This regular column offers reviews of world-wide distance education developments. It provides reports of international conferences and workshops, news of innovations in technology, and reviews of events, people, and institutions connected with open and distance learning practice and theory. The world is a big place, and the success of this column will depend upon your input, wherever in the world you may be reading this journal. Your news, conference reports, and reviews of international events will be considered for inclusion in future issues of this journal. Please e-mail your contributions to: swheeler@plymouth.ac.uk
Germany is one of the largest and most prosperous of European countries, and is in the process of restructuring, following its reunification a decade ago. The new capital city, Berlin, has for the past six years been the regular host of one of the most significant annual European conferences on technology-supported learning: On-Line Educa. Previous Educa conferences have provided thought-provoking and challenging forums for debate about the future of flexible, open, and distance education and electronic delivery of learning. Educa, like many international conferences, also provides excellent opportunities for delegates to network, share ideas, and plan collaboration. The 1999 conference was previously reported in this column, where over 800 delegates attended. In this issue of the Quarterly Review of Distance Education, Sally Reynolds, one of our editorial board, and also a founder of On-Line Educa, provides a brief report on the Millennium conference.
Conference Report
On-Line Educa Berlin, November 2000
Over than 1200 people from more than 60 countries attended Online Educa this year, making it one of the most important events in the international e-Learning calendar. Online Educa 2000 began on Thursday, November 30, with the official opening by Berlin Senator Christoph Stölzl who spoke about the changing face of Berlin, not least with regard to the opportunities and developments taking place in the field of learning. Berlin is embracing the opportunities offered by a speedy adoption of information and communications technologies at all levels of education and training in the region.
Stölzl spoke about the levels of private and public resources being put into these activities and praised the organizers of Online Educa for holding such an important event in the city of Berlin. Keynote presentations then followed from State Secretary Uwe Thomas; Mike Couzens, vice-president of marketing and training for EMEA CISCO; and Michael Foley, of the World Bank’s Global Development Learning Network in Washington D.C. Each spoke about technology-enhanced learning from different perspectives. Thomas outlined the situation particularly with regard to higher education in the Federal Republic of Germany, while Couzens focused on the job crisis worldwide as a way of underlining the need for new approaches to learning at all levels of society. Foley spoke about the emphasis placed upon e-Learning by the World Bank in its drive towards improving the economic viability of developing countries.
The agenda for the conference was divided into various parallel presentation sessions and panel discussions focusing on a wide range of topics covering content development and delivery in all sectors of education and training, from primary and compulsory school level to company and lifelong learning initiatives. The agenda included more than 200 speakers, panelists, and chair people from 32 different countries and provoked much discussion, net-working, and dialogue amongst participants. A plenary session on Friday morning focused on large-scale initiatives and featured input from leading experts in Europe and Australia.
On the day before the conference began, 11 different workshops took place, and many of these were fully booked long before the conference began. These included a visit to the Technical University in Berlin where many of the city’s leading multimedia and telecommunications were presented. A very well-attended “Introduction to e-Learning” workshop was led by Lisa Neal of EDS in the USA. This session covered the planning, design and implementation of distance learning programs. Other workshops focused on topics like Designing Learning Portals, The CDG/DSE Global Campus 21, Developments in Central and Eastern Europe, Designing and Developing Multimedia Programs for Language Learning, e-Moderating, the Educational Markup Language (EML) developed by the Open University in the Netherlands, Standards and Standardization, and Quality Management.
This year’s conference also featured an important exhibition where more than 40 exhibitors presented many of the leading products and services in the field.
On-Line Educa is already planning an event for 2001, to take place in Berlin from November 28-30 at the Hotel InterContinental. Booking details, travel, accommodation arrangements, and instructions for the submission of papers and workshops can be found on the conference Website at: http://www.online-educa.com
