Closing the Gap from "Generation Y" to Mature Learners
Porto (PT), March 2012 - This year's annual conference of EDEN is taking place 06-09 June in Porto, Portugal. It approaches key questions of learning methodology and technology by focusing on the "open-learning generations", the contexts of socially significant target groups: junior and senior eLearners.
The Conference explores various generational learning cultures and technology-use patterns, and discusses new approaches in pedagogy and andragogy that respond to them.
One of the core intentions is to enhance openness of educational resources and to encourage institutional policies that support innovative pedagogical models. Such models have been significant in empowering learners and their communities as co-producers in networked lifelong learning. The open-resource attitude promotes democratic transformations in the information society; new media and technologies help to accelerate this process.
The development of an open climate and culture of learning enables educational institutions to better meet the demands of the public. Helping to spread educational resources as digitized content that accommodate different learning pathways, widening participation and promoting shared learning experiences between generations contributes to closing the technology gap.
In times of great challenges for Europe, all generations are called to act together, thus also to learn, to produce, share, and preserve knowledge. The 2012 European Year of Active Ageing and the Solidarity between Generations serves as framework for raising awareness, generating innovative approaches and disseminating good practice.
