Article archive

We have just published the April issue of Media & Learning News, which includes an article about Building Virtual Exhibitions with Video from European Archives, and news from the MEDEA Awards as entries are now welcome until 17 September 2012.

Other highlights are: Research meets schools with CSP@scuola, the call for input to Media & Learning Conference 2012, the MILID Week 23-25 May in Barcelona and an announcement of the Why OER Matters video competition.

This, and plenty of other news, notifications and announcements related to the use of media in education and training, is available for you to read online.

A press release announcing the relaunched website of the Media & Learning Conference 2012 was published this morning. The press release, which you can download online, includes a reminder of the call for contributions closing 1 June 2012 and more information on the conference themes.

So far two pre-conference events have been arranged for conference participants. The first is a half day visit to the Future Classroom Lab in Brussels which is a fully equipped, reconfigurable, teaching and learning space developed by European Schoolnet, its 30 supporting Ministries of Education and leading educational technology providers. The second event is a full day workshop on Lecture Capture which will feature both best practice demonstrations and a supplier round table discussion about future developments and trends.

We have just published a press release to announce the renewed MEDEA Awards 2012 website and this year's closing date: interested participants are invited to submit their entries online before 17 September 2012. The five award categories include special prizes such as one for European Collaboration in the creation of Educational Media 2012 and one for Educational Media Encouraging Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012.

Event organisers that would like to promote the MEDEA Awards can also order a free batch of promotional leaflets available in Bulgarian, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian or Spanish through the MEDEA Awards Secretariat.

This press release is available as a separate download in English, Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish on http://www.medea-awards.com/press-and-publications#press-releases.

ATiT is running its first course for Iraqi civil servants from the Ministry of Culture on social media, journalism and public relations this week in Leuven. 25 trainees are taking part from all over Iraq in this course which has been tailor-made for these trainees who will travel to Belgium in groups of 25 in the coming months.The course involves a mix of talks by experienced practitioners, practical hands-on sessions and visits to various relevant institutions in the area including the European Parliament, Television stations and newspapers.

The purpose of this course is to both raise awareness and skills in relation to how social media can be used to support the work of journalists, public relations staff and spokespeople while at the same time exposing participants to the daily practices, working norms and realities of a variety of professionals working in journalism, communications and public relations in democratic countries. Trainees are expected to put their experience in Belgium into practice in Iraq as part of the ovcerall movement of the government towards a more open and participative state.

These courses are organised by ATiT and the Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe with their partner in Romania, the EU Innovation Center for the Iraqi British Cultural Center Organization located in Baghdad which is part of the Iraq Ministry of Culture. The next group of trainees will travel to Leuven in May.

12 teachers and trainers from Finland, Romania, UK, Ireland and Italy are taking part this week in the March 2012 edition of the training course, "Using Video to Support Lifelong Learning". This week-long residential training course which is managed by ATiT and takes place in Leuven is aimed at educational practitioners who would like to find out more about creating and using video materials to support their work. During the week, participants work in teams to crate their own 3 minute educational video clip which is then presented to an invited audience on Friday 23 March. You can find out more about these courses here.

Articles in this month's multilingual issue announce the launch of EMEDUS Project about Media Education in the EU, the themes and topics of the Media & Learning Conference and include a feature article about using media to support the transition of research to education in higher education. This publication also highlights a new European Project tackling issues to do with digital plagiarism and ethics, a film competition promoting solidarity between generations and showcases Simply Music – ‘Highly Commended’ at the MEDEA Awards 2011. You can find plenty of other interesting news, notifications and announcements related to the use of media in education and training here. This issue is available in English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.

ATiT staff met with Web2LLP project partners last week on 1-2 March 2012 for the Web2LLP Kick-Off Meeting hosted by DICA-lab in one of the campuses of the University of Luxembourg in Luxembourg City.

Web2LLP aims to boost dissemination strategies of LLP projects through providing personalised support and training about integrating social media, as well as through identifying best-practices and sharing resources. Following a pilot training, ATiT will organise a face-to-face training and five two-hour online (videoconferencing) sessions aimed at current and potential LLP project managers in the beginning of 2013. The face-to-face week-long training will be organised in Leuven, Belgium and a grant to cover the full costs of participation including accommodation and flights is available through the Comenius/Grundtvig programme of the European Commission.

ATiT is also responsible for the project dissemination and will publish the project website soon. You can already subscribe to the Twitter Channel and join our Diigo group where we share related resources. Web2LLP is funded with support from the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme.

The February 2012 edition of the Virtual Schools and Colleges Newsletter by the VISCED project was published today. This edition contains a variety of articles and reports related to virtual schools and colleges in Europe and elsewhere, such as current discussions and research into virtual schooling in Finland and the US. It also includes a call for input to study on key technologies that will support educational change, an announcement about the Next Generation Learning Conference 2012 in Sweden and VISCED's published reports such as reports on good practice and teacher training and much more. This newsletter is available online and subscribing is free.

On January 24-26, Mathy Vanbuel from ATiT was part of the team involved in the delivery of the AADLC Workshop on Knowledge Transfer in Change Management, organised by the Kenya Global Development Learning Centre on Behalf of AADLC in Mombasa, Kenya. This workshop focused on deveopments taking place within the AADLC on a number of issues including IT and Learning Design, Business Development and Governance and Marketing Strategy.

A peer learning event organised in the context of the new European Policy Network on School Leadership (EPNoSL) took place on 6-7 February in Munich. This workshop attracted almost 50 participants and included representatives from European education ministries, researchers, agencies active at European level and several head teachers. The purpose of this event was to build and share knowledge in the domain of school leadership. ATiT are a partner in this network and took part to capture several elements of the knowledge sharing and ensuing discussion which will be included in the new EPNoSL portal to be launched later this month.