agenda design

The winner of the MEDEA Award for professionally produced educational media is the Belgian entry Monkey Tales Games and the winner of the MEDEA User-Generated Award 2011 is the Austrian game The Merchant of Venice. Both winners were announced during the MEDEA Awards Ceremony which took place on 24 November 2011 as part of the Media & Learning Conference in the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training in Brussels.

The European Collaboration Award 2011 was awarded to The European Chain Reaction by Qworzó Primary School (Belgium) and this year’s special Award recognising excellence in the use of media to support volunteering was awarded to Changing Lives by Drogheda Special Olympics Club (Ireland).

A further prize for the audience favourite which was voted on during the MEDEA Awards Ceremony was given to Monkey Tales Games. You can read more about the awards and the winners, finalists and those which were highly commended by the 75-person strong judging panel on the MEDEA Awards website. The closing date for receipt of entries for MEDEA Awards 2012 is 17 September 2012.

Over 220 people from 31 countries are taking part this week in the Media & Learning conference organised in collaboration with the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training. This conference combines presentations, discussions, demonstrations and workshops and includes the MEDEA Awards Ceremony where the winners of this year's MEDEA competition will be announced.

Online discussions have already started and are open to the public and you can follow many of the presentation sessions live online from 09.30 on Thursday 25 November until 17.00 on Friday 26 November. Conference themes include the role media can play in supporting learning at all levels, media literacy and the use of media-based learning resources.

People who have registered are already using the online conference community to extend their network and to manage their participation in this event and its related community of practice.

1449 Participants from 83 countries – almost 80% of whom were African - took part in the 3rd eLearning Africa Conference which took place in the Accra International Conference Centre from 28-30 May. Wednesday 28th of May saw a well attended pre-conference programme with many workshops and sessions, the conference exhibition also opened on Wednesday and attracted lots of visitors.

On Thursday, May 29th the event was officially opened by His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahama, the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana. Speakers in the Opening Plenary included The Hon Prof Dominic K. Fobih, Minister for Education, Science and Sports, Ghana and Prof Osei Darkwa, Ghana Telecom University College, Ghana, who talked about “eLearning, the New Educational Paradigm, and the Promise of Open and Distance Learning”. George Siemens, Lecturer at University of Manitoba Learning Technologies Centre, Canada, who is one of the most innovative thinkers in the field of eLearning presented his thoughts on “A Narrative of Learning for a World Without Boundaries”; Aida Opoku-Mensah, Director ICT, Science and Technology Division with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Ethiopia, gave a very interesting presentation about the UN-led practical strategies and programmes that will help lead Africa towards the realisation of digital inclusion: “Creating the Enabling Environment for eLearning in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities”; finally Kuno Jung, CEO of the Swiss eLearning technology provider Eduvision, outlined the educational vision of his company: “The Lost Footage of Back to the Future Part II: The Classrooms in 2015”.

Thursday's Opening Plenary marked the kick-off for two more days of sessions, discussions and debates around ICT-supported education and training in Africa. 315 speakers and chairpersons from 54 countries offered an abundance of opportunities for participants to learn, share and network with colleagues from all over the world. With 4 plenary sessions, 66 sessions in 11 parallel conference strands, 48 demonstrations and best practice examples, 15 Nnobia networking sessions, 14 pre-conference events and a number of exciting new features, eLearning Africa 2008 was an important landmark in pan-African capacity building for ICT-enhanced education and training.

See the conference website for more information: www.elearning-africa.com

ATiT staff recently supported the 2nd African ICT Best Practices Forum held in Ouagadougou,Burkina Faso from 21-23 April. The objective of the event, which took place over 3 days, was to provide a practical way for government officials from across Africa to share their own specific experiences and demonstrate practical examples of successful technology solutions in their respective countries, ultimately to replicate them elsewhere. This Forum attracted about 320 delegates from 39 countries represented, for more information, visit the Forum web site at http://www.africanictbestpractices.net

One of the highlights of Online Educa Berlin this year was the lively and somewhat controversial discussion that took place on Thursday 29th November between Andrew Keen and Prof. Sugata Mitra, chaired by Harold Elletson. Sugata's belief borne out through his extensive and very moving experiments in India that children with absolutely no prior knowledge of computers can make terrific strides in a short time with no support sent a very positive message to the more than 2100 people attending OEB this year. Meanwhile, Andrew set a lively debate in motion about a variety of ethical issues related to Web 2.0 and generated significant discussion and often very heated opposition.

On 27 November 2007, over 240 delegates gathered at Berlin's Technische Universitat (Technical University) for a an awards ceremony preceded by a keynote speech from Kaleidoscope's Scientific Manager, Sten Ludvigsen. The awards ceremony concluded the first day of the Kaleidoscope Symposium, a two day celebration, reflection and exploration of the major achievements of the Kaleidoscope project over four years.

All roads lead to Berlin on Wednesday 28th November for the annual Online Educa Berlin conference. With a packed agenda including several new elements, OEB07 looks set to break all previous records in terms of quality and participation. Poised to attract more than 2000 participants from 92 countries, its a good opportunity for us in ATiT to get togeher with old friends as well as meeting new people. Looking forward to seeing you there!

eLearning Africa 2008, takes place from May 28 to 30, 2008 in Accra, Ghana. This will be the 3rd International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, following highly successful conferences in Ethiopia (2006) and Kenya (2007). The deadline for receipt of proposals to actively play a role in the conference agenda is Friday, December 7, 2007. For more information, visit the conference web site http://www.elearning-africa.com/index.php

Synergy, Excellence, Value, Impact and Continuity…
Kaleidoscope, the EU Network of Excellence which brings together European teams in technology-enhanced learning, is organising a symposium on November 26 – 27, 2007 in the InterContinental in Berlin.
The registration for this high profile event is now open for non-Kaleidoscope members.

Online Educa Berlin, which will be held this year from the 29th of November to the 1st of December welcomes all proposals, suggestions and ideas for the conference agenda which are related to the main conference themes. The closing date for submission is the 29th of April 2006. Please check the Online Educa website for the submission guidelines and conference themes.