Dr Eva Tsang
Director, Educational Technology and Publishing
The Open University of Hong Kong

The ever-evolving technologies have had a major impact on the way we live, learn and work. They have completely transformed how we communicate and interact with each other, and these new methods of interaction can have a very significant effect on education. In such a context, emerging technologies with the appropriate use of pedagogies have a considerable potential to make learning available in new ways which can be incorporated into various types of learning modes.

As education professionals, we have to create learning environments that converge with the learners’ lifestyles and self-directed learning through the integration of mobile apps, devices and instructional approaches into various types of learning.

This workshop will introduce participants to a variety of new technological tools, such as infographics, social bookmarking, polling, mind mapping, e-Portfolio, cloud-based resources and mobile apps. Also, the affordance of these learning technologies will be demonstrated by their appropriate use in various modes of learning that fit different pedagogies. The session will allow participants to explore the effectiveness and suitability of these tools.

Participants are recommended to bring their own mobile devices/tablets (iOS or Android) so that they can download the mobile apps to explore their features and usability.

Dr Alan Bruce
CEO and Director
Universal Learning Systems
Dublin, Ireland

Creativity and innovation have been the talk of the town all over Europe for past decades. The two related concepts have been described as Europe’s anchor in a myriad of global socio-economic relations. In fact, sustaining creativity and innovation will require a deeper and more cogent evaluation of what creativity — theoretical and applied — really is, and how it can be fostered in order to articulate an innovation perspective that radically addresses and re-imagines human needs.

This interactive workshop will look at key issues and outcomes from leading EU projects in which innovation was prioritized, particularly on inclusion of traditionally marginalized learners. These projects’ outcomes will be discussed in relation to the theoretical perspectives developed from a set of new and dynamic digitally enhanced pedagogies. Web-supported vocational guidance tools, digital repositories for social inclusion in art making, web-supported training for teachers in competence-based learning, social media in parent/teacher collaboration, ICT innovation in language teaching for the blind, and universal design for learning will illustrate how innovations in education were achieved.