Societies in Northern Europe and parts of Asia are ageing rapidly, with fewer births and longer life expectancies. This demographic shift presents challenges in the realm of politics, employment, education and social services, among others.
The second Berlin Demography Forum was convened in December 2012 to address issues relating to these shifts in population structure. UIL Director Arne Carlsen participated in the Forum, contributing a presentation on the role of lifelong learning in addressing demographic change.
The Forum was attended by over 200 political and opinion leaders, and sought to identify best practices and concrete recommendations for action. Specific topic areas included sections on “Demographic Change as Global Challenge”, a Young Experts Panel, an Executive Panel “Acting on Demographic Change”, and several local and regional focus panels.
Interview with Arne Carlsen in the Allianz Knowledge Base.
Interview with Arne Carlsen in The European (in German).

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning is currently accepting applications for the 2013 cohort of four CONFINTEA Fellowships for key personnel from Member States to improve adult education at country level by supporting the implementation of the CONFINTEA VI Follow-up. They will be invited in October 2013 for a fully funded research-cum-capacity-building visit of four weeks. Participants should be government officials or senior specialists in adult education. Interested candidates are asked to submit a written application to UIL by 31 May 2013.
The overall aim of the CONFINTEA VI Fellowship Programme is to reinforce Member State capacity in implementing the Belém Framework for Action at country level. The Belém Framework for Action, adopted by 144 countries at the Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI), entails recommendations to improve policy, governance, financing, participation and quality in adult literacy and education in a perspective of lifelong learning.
One of the outcomes anticipated is that senior experts from Member States will develop specifically their capacity in policy analysis and formulation in support of adult literacy and education.
More information on the CONFINTEA Fellowship Programme
Please contact Angela Owusu-Boampong with any questions you might have: a.owusu-boampong(at)unesco.org.

The “Policy guidelines for mobile learning” developed by UNESCO seek to help policy-makers better understand what mobile learning is and how its unique benefits can be leveraged to advance progress towards Education for All.
UNESCO believes that mobile technologies can expand and enrich educational opportunities for learners in diverse settings. Yet most ICT in education policies were articulated in a pre-mobile era and they do not seek to maximize the learning potentials of mobile technology. The rare policies that do reference mobile devices tend to treat them tangentially or ban their use in schools.
Today, a growing body of evidence suggests that ubiquitous mobile devices – especially mobile phones and, more recently, tablet computers – are being used by learners and educators around the world to access information, streamline administration and facilitate learning in new and innovative ways.
Developed in consultation with experts in over 20 countries, UNESCO’s “Policy guidelines for mobile learning” have broad application and can accommodate a wide range of institutions, including K–12 schools, universities, community centres, and technical and vocational schools.
Policy-makers are encouraged to adopt UNESCO’s policy recommendations, tailoring them as necessary to reflect the unique needs and on-the-ground realities of local contexts.
The document was presented during the UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2013, held from 18 to 22 February in Paris. URL: UNESCO Mobile Learning resources.

The UPV OpenCourseWare online platform offers teaching materials related to more than 100 subjects taught in the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain).
Open, free and accessible to everybody, this initiative is part of the international OCW Consortium and aims to show UPV's potential to attract the best students and to train professionals with a recognised standard of excellence.
Humanities, Law and Continuing Education subjects are included in the UPV OCW e-catalogue of free learning material.
The Universitat Politècnica de València UPV is a public educational and research institution with over 35,000 students and 2,600 faculty and research staff. URL: UPV OCW.

“eKnowledge Project: Developing and piloting a forum tool to support the collaborative construction of knowledge on the UOC's Virtual Campus” is the final report of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s (UOC) eKnowledge project.
eKnowledge is an online forum tool that offers consultants and students the chance to create spaces for asynchronous communication and collaboration in pursuit of different goals and at different levels of structuring by teachers.
The project (2009-11) followed a user-based design concept and a flexible and collaborative learning model. Its development was based on the open-source phpBB Forums platform.
eKnowledge is an eLearn Center innovation project developed in collaboration with the UOC’s Office of Learning Technologies. The design of the tool has involved faculty from the UOC’s Information and Communication Sciences; IT, Multimedia and Communications; Economics and Business Studies, and Psychology and Education Sciences departments. URL: UOC - Intistutional repository.