Productions

The first line-up of keynote speakers for this year’s Media & Learning Conference taking place on 12-13 December has been announced. 

The list includes Film Director Baroness Beeban Kidron who has spent the last 30 years working in feature film, television drama and documentary film and and is co-founder of the education charity FILMCLUB, the largest cultural programme in UK schools, with over 7,000 film clubs engaging over 220,000 children and young people each week.

She will be joined by Prof. Renee Hobbs who is an internationally recognised authority on digital and media literacy education. Renee is Professor and Founding Director of the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island, USA. As the Founder of the Media Education Lab she develops programs that advance media literacy education through scholarship and community service.

Dr. Sian Bayne is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, who's research is focused on the many ways in which the digital changes and challenges education, with a focus on distance education, higher education, MOOCs and museum learning.

The fourth keynote that was announced is Aidan Chambers, well known British author of children's and young-adult novels who has launched his own app TABLET TALES, with which he is beginning to explore the effect on his own work of writing for the iPad.

This conference now in its fourth year is organised by the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training and ATiT and is held in the Ministry Headquarters in Brussels. The main theme for the conference is Media Education and Literacy: Equipping Learners for Open, Creative Learning Futures. This theme is at the heart of what will be a unique conference programme exploring the role of creativity and innovation in education and training against the backdrop of dramatic change in how, where and what learners learn.

Registration for the Media & Learning Conference is now open and the deadline for submission of ideas for the conference is 1 June 2013.You can find out more from the conference website.

Yesterday ATiT published the April Issue of Media & Learning News, which covers news about the Global Forum for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GFPMIL), the VideoMuseums project and Art hopping supported by the Roland Film Collection and ICOM.

Feature articles include 'Collaborative game making: the magical touch' by Jeffrey Earp (ITD-CNR), 'Do-it-yourself video lectures at KU Leuven (2)' by Roman Verraest (KU Leuven) and 'Heads up for Video Editing in the Cloud - part 4' by Mathy Vanbuel, ATiT.

Furthermore, this month's issue also announces the interesting conference themes for the Media & Learning Conference 2013, plus plenty of other news, notifications and announcements related to the use of media in education and training. Read it here now.

Today ATiT published the last issue of this year of the monthly publication Media & Learning News. Highlights in this month's issue include a new publication on teachers’ use of social media networks, news that MEDEA Awards winners were announced in Brussels, and Media & Learning 2013 confirms its 2012 conference dates: 12-13 December!

Feature articles include 'Media literacy: key to coping in today’s media and communications environment' by Brian O'Neill, Dublin Institute of Technology; 'Estonian schools joined together to form a joint lecture capture network around Echo360' by Marko Puusaar, EITF; and 'The experiences of Zaffiria' by Alessandra Falconi, Centro Zaffiria.

Download the pdf now to read these articles and other interested news from the field of media-based learning and media literacy.

Last Friday 30 November 2012 ATiT published the November 2012 edition of the Virtual Schools and Colleges Newsletter with a variety of articles, events and reports related to the use of ICT in secondary and post-secondary education for 14-21 year olds in Europe and elsewhere.

This newsletter is created and published in the framework of the VISCED project which is carrying out a systematic review of virtual schools and colleges at international and national levels including a study into operational examples of fully virtual schools and colleges. 

The VISCED Project partners are organising a webinar to present the main findings of the project on Monday 10 December at 15:00 CET. Join for free here.

The REC:all project management team met in Amsterdam to discuss the progress of the project over the last year. The first draft versions of the pedagogical, technological and legal reports are being discussed in order to present them to the European lecture capture recording community during the first REC:all workshop in Leuven on 13 November 2012.

At the workshop case studies will be presented about different forms of lecture capture use. Amongst the speakers there are Dr Daniel Tan from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Roman Verraest from the KU Leuven, Carlos Turro from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Stuart Phillipson from the Manchester University & Opencast Matterhorn, Marko Pussaar from the Estonian Information Technology College.

After the presentations there will be a Q&A session where you have the opportunity to connect with industry experts on video conference, lecture capture and screencasting. There you can expect: Anton Bollen from TechSmith, Linda Storey from Echo360, Marci Powell from Polycom and Ray Hassell from Mediasite.

In the afternoon everyone is invited to attend a World Café to discuss the main challenges and the issues around the use of lecture capture nowadays. The day will be concluded with a final panel to discuss the main outcomes of the World café.

Where? Teaching and Learning Department, KU Leuven, Kapeldreef 62, 3001 Heverlee (Leuven)

When? 13th November 2012, 9:30 - 16:00

Info: http://www.rec-all.info/events/lecture-capture-workshop-before-media-and-learning

How? For registration (and more info) please send an e-mail to Joasia van Kooten at info@rec-all.info

In this month's issue you will find feature articles on Digital Vertigo: How Today's Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us; and The “POLI” mark: New technologies for university teaching. Also don't miss the news on New MEDEA Association founded; a Webinar on integrating media education schemes and approaches in the classroom; and an announcement that the Digital Learning Congress takes place in Warsaw on 9 November.

Furthermore feature articles question Is there a future for 3D immersive education environments? and discuss Social media networks in schools and in teachers' lives; plus plenty of other news, notifications and announcements related to the use of media in education and training.

The MEDEA Awards 2012: 212 entries from 31 countries, and 95 judges from 29 countries… this is a nice snapshot of the media and learning community. Judges are ploughing through the entries. Looking at games and apps, but also at traditional media such as DVDs or online videos. Are there trends already to be seen? Hard to say when we have not been able to see all entries yet, but in one way it seems that there is somewhat less pure linear content, but that process and context is coming more and more to the front stage. Quality is certainly at least on a par with what we have seen last year, and remarkable is the creative power of many end users who generate their own media materials. One more week of judging to go, and then nominations will be announced. The Awards will be handed out during the Media and Learning Conference at the Ministry of Education in Brussels on 14th of November.