workshop

Course participants from Spain, Romania, Ireland and Italy took part in ATiT's week-long training course on creating and using video to support teaching and learning held 4-9 July in Leuven. Working in groups, they produced a series of 3 minute video clips about the city of Leuven which were presented to an invited audience on Friday 8 July, including the Education Alderman, Mohamed Ridouani.  For more information about these courses visit our website.

Almost 2000 people are taking part in the Digital Agenda Assembly in Brussels organised by the European Commission on 16-17 June. Sally Reynolds from ATiT facilitated the workshop on 'Mainstreaming e-Learning in education and training' which took place on 16 June and which identified successful eLearning policies, drivers, opportunities and expectations.

Outputs from this workshop contribute to a set of priorities and actions encouraging Member States to innovate in their education and training through adopting and integrating e-Learning into teaching and training. They also include recommendations to the Commission on how to support the Member States in this endeavour. This workshop represents the "kick-off" of the Digital Agenda action 68.

On Tuesday 31st of May and Thursday 2 June 2011 the first 2-day MEDEA2020 workshop took place alongside the annual EdTech conference organised by the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA). This conference took place in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).

This workshop on animation took place over 2 days. The first part, aimed at beginners, provided an overview of different animation techniques and included hands-on practice with different tools. Topics covered getting started with animation as a way of engaging learners, different types of animation for example 2D, 3D. The session continued with hands on sessions with different software tools (Flash and Animate) for the creation of animation. Participants carried out the first steps in creating an animated movie, and explored in that way the principles of animation.
Winning examples of animation from the MEDEA Awards were presented by Deborah Arnold from Videoscop Universite Nancy2 (France) and invited guest Yannick Mahé from CNDP (France) who is the director of award winning educational media Evolution of LIfe. Demonstrations and presentations were followed by discussions with all participants.

The second part of the workshop, aimed at more advanced users, took place as part of the EdTech programme on 2 June. On that day, examples and explanations on the use of animation in a pedagogical context were discussed: how was it produced and what is the impact on learning. How can animation motivate and stimulate the learner and aid understanding of complex abstract concepts. Also on the second day, there was a hands on session on the creation of scenarios that continued where the first day ended based on the scenarios created during day 1 from an educational and media production perspective. The workshop showed the participants clearly the first steps in the development of a short animated movie plus discussions.

The tutors on this workshop were Deborah Arnold from Videoscop, France; Yannick Mahé, from CNDP in France, Philip Penny from IADT, Ireland and Mathy Vanbuel, ATiT, Belgium. Altogether 30 participants attended the workshop over part or whole of the two days.

The next MEDEA workshop will take place in Poland in July and will cover the topic of Webinars. More information soon on this site and on the MEDEA Awards site.

Two week-long residential courses combining theory and practice are taking place in Leuven later this year. The first takes place on 4-9 July and the second on 24-29 October. Places are still available for these courses which provide participants with the necessary basic skills to create and share their own educational video materials.

During these courses, participants work in teams to produce their own educational video programme and this process is interchanged with theoretical sessions and visits to ensure a good balance of work. The number of participants is limited to 20 and the course culminates with a public showcase of the videos produced by the different teams to an invited audience.

Find out more from this site which includes information about how you can apply for funding to take part.

The first 'Using Video to Support Lifelong Learning' course was held in the Irish College in Leuven from 14-19 February. 12 participants took part from 9 different European countries. As part of their practical work, course participants created educational video clips in small teams and presented them to an invited audience on Friday 18th Feb which included Renilde Reynders from EPOS, Belgium and Schepen Mohamed Ridouani. The next course takes place from 4-9 July, for more information, go to the video course pages.

A group of teachers from the Italian School, Fondazione Maddalena di Canossa in Bergamo, took part in a two day workshop on the 'Creation and Adaptation of Video Resources for Use in the Classroom' on 1-2 July. This workshop was organised as part of the preparation work for the forthcoming pilot testing of the EduTubePlus platform which begins in September which will involve these Italian teachers as well as teachers in 8 other European countries.

This workshop was organised by Armando Persico and Iolanda Riseri from FMC. Despite the glorious sunshine, the teachers worked hard to create their first educational video clips on the topics of mathematics and organ music which will hopefully be the first of many made by them.

The workshop was given by Anneleen Cosemans and Helena Bijnens on behalf of ATiT.

ENAIP (the Italian National Agency of Vocational Training) organised a week-long workshop in Brussels from 15 to 19 February on managing e-learning projects. Sally Reynolds was a tutor on this course and was responsible for sessions on developing e-learning proposals and e-learning methodologies, tools and services.

The idea behind this course was to provide participants with information on European policies related to e-learning, new methodologies in technology supported learning and good practices on proposal preparation. Particiants came from Italy, Poland and Turkey.

Held in London from 11-13 January right before the BETT show, the 2010 Forum attracted over 1000 leaders from 100 countries including 75 ministers of education. Opened by Prime Minister Gordon Browne, the very high level of political support this event received indicates the importance the United Kingdom places on exporting its know-how and expertise in the technology enhanced learning field.

The Forum provided an interesting mix of highly interactive and engaging sessions along with several thought-provoking key-note presentations including the excellent closing plenary presentation given by Charles Leadbeater. Another highlight was the highly engaging “Be Very Afraid” event organised by Stephen Heppell which provided an excellent showcase of what is possible in schools and universities with students showing and talking about the extraordinary things they are doing with new technologies in their learning.

ATiT staff took part in this prestigious event and were part of the team leading an innovation exchange session entitled "Critical Success Scheme for Step-Change in E-Learning". Materials from this session are available on the popular Re.ViCa Virtual Campus wiki.

Despite the bad weather conditions in northern Europe, ATiT staff are planning to take part in the Learning and Technology World Forum 2010 being held in London 11-13 January.

This will include leading an innovation exchange session entitled "Critical Success Scheme for Step-Change in E-Learning" on Tuesday 12th. This session will be highly interactive and will provide an opportunity to further test the validity of the Critical and Key Success factors for e-learning that were developed during the Re.ViCa project. Participants will also receive a copy of the recently published handbook, "Reviewing the Virtual Campus Phenomenon: The Rise of Large-scale e-Learning Initiatives Worldwide" which provides a wealth of background on the Virtual Campus phenomenon as well as a snapshot of the current status of Virtual Campuses worldwide.