Panel Talk COM16
Online Communities for Educators: eTwinning and EPALE
Date Thursday, Dec 3 Time – RoomCharlottenburg II
These two established platforms are key-contributors to the development of the teaching profession and to competences of school teachers as well as adult education professionals. Learn about the platforms´ benefits, discover practical tools and connect with their peer-learning communities which are supported by the European Commission.
Brian Holmes
Director, European Commission EACEA, Belgium
Dr. Brian Holmes is the Director of the Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture (EACEA) in Brussels. The Agency is responsible for managing certain strands of the European Commission's programmes for Erasmus+, Creative Europe, Europe for Citizens and EU Aid Volunteers.
Brian has been working on education and training for many years at the European Commission. He has been involved with European policy for innovation and lifelong learning, supported by ICT, and was responsible for co-ordinating the EU's eLearning Programme.
Brian has an MBA from a Paris business school and has been a tutor with the UK’s Open University Business School, for the MBA module on Managing Knowledge. He holds a PhD on technology enhanced learning with the University of Lancaster in the UK.
Links
http://eacea.ec.europa.euhttp://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/index_en…
Ulf Ehlers
Vicepresident, European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning, Belgium
Prof. Dr Ulf-Daniel Ehlers is the Vice-President for Quality and Academic Affairs at the DHBW - Baden Wurttemberg-State University in Stuttgart, Germany. He has been appointed Professor for Educational Management and Lifelong Learning at the same university. Before he has held positions as Associate Professor in the Duisburg-Essen, Germany, Professor for Technology Enhanced Learning in the University Augsburg, and Associate Professor of the Graduate School for Management and Technology of the University of Maryland University College. Ulf is an educational scientist and holds degrees in English Language, Social Sciences and Educational Sciences from the University of Bielefeld, where he finished his Ph.D. with honors in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning in 2003, and was awarded his habilitation in 2008 from the University of Duisburg-Essen. He has created many international, European and national projects and is President of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning, Vice-President of the Society for Media in Science as well as serving on advisory board to several professional associations in the field.
Ulf is an internationally recognized researcher and innovator in the area of E-Learning. He has extensive experience in helping individuals achieving superior learning performances and has run lighthouse initiatives in the field of e-learning and knowledge management as well as e-business, including knowledge-technology consulting for small and medium sized enterprises. Ulf has developed the Learners’ Quality Model for e-learning, which is a basis for learner centered quality development in e-learning. He is working as advisor to governments and non-governmental organizations in the field of learning and development cooperation and is member of several advisory boards and editorial committees. Ulf is the author/ publisher of several books on quality and organizational innovation and culture and more than 110 articles and book chapters, has been a featured speaker at numerous international conferences, and is member of several professional associations for e-learning and education.
Links
Anne Gilleran
Senior Advisor and Pedagogical Manager, European SchoolNet, Belgium
Anne Gilleran has many years’ experience in education in various different roles including being a school principal and teacher trainer. She has extensive experience in Information Communication Technology in Education both at in practice and research. In 2001 Anne joined European Schoolnet as project coordinator of the European School Leaders Network (ESLN); coordinator of European Schoolnet’s Virtual School and the European Network of Innovative Schools (ENIS) networks. During this time Anne was involved in a number of educational research and development programmes concerned with emerging issues in education in Europe, coordinated by European Schoolnet; eWatch, VALNET and OASIS, which have brought her into direct contact with schools across Europe. 2005 saw the start of eTwinningand Anne joinedmin the position of Pedagogical Manager. Anne has published number of research papers on the topic of online communities; edited several books on eTwinning and research topics related to eTwinning.
Links
https://www.etwinning.net/de/pub/profil…
Richard Medic
Epale Community Manager, Ecorys, The Netherlands
Richard Medic is the Community Manager of EPALE, the ePlatform for Adult Learning in Europe. He's also Chief of Happenings at happeningo digital agency and founder of Soonfeed, the world's first timeline of what's happening soon on the web. Richard was born in Melbourne, Australia, where he studied English Literature at Monash University and Law at La Trobe University. He has been working in (and passionate about) media, communications and education for over 20 years.
Links
Moderator
Tapio Saavala
Head of Unit Erasmus, European Commission, Belgium
Tapio Säävälä has been working in the field of education since 1985. He started his career as a Special Needs Education Teacher, and worked as a School Headmaster and as a Senior Adviser in the National Board of Education in Finland.
He joined the European Commission in 2002 to work for the lifelong learning policies, and key competences in particular. Currently, he is Head of Unit at the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, responsible to adult learning, VET and eTwinning and EPALE platforms.