Refugees Welcome - Digital Information and Education Infrastructures (invitation only)

Michael Teutsch is Head of Unit for country analysis in the European Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture. His activities include the analysis of national education systems and policies in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs and the European Semester promoting structural reforms in EU Member States. His unit also supports the development and implementation of EU and national policies through peer-learning between countries, making best use of EU cohesion policy and funds in the area of education, and country specific analysis on issues related to school and early childhood education, higher education, migration, and innovation in education.

Links

http://ec.europa.euhttp://ec.europa.eu/staffdir/plsql/gsys…

Ian Goldin is Professor of Globalisation and Development and Director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford.

Ian Goldin was Vice President of the World Bank (2003-2006) and prior to that the Bank's Director of Development Policy (2001-2003). From 1996 to 2001 he was Chief Executive and Managing Director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and served as an advisor to President Nelson Mandela. Previously, Goldin was Principal Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, and Program Director at the OECD Development Centre in Paris, where he directed the Programs on Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development.

He has a BA (Hons) and a BSc from the University of Cape Town, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MA and Doctorate from the University of Oxford.

Goldin has received wide recognition for his contributions to development and research, including having been knighted by the French Government and nominated Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. He has published over 50 articles and 19 books, his two most recent books are The Butterfly Defect: How globalization creates systemic risks, and what to do about it (Princeton University Press, 2014) and an edited volume Is the planet full?  (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Head of Section 3.2 “Digital Media, Distance Learning, Training Personnel”

Advisory services to the Federal Government and to the corporate sector in the thematical field of ICT-based VET learning and working environments, designing, launching, monitoring & evaluation of national funding programms, joint shaping of implementation strategies for high quality results into the world of work. Ongoing improvement of web based services for trainers in VET (www.foraus.de) to support their daily practice of training in companies. Development of national standards for teacher & trainer qualification (Trainers`s Aptitude – AEVO, www.foraus.de), designing of (web based) training moduls and tools for further training of teachers & trainers (e.g. IT-Literacy). Advisory services within BIBB´s international co-operation activities. Appraising, quality management and certifying of (web based) distance learning courses for continuous training.

Links

http://www.bibb.de/pt-iaw

As Executive Director of Qatar Foundation International, Maggie champions K-12  Arabic language & Arab culture education and interactions between young people across geographic, cultural and social boundaries. Prior to joining QFI, Maggie was Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), a leading democracy and governance NGO, where she implemented innovative programs in Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Yemen. Prior to IFES, Maggie worked as an independent communications consultant to leading U.S., European and Middle Eastern companies, nongovernmental organizations and academic groups. She also served as director of communications and external relations at the Middle East Institute where she developed a five-year strategic media plan and placed more than a dozen op-eds and letters to the editor in American newspapers and magazines, including The Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle and The New Yorker.  Maggie's career began as a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department where she served as a special assistant to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and as a staff assistant to Ambassador Martin S. Indyk at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel.   A Fulbright to Syria in 1990-92 shaped her understanding of the peoples of the region and shaped her career aspirations. Maggie completed coursework for a master’s degree in contemporary Arab studies at Georgetown University and holds bachelor’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University in political science and psychology. 

Links

http://qfi.org

Donald is an entrepreneur. He was CEO and one of the original founders of Epic Group plc, which established itself as the leading company in the UK e-learning market, floated on the Stock Market in 1996 and sold in 2005. Describing himself as ‘free from the tyranny of employment’, he now has a foot in two camps, one as an investor and Board member of PlanB learning, WiQi, LearningPool, Cogbooks, the other in the public sector as a Trustee for the University for Industry, City & Guilds and Deputy Chair of Brighton Arts Festival & Dome. He has been involved in consulting and implementing online learning in schools, FE, HE, corporate and government.

Donald has been involved in film, games, web, mobile, MOOCs, Oculus Rift and won many awards for the design and implementation of online learning. He is a regular speaker at national and international conferences, having delivered talks in the US, Europe, Far East, Middle East and Africa, and won several ‘Best speaker’ awards … also a regular (and controversial) blogger on online learning!

Links

http://www.planblearning.com/Bio/

Dr Harold Elletson is an international communications and public affairs consultant. He is also the Director of The New Security Foundation, which conducts research into the implications of the new security environment for civil society. The New Security Foundation provides an international forum for dialogue between the public and private sectors and offers analytical insight and information about new security conditions. The Foundation hosts the Security and Defence Learning track at OEB, as well as organising other conferences and seminars. A particular area of expertise is tourism security and the connection between culture and security.

He is a founding director of the Africa Forum on Business, Investment and Security, a member of the steering committee of OEB, a member of the Organising Committee of eLearning Africa and a consultant to ICWE GmbH. He is also the editor of The eLearning Africa Report, which is published every year and contains a survey of ICT in education in Africa, a comprehensive country report outlining progress in ICT4E in every African country and a funding guide.

Dr Elletson was previously Director of the NATO Forum on Business and Security, which he created with support from the NATO Science Programme.

A former Member of the United Kingdom Parliament (from 1992-1997), he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the early stages of the peace process and was also a member of the Select Committee on Environmental affairs. He served as a member of the Lancashire Education Authority (the Education Committee of Lancashire County Council) before being elected to Parliament where he represented the interests of schools and colleges in his constituency in discussions with Ministers and on the floor of the House of Commons. He is a Fellow of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme and of the Industry and Parliament Trust.

As a communications and public affairs specialist, he has advised many leading companies on aspects of their business in challenging markets, including BP in Azerbaijan and Alstom in Siberia. He has written widely on political and historical subjects and his first book, The General Against the Kremlin, was published by Little Brown. His journalism has been published in a variety of newspapers and magazines. Dr Elletson holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Bradford.

Links

http://www.berlin-braucht-dich.de/

Nik Gowing was a main news presenter for the BBC’s international 24-hour news channel BBC World News 1996-2014. He presented The Hub with Nik Gowing, BBC World Debates, Dateline London, plus location coverage of major global stories.

For 18 years he worked at ITN where he was bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw, and Diplomatic Editor for Channel Four News (1988-1996). He has been a member of the councils of Chatham House (1998–2004), the Royal United Services Institute (2005–present), and the Overseas Development Institute (2007-2014), the board of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy including vice chair (1996-2005), and the advisory council at Wilton Park (1998-2012 ). In 1994 he was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center in the J. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Nik has extensive reporting experience over three decades in diplomacy, defence and international security. He also has a much sought-after analytical expertise on the failures to manage information in the new transparent environments of conflicts, crises, emergencies and times of tension. His peer-reviewed study at Oxford University is “Skyful of Lies and Black Swans”. It predicts and identifies the new vulnerability, fragility and brittleness of institutional power in the new all-pervasive public information space.  It can be downloaded free online after registration.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Exeter University in 2012 for both his ongoing cutting edge analysis and distinguished career in international journalism. From 2014 he is a Visiting Professor at Kings College, London in the School of Social Science and Public Policy.