Media & Learning Brussels 2011 - Programme Available

The conference programme is now available online (http://www.media-andlearning.eu/programme). Keynote speakers include Flemish Minister for Education and Training Pascal Smet and Belgian child psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens who argues that creative education is essential for the development of the brain and personality of children. Giving an insight into future developments will be Richard Harper, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK and Conor Galvin, from UCD in Ireland who has a keen interest in the impact of new and emergent technology on learning and society. Nikos Theodosakis, Canadian author of “The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking Inspires Learning" will be joined by Pere Arcas, Head of the department of learning programmes and projects at Television of Catalonia in Spain. Donald Clark, e-learning advisor and sometimes controversial commentator will present his ideas about using media to support learning along with Lizbeth Goodman, Director and Founder of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and MAGIC Multimedia and Games Innovation Centre in Ireland.

The programme for the conference includes screening sessions showing excellent examples of media use in education and training from organisations like Thomson Reuters in the UK, TV.Klasse in Belgium and FWU, the Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education in Germany as well as the finalists in the MEDEA Awards 2011.

Media & Learning Circles are discussion sessions that will begin online before the conference, form part of the programme in Brussels and will continue online for several weeks after the conference. This year the discussion topics are:

• What is the best business model for a learning game?
• Can media make a difference in supporting early and special needs education?
• Re-imagining sacred cows: what are the implications of social networking on media and learning?
• What impact does the move from a literacy culture to a media culture have on learning?
• What is the best way to create sustainable, media-rich learning repositories?

Practical workshop topics include schemes that involve students training teachers in setting up and using social media tools and services, run by Bart Verswijvel from TeacherAid, identifying and using video content from YouTube for learning purposes by Paul Ashton from Times Educational Services, and designing and delivering media literacy campaigns by Paul Bottelberghs from Platform for mediawisdom, Belgium.

Presenters will include Daniel Tan Tiong Hok from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore presenting recent developments in lecture recording, Elke Schlote, from Bayerischen Rundfunk in Germany on the current status of educational TV and Mike O’Donoghue from the University of Harnessing the power of Media to support Learning 24 - 25 November 2011 Flemish Ministry of Education Headquarters, Brussels Media & Learning 2011 - Flemish Ministry of Education and Training Headquarters, Brussels – 24 & 25 November 2011 Conference organiser: ATiT, Leuvensesteenweg 132, 3370 Roosbeek, Belgium Manchester in the UK describing how best to design video for teaching and learning. Catharina Bucht from the International Clearinghouse for Children, Youth and Media in Sweden will describe young people in the digital media culture and the need for media literacy while Richard Holliman from the Open University in the UK will talk about teaching media literacy for science communication.

Conference participants are invited to come and play with different devices and software at Media & Learning 2011 in a dedicated Play Area in the dining and networking space where they can try out and use different devices and applications. Companies showing devices, apps and applications for participants to try out in this area include Adobe, Microsoft and Apple. There will also be a quiz on IPR where you can test your knowledge of how copyright operates in the learning sphere.

The MEDEA Awards Ceremony takes place alongside the conference on Thursday 24 November and participants are welcome to join this event where the overall winners of this year’s competition will be announced.

Interaction and exchange are central to what the Media & Learning Conference is about. You can join the online conference community to share knowledge and experience before, during and after the conference and also join the active Media & Learning groups in Facebook and LinkedIn. We also provide Pigeon, the SMS messaging service, during the conference which ensures you can easily get in touch with other participants during the conference without revealing your mobile number.

Registration is now open and includes an opportunity to register for free by taking advantage of the Media & Learning recommendation offer, get a refund on your registration fee by having your friends and colleagues register with your registration code – if 4 or more do this, you attend for free!