EDEN 2012

Yesterday, the conference opened. Now, we are waiting for the first presentations. The conference hall is amazing.
Morten Flate Paulsen, President of EDEN gives a short introduction to why the theme for the conference has been chosen: "Closing the gap from generation Y to the mature lifelong learners".

Hegyi presents interesting projects:
Portuguese Platform of Age-Friendly Cities - http://europa.eu/ey2012/ey2012main.jsp?catId=975&langId=da&mode=initDetail&initiativeId=9&initLangId=en
Grandparents and grandchilden http://www.geengee.eu/geengee/index.jsp

Bob Fryer presents - how can we make the right changes - illustrated with a project WebWise http://projekte.hs-magdeburg.de/whole/course/view.php?id=97

Joachim Stolter presents profiles of non-traditional students (Open Distance Learners) definede as students studying part-time, distance or parallel with work.  According to Stolter's research, there is a convergence of student profiles between traditional campus-based and open and distance learning students.

"Yesterday's non-traditional studens are tomorrows's lifelong learnger" (Schütze and Slowey, 2002)

Haaga-Helia University of Applied Science uses inquiry based learning. They have a new modern campus which is shared with Laurea University of Applied Science. They have developed a digital tool: Leap-environment. It provides the students with.:

• a platform where students find projects that enhance their studies
• learning projects, thesis, and workplacement
• a tool for project management
• a place where own learning and development can be followed up

For the partners and entrepreneurs the platform is:

• a place for seeking students for new projects
• networking
• possibility to find future employees and a new way of promoting own business
• a tool for following up the development of projects

The teachers use the platform as

• a tool to facilitate teachers' own wokr, supervision of student development
• a system for imrpoving communication between students, lectures, and researcher
• a database

Every student has their own profile so that the entrepreneurs can see the skills of the students.

In Norway, they speak of merging classrooms: doing homework at school and working with the lectures at home.

Perception of progress, is the theme of the third and last presentation.Following examples from other domains are presented:

•  Productivity (RescueTime) http://www.rescuetime.com/
• Running (RunKeeper) http://runkeeper.com/

OpenBadges.org http://openbadges.org/en-US/ - an interesting way of thinking and acting
Check my activities - a tool for the students to check their activity compared with other students and to increase selfawareness about learning http://navigator.nmc.org/project/umbc-check-my-activity-tool-students
Open Learning Initiative, Carnegie Mellon University - the students is guided through the materials and they can predict some of the most common problems https://www.google.dk/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=da&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4SKPT_daDK430DK431&q=Open+Learning+Initiative%2C+Carnegie+Mellon+University

Goal-oriented visualizations - the students' progress is vizualised
Society for Learning Analytics Resarch (SOLAR) http://www.solaresearch.org/ - very interesting

Blackboard also provides a tool for analytics for learn: from the student view
LearnSmart - gamebased strategies can be a strong driver for students http://www.mhhe.com/learnsmart/

Right now, my colleague Anna Maj and I attend a session we have chosen because researchers from South and North Korea should present. However, it was a mistake. It is only a South Korean study based on a Delphy Study of teachers' competencies for the future in South Korean Schools.

Second presentation in the session focuses on professional learning for adult on the move. The project is called: On the move http://move-on.exodussa.com/ecportal.asp?id=32&nt=19&lang=1

The next project focuses on digital literacy in a doctor project about Strategic Project Management Tool- kit for creating Digital Literacy Initiatives (SPreadD) http://www.spread-digital-literacy.eu/index.php?id=1664&L=3

Meishar Tal: Learning with facebook group - points out three functions:

• Repository
• Interaction
• Assessment tools

Differences between facebook and LMSs:

• Ownership
• Entry
• Creation of collaborative knowledge
• Managing cont vs managing interaction
• Like
• Organization of content
• Synctronic interaction

Two different personal learning styles were identified: a proactive style and a reactive style.

Next presentation is also about facebook. FLIP-classes: the lecture is at home and the studywork is at school. A very interesting presentation
Przybylska's roles of the teacher were used as the pedagogical framework.

Higher Order Thinking Strategies in the work with blogs. The students have to train the writing reflecting post. Another great presentation. Thanks

Now, I listen to an interesting doctoral study of a Norwegian (Ole Christian Brudvik)  from NKS Nettstudier based on design-based research. Diigo - a social content network   http://www.diigo.com/ - a small scale research.
When I evaluate todays blogging, I am quite sure you can not talk about Higher Order Thinking Strategies. However, I might sum up later today or when the entire conference is over. I think, it is important to maintain the concrete activities and impressions. So, I did today.

References

Przybylska, I. (2011). Role of Teacher in a Modern World
Schuetze, H. G., and Slowey M. (2002). Participation and Exclusion: A Comparative Analysis of Non-Traditional Students and Lifelong Learners in Higher Education Higher EducationVol. 44, No. 3/4, pp. 309-327.