Without charge

Digital risks and digital chances

Heerlen (NL), November 2016 - The internet and globalization are changing our world and ways to communicate, learn, and live together. They are offering huge opportunities but also challenges that the special conference "Digital Risks - Digital Chances" is addressing. "We invite all interested people to explore and discuss digitalization, online learning, and collaboration in schools and lifelong learning", emphasizes Dr. Christian M. Stracke, Associate Professor for Open Education and Innovation from the Open University of the Netherlands and organizer of the event. 

School education, lifelong learning, and competence development are the selected topics with school teachers and parents, students and educators, as well as start-ups and practitioners as main target groups.

The conference is realized by six European and international consortia from more than fifteen countries and guarantees latest developments and results from research and practice. The full day is dedicated to four themes in interactive workshops: The conference takes place 13 December 2016 at the Open University of the Netherlands in Heerlen. Everybody can join the conference for free. Registration for the conference or for single workshops is required via e-mail as seats are limited.

The conference starts with a welcome coffee at 09:30am, followed by the opening plenary with a distinguished keynote by Prof. Dr. Cleo Sgouropoulou from the Technological Education Institute of Athens, Greece. She will speak about "Digital School and Lifelong Learning Opportunities in the globalized societies of the 21st century". Two parallel tracks in the morning and the afternoon deal with hot topics in four interactive workshops. They are concluded by a plenary discussion, followed by a networking reception for all participants to get in contact and connect.

The first parallel track on school education is intended for teachers and parents with two interactive workshops addressing "School Innovations for Inclusion and Learning-how-to-learn" and "Internet Security in Schools". It is realized by three leading European consortia: EBE-EUSMOSI, LELLE, and I-Secure.

The second parallel track on lifelong learning invites (female) students, educators, adult learners, start-ups and practitioners to join two interactive sessions on "MOOCs and Online Courses" and "Female Entrepreneurship and digital business". It is being prepared by two leading European research initiatives: MOOQ and DIGI-FEM.

During the lunch break, several research projects will present their ongoing research and developed results in a poster session.

The whole conference is organized by the Welten Institute of the Open University of the Netherlands in close cooperation with the international Community ICORE and the Dutch Association for female entrepreneurship.