EDEN comes of age

Today saw the start of the 20th Annual EDEN (European Distance and E-learning Network) Conference, which is being held on the campus of the University College Dublin. The day dawned bright and sunny, although somewhat cool, and 425 delegates from 40 countries made their way over to the O'Reilly Hall to hear keynote speeches from Sir John Daniel (20 years of Distance Education in the Garden of EDEN: Good News and Bad News) and Dennis Pamlin (Information, Knowledge and Wisdom in the 21st Century) and a special address from the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. Although the first two speakers were excellent, and provided thought provoking, challenging and inspirational value to the conference, it was the speech from Mary McAleese that took many by surprise. I don't know what the delegates expected but I can guess. So many previous politicians who have addressed specialised conferences tend to present in a sanitised style that is polished but devoid of any real substance. This is because their speeches are written for them by functionaries who know very little about the subject they are addressing. But Mary McAleese is different to the average politician. She actually knows her stuff, because unbeknownst to the majority of delegates, she has an impressive academic pedigree, and is an afficionado of digital technologies in learning. I knew this already of course, having witnessed a speech she gave two months ago to a group of ICT professionals in the Dublin Convention Centre. She introduced herself as a 'fading president', but if anything, she sparkled.

For at least 20 minutes, she held her audience spellbound as she recounted a history of learning technology and applauded EDEN for its massive contribution to our understanding of the digital incursions into education through the years. Technology gives education reach, she argued, urging us to drill down deeper into the future to make it a better place for people to learn. We need to open up spaces and possibilities, she said, and this was no pious, political platitude, because she honestly believes that learning should be open and accessible for all. Using technology, she argued, creates flexible learning environments which meet learner needs whatever their space or pace. She left the platform to sustained applause, and made it her business to deviate from her prepared pathway to shake hands with several of the delegates seated to the left of main stage, starting with yours truly. She is a visionary and charismatic in equal measure, and I wonder if the Irish people realise how fortunate they have been over the last few years to have her at the helm, particularly during such a trying economic climate. It was a great manner in which to celebrate EDEN's 20th year, and an excellent and highly appropriate way to kick off the annual conference. NB: Unfortunately there are no photographs available of the Presidential address, because for security reasons, we were not allowed to take pictures. However, you can watch the video on demand of the session by going to the EDEN website

EDEN comes of age by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.