ELIG sets the agenda: New knowledge and learning technologies boost renewal

PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 05, 2009 – At its 2009 Annual General Meeting in Lausanne, the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG) formally endorsed the view that cost-cutting by itself was not a sustainable way out of the current economic crisis and that innovation was required now more than ever.

“With new ICT enabled tools we can tap the brainpower of knowledge workers in new ways. It is only they who can deliver the creativity and innovation that will bring a new leap in innovation and hence growth” said Richard Straub, Secretary General of ELIG.

Industry experts and academics attending the AGM from all over Europe concluded that learning and knowledge technologies have now reached the “tipping point” to enable not only a step change in productivity but also in creativity and innovation. Web 2.0 advancements, currently dominating the personal use arena, have the potential to provide accelerated experiential learning across organizations, but only if they can be channeled to systematic institutional use. Mobile technologies further enhance the capabilities for interaction and access to knowledge by innovating the tools available to knowledge workers.

In repositioning itself as a provider of solutions capable of making the knowledge society a reality, ELIG recognised the need for some key actions in the immediate future. These included exploring innovative approaches to quality accreditation of learning programmes and environments and identifying a research agenda that finally moves from technology-centred research to an application-orientation including new ways of user involvement in the innovation process itself.

In a message to policy makers, ELIG highlighted the underrated role of education and lifelong learning in the European stimulus packages. Even recent policy initiatives, such as the massive European research investments in a Future Internet, fail to treat knowledge creation and learning as a primary focus and currently neglect the potential of technological innovations in these domains. “

There is no doubt that Europe’s Learning Industry needs to innovate in order to compete” said Fabrizio Cardinali, ELIG co-Chair and CEO of Giunti Labs. “Europe needs a ‘Renaissance 2.0’ in order to recreate the creative eco-system which enabled the advancements of the 15th and 16th centuries. ELIG, with its constituency of subscribing developers, users and adopters of learning and knowledge technologies in Europe, and its direct interaction with European Commission policy-makers, aims to act as a common platform enabling debate aimed at identifying the ‘next practice’ in the learning Industry- before it comes from elsewhere!”

Paul Hunter, ELIG Executive Committee Member and Public Policy Group Member and IMD’s Corporate Learning Network Director said “It was a real pleasure to host the ELIG Annual General Meeting at IMD. Innovation in learning is a keystone of all IMD activities and as members of ELIG, we welcomed the opportunity to debate and subsequently define the Groups’ key contributions to the global recovery process.

“Moving beyond the crisis” – Pre-Conference Workshop at Online Educa

ELIG will bring together those with a strategic interest in developing knowledge and learning capability, at its Online Educa Berlin pre-conference workshop “Moving beyond the crisis powered by knowledge and learning solutions – what is the next practice?” Learning and
Knowledge Industry leaders, leaders from Education and Research, Education Policy leaders and influencers, Managers of NGOs, Learning and Talent Managers and Chief Information Officers will not only hear from thought leaders tracing a path to the future of learning and knowledge creation, but they will be invited to provide insights into their own best practices.

END

Notes
The European Learning Industry Group, ELIG, is an open consortium of leading ICT (information and communications technology) companies and eLearning platform developers and knowledge and learning content providers who combine to promote innovation in learning by leveraging new information and communication technologies throughout Europe, in schools, universities, the workplace and homes.

Online Educa Berlin 2009
15th International Conference on Technology Supported Learning and Training
December 2 – 4, 2009
Hotel InterContinental Berlin, Budapester Straße 2, 10787 Berlin
Organiser: ICWE GmbH, Leibnizstr. 32, 10625 Berlin, Germany

E-Mail: info@online-educa.com
ELIG-Workshop http://www.online-educa.com/pre-conference-events

Contact: Matty Smith, ELIG Programme Director. matty.smith@elig.org.
Website: www.elig.org