innovation
ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2013: Call for Proposals now open
What role does technology play in promoting creativity and innovation? How is the world of learning changing, and how can technology help us change the world? Proposals are now being accepted for this year's Online Educa Berlin 2013, which will focus on these questions.
Proposals are being accepted from now until June 3 for Online Educa Berlin 2013, to be held December 4-6 in Berlin. This year's event will encompass:
eLearning Papers Call for Papers on Changing schools and creative classrooms: 21st century teachers and their new roles
eLearning Papers seeks submissions for the issue 30 Changing schools and creative classrooms: 21st century teachers and their new roles. This issue explores the new role of teachers in 21st century learning contexts, focusing on the challenges they face and the changes in teaching practice caused by the rapid spread of educational technologies and the evolution towards creative classrooms and open educational resources. Deadline: 10 August 2012.
We are interested in contributions that address: national policies, methodologies, new tools and resources, the teacher-student relationship or class organization, among others. Guest editors: Hans Laugesen, GL - the National Union of Upper Secondary School Teachers. Jim Devine, JD Policy, Projects Innovation, EDEN Fellow (and former President, IADT, Dublin)
Click here to read the complete Call for Papers
Report on good practice innovative applications of learning theories in Technology Enhanced Learning
The HoTEL Support Action aims to contribute to more effective, holistic and faster innovation cycles in European Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), focusing on the design, testing and validation of a new innovation working method.
Survey shows that social media has graduated to academia
The 2012 ETNA (Enhanced Training Needs Analysis) survey, carried out by the Jisc Regional Support Centre (RSC), shows that social media, and particularly YouTube, has firmly entered the learning environment as teaching and learning tools, with its use growing significantly year on year.
Presented at the Jisc RSC Scotland Annual Conference on 7 June, this new survey reveals that nearly three quarters of academics in further education agree that social media tools enhance the quality of the learning experience. YouTube is by far the most popular tool, while Facebook and particularly Twitter, lag well behind. However, the survey also identifies a strong need for staff training in the use of social media.
The 2012 ETNA survey is the fifth of its kind in Scotland, with ETNA surveys having been carried out for more than a decade across Scottish colleges, analysing technology in further education and able to show trends over time. In 2012, 1,700 staff took part, including more than 700 academics across 40 of the 43 colleges.
Together with responses from admin and support staff, managers, learning resource staff, learning technologists, and technical and network staff, this report provides a comprehensive picture of technology in the learning landscape.
Of those surveyed:
- Academic staff seemed most in favour of social media: 70% agreed that its use enhances the -quality of the learning experience and 69% agreed that students were at ease using it
- Some academic staff felt that social media is a distraction to learning
- Around half of all middle managers said their department uses social media tools for learning and teaching
- Fewer than 10% of staff in any category, however, had received training in social media
- More than a third of staff identified a need for staff training.
Of the media channels:
- Other media lagged far behind, with Facebook used by only 15% of academic staff and Twitter used by just 3%
- Blogs and wikis sat just behind Facebook at 14% and 13% of academic staff
- Emerging platforms such as Pinterest and Flipboard were used by just 1% of academics and not at all by managers
- Facebook was more popular among admin and support staff, learning resource staff and learning technologists than it was among academic staff
- All social media access was still completely blocked by a significant minority of colleges.
Open Praxis volume 5 issue 2
Open Praxis is an online magazine published by the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) which aims to be an open forum for global collaboration and discussion of issues in the practice of distance and e-learning, focusing on research and innovation on open education and learning.
Volume 5, No 2 of Open Praxis, published in June 2013, includes the following articles:
- The use and production of OER & OCW in teaching in South African higher education institutions (Case Study), by Igor Lesko
- Pedagogical quality enrichment in OER based courseware: Guiding principles, by Pradeep Kumar Misra
- The Openness of the University of the Philippines Open University: Issues and Prospects, by Maria Fe Villamejor-Mendoza
- From resistance to acceptance and use of technology in academia, by Sofia Matrosova Khalil
- Comparing communities of inquiry of Portuguese higher education students: one for all or one for each?, by Jose António Moreira, António Gomes Ferreira, Ana Cristina Almeida
- Networked curricula: fostering transnational partnership in open and distance learning, by María Luz Cacheiro-González, Patricia Mata-Benito, George Ubachs
- Review of A-VIEW 3.5 software, by Mandar Lakshmikant Bhanushe
LINQ 2013 Attracts 200 Professionals from Fields of Open Education, Learning Technology, and Quality Management to Rome
2nd International Conference on “Learning Innovations and Quality: The Future of Digital Resources” (LINQ 2013) Concludes Successfully.
More than 200 attendees from four continents and over 30 different countries contributed to a vibrant conference dialogue at LINQ 2013 carried out over May 16th and 17th. LINQ 2013 participants gathered at the global headquarters of the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy to discuss the future of international learning innovations and quality. Keynote speeches by prominent experts in the fields of educational innovation and representatives of the European Commission, UNESCO, and CEDEFOP complemented a great variety of on-going research projects and state-of-the-art papers presented during the conference. In his introductory speech, the LINQ Conference Chair Christian M. Stracke pointed out the need for bridging learning innovations and learning quality, which is the core objective of LINQ. The success of LINQ 2013 has inspired conference organizers from the University of Duisburg-Essen to begin preparations for LINQ 2014, expected to take place on the island of Crete next May.
Highlights from the LINQ 2013 Plenum on May 16th include elaboration by António Silva Mendes, Director of the European Commission and Coordinator of the European Union’s Lifelong Learning Programme on the importance of quality improvement in learning outcomes. Silva Mendes asserted the efficacy of learning programmes in promoting employment chances, the role the EU can play in supporting member states transfer successful schemes to other members, and the importance of developing benchmarking activities to monitor said schemes’ success in new contexts. Tony Bates of Tony Bates Associates provided LINQ 2013 with an analysis of the most recent forms of open education, concluding that open access education must be accompanied by quality assessment to ensure its value for learners. UNESCO OER Chairs Rory McGreal (University of Athabasca) and Fred Mulder (Open University of the Netherlands) emphasized the advantages Open Educational Resources (OER) have provided to contemporary learners – Rory McGreal underlined the need for free education and open mobile access, whereas Fred Mulder explained the broad, multifaceted meaning of open education, including demand-side arguments for opening up education.
Further keynote speakers included the expert and inventor of the term “e-learning” Jay Cross of the Internet Time Alliance, who focused on the need for integrating learning into work and the value of happiness for learning. Christian-Friedrich Lettmayr, Director of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) presented current trends in vocational training in Europe. Ignasi Labastida, board member of the OCW Consortium and Creative Commons, explained the value and benefits of open licenses and pled for an opening and sharing of educational resources. Miguel-Angel Sicilia of the University of Alcalá expounded on linked open data and its connections to the evolution of the semantic web, exemplifying this “web of linked learning” through the Virtual Open Access Repository VOA3R (www.voa3r.eu). Finally, Christian M. Stracke introduced the International Association ICORE for Open Research and Open Education and the results of its first meeting on the day before LINQ 2013.
On May 17th four parallel sessions gave invited speakers, research projects, and paper authors thematic space in which to present their work. More information about LINQ can be found online at the official LINQ website at www.learning-innovations.eu, including videos of the complete conference, the conference proceedings, and information about future events. For the most up-to-date news on the results of LINQ 2013 as well as LINQ 2014, including new opportunities for participation, please follow @LINQ_Conference on Twitter and like www.facebook.com/LINQConference on Facebook.
About the 2nd European Conference on
Learning Innovations and Quality:
“The Future of Digital Resources”
The main goal of LINQ 2013 was to bring together a variety of academics and professionals in active in the field of Innovations and Quality in Lifelong Learning (LLL) for an innovative exchange of the latest developments in education and training innovations and quality on both a European and international level. Potential points of access to this field included new learning methods and design, Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), quality standards and certification, human resources development, competences and skills, digital resources, learning materials, and online collaboration and communities.
LINQ 2013 attracted submissions from throughout Europe, as well as Asia, America, and Africa. More than 150 researchers and practitioners answered the LINQ 2013 call for papers and projects. This year thus showed a continuation in the high level of interest which made LINQ 2012 such a successful conference in Brussels last year. The Global Headquarters of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy provided an ideal location for LINQ 2013. The first day of the conference began with a plenary which included remarks from prominent keynote speakers. The second day was divided into four parallel sessions, allowing the chosen project and paper submitters to present their work.
More information about LINQ online:
Open Innovation 2.0 – A New Paradigm
Marking the successful conclusion of the Open Innovation 2.0 Conference held in Dublin on 20-21 May 2013, the EU Open Innovation Strategy and Policy Group (OISPG) have released the paper entitled “Open Innovation 2.0 – A New Paradigm”, which outlines the key emerging characteristics and practices of Open Innovation 2.0 (OI2) and how it can practically help address key European challenges.
The OI2 paper and the Dublin Innovation Declaration were the key outputs from the Open Innovation 2.0 Conference in Dublin. The paper outlines key emerging characteristics of the new Open Innovation 2.0 paradigm, whilst the Declaration outlines 10 key actions to advance progress in the EU towards achieving the Europe 2020 goals of smart, inclusive and sustainable growth.