Alex Eylar via Compfight

Online Educa is coming to Berlin again later this month, on Thanksgiving weekend to be precise. It’s one of the biggest digital learning and education innovation conferences in the world. It’s not too late to register here.

WiredAcademic is a media partner of the event this year and managing editor Paul Glader will be chairing a panel on the power of video.

Here are other details about the conference:

Featuring over 400 speakers from more than 40 countries, OEB’s programme covers the latest learning innovations such as MOOCs, gamification and flipped learning, as well as practical tools such as social media and video to transform learning content and practice.

In light of increasing youth unemployment, a central theme of the conference will be the relevance of learning methods and qualifications to the modern labour market. Indeed, the annual OEB debate will discuss the motion that “a ban on diplomas and degrees awarded by schools and universities would have a positive impact on competence development and lifelong learning”.

Keynote speakers include Steve Martin, co-author of Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion and Director of Influence at Work; founder of the Hybrid Reality Institute and expert on the co-evolution of humans and technology, Ayesha Khanna;  Sir Michael Barber, the former Chief Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education on School Standards (1997 to 2001) and current Chief Education Advisor at Pearson; and Jens Hilgers, CEO of Geewa Games which has a permanent spot on the Top 10 list of companies that make games for Facebook.

New to OEB 2012 is VIDEO EDUCA, a range of sessions focusing on all aspects of using video in learning, ranging from the practical production process to learning practitioners’ experiences. The VIDEO EDUCA sessions will be led by industry experts such as award-winning documentary maker Michael Grigsby; Steve Anderson, Executive Producer of BBC’s Question Time; Rebekah Tolley, an award-winning film-maker and educator who has produced educational resources for the United Nations, the BBC and Channel 4; and Martin Addison, CEO of Video Arts, the company founded by John Cleese. Participants will also be invited to attend three exclusive screenings: Connected, by Tiffany Shlain, Colors of Math by Ekaterina Eremenko and  We Went To War, by Michael Grigsby, with Ekaterina Eremenko and Michael Grigsby also being on hand for a post-screening Q&A session.

Video will be a huge focus at this year’s conference. Sessions will touch on themes such as:

“Video: The New Language of Learning.” 

One of the most powerful forms of communication in use today, video is rapidly becoming the new language of learning. The medium of video, whether it is used in distance learning, to flip the classroom or simply to enhance face-to-face education, enables educators to engage their learners more effectively. The OEB news team caught up with VIDEO EDUCA curator Adam Salkeld, a television and new media executive with over 25 years’ experience, to find out how education professionals can make video work for learning

“The Rise of the MOOC: The Future of Higher Education?”

Higher education is a sector that has thus far embraced – but arguably has not been fundamentally altered by – the growth of the Internet. This has been rapidly changing over the last few years with the rise of MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses; a way of learning that lets students participate on their own terms via the Internet. MOOCs have been embraced in a big way by elite universities and institutions, and are beginning to have a major impact on higher education. But are MOOCs really delivering quality access to education, or are they creating huge issues for the education sector?