Core activity 5.1: The elearning world

eLearning focus in different parts of the world.

The eLearning Guild is a community of practice for designers, developers, and managers of e-Learning. It is based in America and a recent conference focused on the following areas;

• Mobile Learning
• Social Learning
• Gaming for learning

http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.1275

The elearning Africa conference in Zambia is focusing on the following solutions and technical innovations;

• Open Source Solutions
• Open Content and Open Educational Resources
• Technical access and networking Models
  • Computing Models
  • Multi User Computing Models
  • Low Cost Connectivity Solutions
  • Mobile Solutions
• Environment & Climate Change
• Power and Alternative Energy Solutions

http://www.elearning-africa.com/themes.php

The Australian Learning Technologies Conference 2009 has the theme “the power of you” and topics include;

-          Virtual worlds

-          Mobile learning

-          Wikis

-          Open Learning environments

-          Eportfolios

http://www.learningtechnologies.com.au/index.cfm?action=papers

The second international conference of elearning is to be held in Malaysia and has the theme “Go online, Go Mobile”

http://i-learn.uitm.edu.my/icel2009/

The 2009 JISC Conference in Edinburgh had the theme of Opening Digital Doors.

Topics included

-          Access & Identity

-          Admissions

-          Business & Community Engagement

-          Data Services & Collections

-          Digital Repositories

-          Green ICT

-          Institutional ICT

-          Interoperability

-          Learner Experience

-          Learning & Teaching Practice

-          Learning Environments

-          Learning Resources

-          Legal & Ethical

-          Network & Infrastructure

-          Open Technologies

-          Research & Innovation

-          Web 2.0

Internationally, the key themes seem to be mobile learning, web 2.0/social software and open content.  These are all areas I have looked at thoughout other OU courses, but not, so far, on the H808