SVEA Conference 2011

On the 23rd of November 2011, the SVEA Conference took place in the Baden-Württembergische Landesvertretung in Brussels. All in all, it was a successful dissemination event at the end of the SVEA project - however, the topic on "Next Generation Learning" with Social Media, was not sufficiently reflected.

Speakers were the well-known colleagues Lieve Van Den Brande (European Commission), Gráinne Conole (University of Leicester) and Helen Keegan. 

It was interesting to see that the Lieve was talking about "The False Assumption and the Reality" of European projects, stating that most of the projects failed in their objective to be spread. However, on the question if this would lead to a strategy change for funding policies, she couldn't give a clear answer.

Gráinne's presentation was quite good, enriched with many personal examples, though concentrating on the academic use of Social Media. Remarkable elements were the "Learning Spaces" and the "Open Accreditation", both concepts that are closely followed also by the Learning Agency Network.

Helen reflected on her personal experiences with Twitter - both, good and bad one's. She summarised by encouraging teachers to be open for Social Media and enable students to tinker.

After a workshop session, a fishbowl discussion took place. Quite interesting approach: People are sitting in circles, in the inner circle (around 5 chairs) the discussion takes place. If someone wants to contribute, he/she can go in the inner circle and sit on a chair. 

Finally, thumbs up for the food (Brezel) and the drinks (Swabian Organic Apple Juice).