ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2009

These workshops, that participants have to register for separately, will take place on Tuesday, December 1st and Wednesday, December 2nd prior to the main conference, offering participants the opportunity to gain practical knowledge and insight from leading experts in a variety of specialised fields. These can be either half- or full-day workshops. As the emphasis is on activity and interaction, the number of participants is limited and workshops selected normally target a maximum of 30 participants.

These seminars, that participants have to register for separately, will take place on Tuesday, December 1st and Wednesday, December 2nd prior to the main conference and are typically knowledge sharing sessions focused on a specific topic. They provide in-depth insight into a particular project or set of projects, an initiative or development in the field of e-learning or an emerging issue being faced by the e-learning community. The emphasis is on the exchange of information and knowledge dissemination; the number of participants can vary from 20 to 150 depending on the topic.

These meetings are targeted to a specific set of participants and will take place on Tuesday, December 1st and Wednesday, December 2nd. They are essentially private and are not necessarily announced on the conference website or in brochures. Such meetings include consortium meetings for European projects and can be arranged for groups of 10 to 150 participants.

We will include presentations in sessions dedicated to the specific themes of ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2009 which will feature a description of a particular experience or activity or alternatively an approach, an opinion or a view of a particular topic. Please note that time will be dedicated during all presentation sessions for audience interaction.

These are real ‘show and tell’ sessions which will include examples of pre-market tools, applications, services and courses that are likely to interest ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN participants. The format for these showcase sessions is highly interactive. Those selected will be allocated a table space where they set up their demonstration. Before the conference, those showcasing will be invited to provide a short text describing the tool, application or course they are going to show, which will be published in the conference programme. Participants attending these sessions will be free to move around the room to find out more about the showcases that interest them most on an informal, one-on-one basis. These sessions will last about three hours each and will involve a significant number of demonstrations. They will take place in an area that resembles a large open market of e-learning products, services and tools and are designed to highlight innovation, excellence and future developments.

ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2009 will feature plenty of discussion and debate opportunities designed to actively involve participants. A number of open discussions will be featured where a single topic will be debated and discussed amongst those taking part in a very informal, but we hope stimulating, manner.

Sometimes called 'Cracker Barrel' sessions, these are 60-minute long sessions where the emphasis is on the exchange of knowledge and networking. They are intended to be informal and informative where participants will introduce themselves and then move on to discuss the topic under discussion. It is an opportunity to share knowledge and ideas about specific projects, to find others who share your interests, to share new ideas or future visions, to pose a question in order to encourage discussion or to look for help with a specific problem. These sessions will be held in relatively small conference spaces and access will be limited to promote discussion.

The purpose of these sessions is to share information and to build on existing knowledge. The format for these sessions will be that after introductions to the themes under discussion, small groups of participants will each discuss a single theme around a round table with a table moderator for about 15 minutes. The table moderator will record the main points raised and issues discussed. The groups of participants will then change tables and the table moderator for each table will introduce the issue summarising the points made by the previous group to the new group who will then continue the discussion and so add to the content of the dialogue. After several rounds of discussions, the main points related to each issue discussed are then presented to the whole group for discussion in the final part of the Learning Café.

These sessions mix expert presentations with small group discussions and will typically focus on a single topic. The proposed format for these sessions, lasting between one and three hours, is for them to be led by one or two people expert or highly experienced in a topic relevant to the conference themes. Participants in these sessions will engage in several small round-table discussions, then report back main findings, conclusions or recommendations to the larger group as appropriate to the topic. The main purpose of these sessions will be to encourage participants to voice their own opinion and viewpoint on the specific topic.

These are 90 to 120-minute long sessions, in a room equipped with 20 computers and a local area network, allowing participants to take part in real hands-on training of different types of tools and applications. Participants will be invited to sign-up for these sessions beforehand on a first-come first-served basis. Those responsible for running these sessions will provide all necessary software and support materials for the participants.