Live blogging

We have had a very interesting Day 1 here at the 19th EDEN Conference. We have all had a lot of fun, enjoyed some interesting and thought provoking sessions, and a lot of time has been spent networking with new colleagues and old, throughout a day when the sun has shone, and new light has been thrown on our collective understanding of distance education and e-learning. EDEN is that kind of event, where anyone from any country, whether knowledgeable or novice, can get together and share ideas in a non-threatening and very relaxed manner. Today we did exactly that around white clad tables in the middle of a long marquee, just outside the conference venue. On the menu were many varieties of canapes, and finger buffet items, as well as the excellent Valencia paella, which is a rich golden colour and contains large prawns and/or chicken. I could really get used to this, you know...

Someone complained that when they got to the marquee, all the paella was gone. I know. I ate it. Not all of it you understand, but you know what they say - the early bird catches the worm (er, I'm not for one minute suggesting there may have been vermiform creatures in the paella - it's just a figure of speech). By the way, the image above is one taken of me while I was deeply absorbed in live blogging during one of the keynote speeches this morning. I had to sit near the front of the stage to recharge my laptop batteries at one point. Next to me is an Elluminate team member who is live streaming the event.

The day started off when I encountered one George Siemens following me up the pathway across the extremely large and extensive campus that is our host institution here in Valencia. He had spotted my EDEN Conference bag and asked if we knew the way to the venue. Follow me, I said and I'll take you there. Then we each realised who the other was. I enjoyed several conversations with him today. It was a priviledge to talk to George and to many other hugely knowledgeable and influential members of the worldwide e-learning community. I met Martin Bean (Vice Chancellor of the Open University), after Alan Tait had introduced us. He remembered me from a chance meeting we had at ALT-C in Manchester last year. He must meet hundreds of people, but Mr Bean (I'm sorry I can't resist) has that kind of mind - he remembers everyone.

I also met several old friends I had never met face to face before. I know them all from Twitter of course. Ricardo Torres Kompen (Spain) and Sebastien Fiedler (Germany) are just two. There are so many others just too numerous to mention here. We've had some engaging conversations today. There have been thought provoking presentations. There have been some Aha! moments of enlightenment. Marci Powell gave us one soundbite to remember when she said we should be preparing students for their future, not giving them our past. Another memorable quote was from Martin Bean who remarked that our collective challenge must be to now transform information into meaningful knowledge. He also argued that we do not have enough resources to construct enough school and university buildings to satisfy all the demands for education. Technology supported distance education he claimed, was the way forward. It was exactly what the audience of 400+ delegates had come to hear.

Then George Siemens took the stage and gave us a breakneck speed tour of his connectivist ideas and how we might transform education into something that would influence the lives of students positively. He made some bold but much needed statements about conventional course provision, and its failure to tap into the needs of a new generation of learners who are firmly located within a world of digital media. It's not about knowledge acquisition anymore, he said, it's now about making useful connections - and that is the future of education.

Tomorrow now beckons, with more keynote speeches, dozens of workshops, poster sessions and paper presentations. Day 2 will be capped off with the Conference Dinner, where we will no doubt once again each connect with new and interesting colleagues whom we may well forge long lasting working relationships with. Here's to networking!

Image credit: Eva Suba

Live blogging by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 International License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

No-one is anonymous

I forget sometimes just how connected we all are. At today's ALT-C plenary Martin Bean took a question from the floor after ending his superb keynote speech. The delegate said his name and then asked his question. While Martin Bean answered, I noticed one or two people in the auditorium checking out the questioner's website to see who he was and what his research profile was. I wonder how many more times that's been done during this conference? People are surrepticiously checking each other out all the time here it seems, using their iPhones, laptops, searching on Google, and so on. It will be QR tags and facial recognition software next. No-one is anonymous anymore.

I thought that Martin Bean nailed it on the question of how we can engage our learners. He told the story of a 14 year old boy who was heard to remark that going to school was like getting on a plane. 'You sit in rows, place your trust in someone you don't know, and you have to turn off all electronic devices,' he said. It raised one of the biggest laughs of Martin's talk, but there was also a very serious underlying message. Why should we cut young people off from their connections just when they need them the most? In many cases, formal education simply does not offer enough encouragement for flexible learning through technology.

Bean talked about massification, privatisation and other moves to bring education to the masses. One of the questions from the floor was whether massification ran counter to personalisation of learning, but Bean believes that the two are not contradictory. Massification brings learning to populations who were previously disenfrachised, whilst the personal element can still be achieved through innovative use of Web 2.0 technologies. He clearly sees e-learning as a major component in the future success of higher education, and advocates using any tools that have a cultural relevance for youth. He's not afraid to criticise government attempts to jump onto the bandwagon either, and thinks that there are smarter people outside government than are inside it.

I think Martin Bean will be a good Vice-Chancellor of the Open University when he assumes his post in a few weeks. He is following in some illustrious footsteps, but I don't think he will disappoint. He is not so much Mr Bean, more like Martin the Magnificent.