Conference Highlights – After Dublin

The 20th Annual EDEN Conference in Dublin was again a great success with 425 delegates from 40 countries from all over the world. The event was rich both in content and in collaboration opportunities. We thank all delegates for their attendance, valuable inputs and contribution to the achievements and nice atmosphere of the conference.  See further information on video recordings of the keynote sessions and downloadable keynote presentations, the Best Paper Award and the EDEN Fellow Awards below.

Plenary Sessions

Mary McAleese, President of Ireland addressed the conference Morten Paulsen EDEN President with keynote speakers Sir John Daniel and Dennis Pamlin

To read the most interesting contributions (PPT) of key presenters, please, visit the Keynotes’ site.

Thanks to IADT and Polycom Inc, the 20th Annual Conference plenary sessions were webcast and recorded:

Monday, 20 June – Plenary Session 1:

Conference Welcome Address
    Morten Flate Paulsen, EDEN President

20 Years of Distance Education in the Garden of EDEN: Good News and Bad News
    Sir John Daniel, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Commonwealth of Learning, Canada

Information, Knowledge and Wisdom in the 21st Century: Transformative Transparency and Mobile Connectivity, Implications when e-Learning Becomes the Main Way of Learning?
    Dennis Pamlin, Director, UN Global Compact, and WWF Consultant, Senior associate at CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Address from Her Excellency Mary McAleese, President of Ireland

Tuesday, 21 June – Plenary Session 2:

Mobile Innovations and Causing Evolution in the Education Ecosystem
    Paul Kim, Stanford University School of Education, United States of America

Technology Trends Driving Learning Opportunities
    Clare Dillon, Microsoft Ireland, Ireland

Context, Authenticity and Learning in the Real World
    Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu (Bridge to Learning), United Kingdom

Wednesday, 22 June – Plenary Session 3:

eLearning and Sustainability: Quality over Quantity?
    Kevin O Rourke, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland

In Headwind and Tailwind – Teaching from Arctic and Antarctica
    Liv Arnesen, Norwegian Refugee Council, Norway

Valuing Learning for All, Everywhere and in Any Mode: A Dream?
    Alfredo Soeiro, University of Porto, Portugal

Best Research Paper Award            

This year two papers were awarded for their outstanding quality at the Conference Dinner:

Student Perceptions and Preferences for Tertiary Online Courses: Does Prior High School Distance Learning Make a Difference?
Dale Kirby, Dennis B. Sharpe, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada & Michael K. Barbour, Wayne State University,  United States of America

Local Support for Online Learners with Possible Learning Disabilities
Torstein Rekkedal, NKI Distance Education and Norwegian School of Information Technology, Norway

Both papers as well as previous years’ Best Research Papers are donwloadable from our Publications’ site.

EDEN Fellow Awards

This year’s Fellow Awards have been announced during the Welcome Reception of the 20th Anniversary Conference. The EDEN President handed over the Fellow Certificates to:

  • Tapio Koskinen, Aalto University Professional Development (Aalto PRO), Finland
  • Natalia Tikhomirova, Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics, Russia
  • Andy diPaolo, Stanford Center for Professional Development, Stanford University, USA
  • Jim Devine, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Ireland
  • Ilaria Mascitti, Consorzio FOR.COM, Italy
  • Rafi Nachmias, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Gallery

A selection of the Conference photos are available here

The pictures of Davide Calenda on the conference at Slideshare can be viewed here.

You are invited to re-visit the conference web and check the conference social web services on Facebook/Twitter/Linkedin which reflects nicely the good atmosphere and interesting moments of the event.

We are looking forward to continue the collaboration with you and meeting at future EDEN conferences again.