in the plenary session

#EDENChat dates

#EDENChat is an online discussion event on Twitter initiated by Steering Committee of the EDEN Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP). It is mediated by members of the NAP community and runs for approximately 1 hour. Anyone can join in and contribute to the discussion which is presented in a Question and Answer format, and focuses on current issues in distance, open and e-learning. All sessions start at 20:00 CEST.

• Enhancing diversity with open badges - hosted by Ilona Buchem (Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany) April 18, 2018
• Student Support and engagement - hosted by Angeles Sanchez-Elvira Paniagua (UNED, Spain) May 9, 2018
• Open Virtual Mobility - hosted by George Ubachs (EADTU) and Ilona Buchem (Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany) May 16, 2018
• MUSACCES a Multidisciplinary Project for the Development of Inclusive Museums Through Innovative Technologies - hosted by Angeles Sanchez-Elvira Paniagua, Covadonga Rodrigo San Juan, Ana Garcia-Serrano, Miguel Angel Marqueta (UNED, Spain) May 30, 2018

Previous #EDENChats are listed on the EDEN website according to topics.

"Blockchain is not a solution to everything"- Interview with Anthony F. Camilleri, keynote speaker of #EDEN2018

In the autumn of 2017, the study "Blockchain in Education" was published, in which Alexander Grech and Anthony F. Camilleri point out potentials and scenarios for the use of blockchain technology in education and formulate recommendations. There is great interest in the subject, as demonstrated by numerous initiatives, start-ups and events. Anthony F. Camilleri reports in the interview on the development process and the feedback on the study, as well as the role of the state in the development of Blockchain. Hochschulforum digitalisierung (HFD) did an interview with him on the subject, read it here.

New Eurydice Publication: Teaching Careers in Europe: Access, Progression and Support

At a time when the importance of teachers is becoming increasingly apparent, what are the main challenges in the teaching profession related to supply and demand? How do education systems address these issues? How does one qualify to be a teacher? What support is available once qualified? What are the career opportunities in this profession? Read the report to discover the answer to these questions and more.

Reshuffles and new appointments is some key Directorates General of the European Commission

In February there have been new appointments in the European Commission. The appointments include Themis Christophidou, as the new Director-General of DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, and Jean-Eric Paquet as the new Director-General of DG Research and Innovation. Read more...

Call for Papers for IEEE TALE 2018
4-7 December 2018, Wollongong, Australia

TALE is the IEEE Education Society's flagship Asia-Pacific (Region 10) conference, catering to researchers and practitioners with an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education - with a particular emphasis on electrical and electronic engineering, telecommunications, computer engineering, computer science and allied disciplines - as well as those interested in the innovative use of digital technologies for learning, teaching and assessment in any discipline.

This year's theme, Engineering Next-Generation Learning, adopts a future-facing perspective in addressing this dual focus. For more details on the conference visit the conference website.

Time for a digital detox?

In this article Peter Thomson points out that our stressful work patterns are not caused by technology but by leaders who have allowed their organisations to develop unhealthy work patterns and are ignoring culture instead of managing it.

Insights from an EFMD corporate member survey

Learning and development specialists suggest that the learning function is purposefully evolving from a learning provider to a learning enabler. Read the report by Martin Moehrle.

2018 Workplace Learning Report: The Rise and Responsibility of Talent Development in the New Labor Market

Is your organization doing the most it can to bridge skill gaps and keep employees engaged? LinkedIn surveyed approximately 4,000 professionals with the goal of providing a holistic view of modern workplace learning. Read this report to learn more about the most current trends in learning and development in the workplace.