The International Council for Open and Distant Education (ICDE) will hold its President Forum on 25 November 2020. Prior to the 25 November regional consultations a series of activities will take place in the form of Satellite Engagement Events. The outcomes from these events hosted by ICDE partner associations will be used as a guide for reflection by registered delegates of the forum. EDEN is proud to contribute to the ICDE forum with an online Satellite Engagement Event on 23 November, 2020, 17:00-18:00 CET with distinguished speakers of the EDEN community to share their hands on experience and expertise.WATCH THE RECORDING VIEW THE PRESENTATION
Description
EDEN has been the major European network for distance and e-learning in Europe and globally for nearly 30 years. In these challenging times, EDEN has strengthened its leadership role by bringing together the professional community of experts and practitioners in online learning, with the aim of providing and sharing its expertise and knowledge, facilitating and fostering research and development in distance and e-learning, and making information about current developments in education available to those confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a response to the global crisis and challenge of moving to fully online education overnight, EDEN has initiated a series of practical webinars (#onlinetogether) on how to take face-to-face education online. These webinars focused on the day-to-day challenges faced by teachers and educators who are struggling with the adjustment to working and teaching online, providing practical tips and guidance – especially helpful for those who have always taught in a traditional classroom. After very positive responses and feedback to the spring series of webinars from participants all over the world, an autumn webinar series followed.
Along with #onlinetogether initiative, EDEN has taken further steps and for the first time held a very successful first Annual Conference and first Research Workshop fully online, exploring the potential of this innovative format and, showing that it can meet any and every challenge.
Speakers
Sandra Kučina Softić
EDEN President
University Computing Centre SRCE, Croatia
Sandra Kučina Softić is EDEN president and Assistant Director for Education and User Support at the University of Zagreb University Computer Centre (SRCE). Her work is focused on monitoring and fostering the e-learning implementation in higher education institutions in Croatia and providing support and advice to institutions, teachers and students in implementation of new technologies in the learning and teaching process.  She was appointed Croatian representative in ET2020 Working group on Digital Skills and Technologies (2016-2018) and in ET2020 Working group on Digital Education: learning, teaching and Assessment (2018-2020). She obtained a master’s degree in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, UK in 2014. From 2016 to 2019 she was EDEN vice-president for Open Professional Collaboration.

Lisa-Marie Blaschke
Chair of the Board of the EDEN Fellows Council
Programme Director, Center of Lifelong Learning (C3L), Oldenburg, Germany
Dr. Lisa Marie Blaschke is programmed director of the Management of Technology Enhanced Learning master’s programme at the Center for Lifelong Learning at University of Oldenburg, Germany, and a senior researcher at the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Heilbronn. She is also a former executive committee member of the European Distance Education and E-Learning Network (EDEN) and is a Senior EDEN Fellow and Chair of the Board of the EDEN Fellows Council. She is a former adjunct associate professor at the University of Maryland University College, where she received the Stanley J. Drazek Award for Teaching Excellence in 2016. Lisa has a BS in Technical Communication, and two master’s degrees (MDE, MBA), and a PhD. Prior to academia, Lisa worked for SAP for over a decade in Walldorf, Germany, leading and implementing enterprise-wide knowledge management and training processes and solutions. Lisa’s research interests are in the areas of self-determined learning (heutagogy), online collaborative learning, pedagogical application of web 2.0 technology and social media, and user interface design.

Timothy Read
EDEN Vice-president for Open Professional Collaboration
UNED, Spain
Timothy Read is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Languages and Systems at UNED. He did his first degree in Real Time Computer Science at the University of The West of England and his Doctorate in Cognitive Science at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). After leaving England, he worked at the University of Granada before moving to UNED in Madrid. He is the co-founder of the ATLAS research group and has directed several national and international funded projects on applying Information and Communication Technologies to Languages for Specific Purposes. He is currently working in the areas of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning and Language Massive Open Online Courses, and their applications for social inclusion and employability, and the role of analytics in these areas. He has also been a member of diverse scientific committees and has collaborated as an evaluator of national and international research project proposals. As well as his academic career, he has worked in different international companies including Rolls Royce (the work he undertook there was subsequently patented), Hewlett Packard, and the telecommunications company I.T.T. In 2015, he was awarded the title of EDEN Fellow from the Executive Committee of the European Distance and E-Learning Network in recognition of the work he has undertaken in this area.

Diana Andone
EDEN Vice President
Director of the eLearning Center, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania

Diana Andone is the Director of the eLearning Center at the Politehnica University of Timisoara in Romania. Dr. Andone runs the team who developed the university’s award winning Virtual Campus CVUPT and is also a professor at the Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania, in the area of multimedia and web technologies. She is passionate about the ubiquitous access to technologies and how they can be used to improve people’s lives. Dr. Andone research includes web and mobile technologies, human-computer interaction, AR/VR/XR in education and culture, open education, online and mobile learning, OERs and MOOCs. Her publication list comprises 12 books and over 100 papers presented at international conferences, reviewer of several journals and conferences, and also chairs IEEE and ACM conferences. Her experience includes over 30 European funded projects, out of which she coordinated 4, notably ViCADiS (Virtual Campus for Digital Students), DigiCulture (Digital Skills for Creative Industries). She is also involved extensively in several professional organisations and associations (IEEE – Education Society Board, EDEN – Vice-president, IADIS, AACE, W3C, IAFES), actively supports the local start-up movement (StartUp Weekend, HackTM, hackathons, CoderDojo) and Girls in Tech, as well as acting in the Board of local Romanian NGOs (Pentru Voi Foundation) in the Timisoara 2023 European Capital of Culture Task Force and a member of Rotary Club Timisoara and Rotary International.

Antonio Teixeira
Former EDEN President
Universidade Aberta, Portugal

António Teixeira is an Associate Professor of open, distance and network education at Universidade Aberta (UAb). He’s also a researcher at the University of Lisbon and collaborates with the University of Rome 3. He was the Pro-rector for innovation in Distance Learning at Universidade Aberta (2006-09) and President of EDEN – European Distance and E-learning Network (2013-16). As a Pro-rector at UAb, António Teixeira conceived and managed the successful and speedy strategic transformation process of the university from a print-based distance learning institution to a fully online one. Throughout the years, he has integrated several boards of directors and many expert committees and task forces in higher education institutions and organizations at national and international level. He’s currently an external expert for AQU Catalunya and ACPUA quality assurance agencies in Spain and the research and innovation national agency of Uruguay (ANII) among others.
António Teixeira has participated in over thirty international research projects and authored over one hundred scientific articles and other publications. He is an EDEN Senior Fellow and a member of the Board of the Council of EDEN Fellows.