Los dos últimos años han sido de revelación y descubrimiento en e-learning, hemos visto iniciativas como Udacity, Coursera, Wedubox y Khan Academy, en períodos muy cortos de tiempo alcanzar volúmenes increíbles de interesados y suscriptores; por otro lado escuchamos voces de las más respetadas en la comunidad académica haciendo eco de este tsunami, y elevando la creciente preocupación de las universidades sobre cómo abordar esta nueva tendencia y sobrevivir una cada vez mas inminente interrupción a la actividad educativa, tal como las que sacudieron a la industria musical y la editorial.
Hasta ahora el común denominador de las iniciativas más exitosas es: una cantidad enorme de tráfico, suscriptores y alumnos, pero ni un centavo de ingresos, muchas obtienen su financiación de donaciones ó fondos de capital con apuestas claras a la innovación, pero sin un camino definido sobre cómo será su retorno y eventual recuperación de su capital invertido. Read more...

By Enrique Sánchez Acosta. Resumen
Desde que en el año 2008 Dave Cormier y Bryan Alexander acuñaron el término MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) no han parado de surgir noticias cada vez más relevantes sobre estos cursos, hasta el punto que el propio presidente de la Universidad de Stanford John Hennessy lo denominase Tsunami, con estas palabras: “El tsunami está llegando”, y así fué. (ver Ilustración 1)
Universidades de todo el mundo comenzaron a crear sus propios MOOC, agrupándose después en diferentes plataformas que hoy en día no son ninguna novedad para todo aquel relacionado con la educación online, algunas de las más relevantes son:
    * Udacity
    * Coursera: Universidad de Stanford (plataforma Course2go)
    * Plataforma EdX: MIT
    * Proyecto Course-builder: Google Inc.
    * Miriada X: Telefónica, UniMOOC, Grupo Santander, y varias universidades españolas.
    * COMA: Uned
    * Wedubox
Es muy probable que este nuevo modelo educativo abanderado por las universidades más prestigiosas del mundo como Stanford, Harvard o MIT corresponda a una estrategia para fomentar un sistema educativo allí donde las universidades del llamado primer mundo no están llegando actualmente. No hay que olvidar que la “burbuja universitaria” no afectará a los países del tercer mundo y allí no podemos llevar nuestras lujosas universidades pero sí su prestigio, recursos y la supuesta calidad de sus servicios.
Las universidades tratan de ampliar sus fronteras en todo el mundo gracias a los MOOC. Sin embargo, aunque todo el mundo se está haciendo preguntas como ¿Cuáles son las ventajas y desventajas de los MOOC? ¿Como podemos hacer frente a las certificaciones? ¿Cómo podemos sacar un rendimiento monetario a este tipo de cursos?, etc. Lo más importante es conocer por qué surge este nuevo modelo de educación y cuáles son los resultados tras este tsunami inicial, ¿Hemos aprendido algo? Read more...

The "MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge?" seminar took place 18-19 March, 2013 at the University of Pennsylvania and was broadcast live online.
Hosted by OCLC Research, one of the world's leading centres devoted exclusively to the challenges facing libraries and archives, and University of Pennsylvania Libraries, the event featured thoughtful and provocative presentations about how libraries are already getting involved with MOOCs, and engaged attendees in discussions about strategic opportunities and challenges going forward.
OCLC Research Senior Program Officer Merrilee Proffitt organised the event and has posted a series of six blog posts that recap presentation highlights and summarise its outcomes. These blog posts include:

• MOOCs and Libraries: Introduction
• MOOCs and Libraries: Copyright, Licensing, Open Access
• MOOCs and Libraries: Production and Pedagogy
• MOOCs and Libraries: New Opportunities for Librarians
• MOOCs and Libraries: Who Are the Masses? A View of the Audience
• MOOCs and Libraries: Next Steps?

In addition, videos of the sessions, links to the presenters' slides and the next steps document are available at the MOOCs and Libraries event page.

On 15 February 2013, the EU's education ministers discussed Erasmus for All, the reformed student exchange programme, and the contribution of education to creating jobs and growth.
Erasmus for All is a proposal for an integrated programme in the areas of education, training, youth and sport for 2014-2020. It brings together in a single programme activities previously covered by a number of separate programmes (including the Lifelong Learning Programme, Erasmus Mundus and Youth in Action) and also includes activities in a new area of European competence: sport. Read more...

The report “Report on using information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education for persons with disabilities”, published in 2012, is the outgrowth of a joint initiative by UNESCO and the Trust for the Americas, non-profit organization cooperating with the Organization of American States (OAS).
The joint project consisted of a significant study, country by country in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, elucidating achievements and shortfalls, while demonstrating that democratizing free access to ICTs for persons with disabilities in the field of education is an attainable goal. The overall goal of the study is to provide recommendations to improve information policies, strategies for using ICTs to educate persons with disabilities and incorporate issues related to disability. Read more...

The Annual Meeting of Research Network 4 (RN4) of the ASEM Lifelong Learning Hub took place at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) from 2 to 3 April 2013. About 30 participants from Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Latvia, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom,  and UIL participated in the meeting.  As one of the five research networks within the framework of the ASEM Education and Research Hub for Lifelong Learning (ASEM LLL Hub), RN4 serves as a forum for  researchers from European and Asian research institutions for developing joint comparative research projectson  lifelong learning policies and practices.
This annual meeting presented national lifelong learning policy reviews in member countries. The inputs and discussions showed that although many countries have embraced the concept of lifelong learning, they adopt different definitions and priorities in national policies and practices in different social and economic contexts. Meanwhile, to deepen policy review and draw insights, the meeting urged members to adopt evidence-based approaches, more analytic reflections as well as analysis of impact of policies.
To develop a research plan for 2013 and 2014, the meeting analysed the feasibility and methodology for conducting comparative cases studies on thematic issues on developing lifelong learning policy in relation to social and gender equality, aging society, regional gap, sustainable development, competence and employability, and community-based learning and development, among others. At the meeting, both UIL’s three programmes (Lifelong Learning Policies and Strategies, Literacy and Basic Skills, and Adult Learning and Education) and the ASEM LLL Hub Secretariat presented their key activities planned for 2013. Participants expressed strong interest in facilitating and participating in research collaborations between UIL and the ASEM LLL Hub.

UIL co-organised a Seminar on National Policy Frameworks for Lifelong Learning for seven Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, specifically Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. This Seminar was organised in Hanoi, Vietnam on 10 and 11 January 2013 in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training (Vietnam) and UNESCO Office in Hanoi and with the support of dvv international Regional Office for Southeast Asia and UNESCO Offices in the region.
Asian countries that participated in the Pilot Workshop on Developing Capacity for Establishing Lifelong Learning Systems in UNESCO Member States (Hamburg, 2010) shared their experiences in developing lifelong learning policy frameworks. Read more...

The International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) focusses on building and strengthening capacities of teacher education institutions in the region and contributes to the design and implementation of the Second Decade of Education for Africa in the areas of teacher education, distance education, curriculum development and educational management. As this encompasses the strengthening of teacher development for formal and non-formal education and needs to be approached holistically, IICBA and UIL share a common goal. Cooperation between the two institutes was intensified in July 2012, when the Director of IICBA, Mr Arnaldo Nhavoto, visited Director Arne Carlsen at UIL.
The recent International Workshop on Strategies for the Improvement of the Status of Literacy Teaching Personnel is testimony to the successful collaboration between the two UNESCO category I institutes.
In the context of their participation in the Workshop, UIL Deputy Director Carol Medel-Añonuevo and Programme Specialist Anna Bernhardt visited the IICBA offices. Both institutes pledged to work together in tackling global literacy challenges by building capacities of formal and non-formal teaching personnel.

United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are due 2015 and International Council on Adult Education (ICAE) is putting special emphasis on the post-2015 process. The Council has produced an advocacy toolkit called The right to education and lifelong learning: Supporting materials for advocacy in the post-2015 process.
2013-2015 are important three years for adult education at a global level. Civil society organisations will mobilise toward reshaping the post‐2015 development agenda by engaging in the processes to set the post Rio+20 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), MDGs, Education for All goals (EFA) and International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA). Based on this scenario and the proposals and recommendations of the ICAE Strategic Seminar held in Marrakesh in October 2012, ICAE is putting special emphasis on the 2015 process. Read more...