With just over 12 weeks to go to this year’s Media & Learning Conference organised jointly between MLA and KU Leuven, we wanted to tell you more about what’s going to be on the programme this year. The overall theme for our conference is Co-creating the future of learning, a theme which runs throughout our entire programme made up of 38 different sessions ranging from workshops and discussions to presentation sessions, demos, networking opportunities and showcases.
We have put together an inspiring line-up of keynote speakers who will contribute to our plenary sessions at the start of each day. They are Sharon Klinkenberg from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands who will delve into the realm of emerging technologies and AI in education, where generative AI and learning analytics are reshaping the roles of learners and educators. Rob Morgan from King’s College London & Playlines in the UK will share his ideas about XR, AI and Reskinnable Realities as he raises questions about the huge potential learning value of these technologies – and the risks they could represent to the consensual foundations of our reality. Agne Limante from the European Commission will talk about the impact of the EU AI Act on the growing use of AI in education, with particular attention to the AI Act’s risk-based approach to regulation. Laure Michelon from UCLA in the US will share her ideas around sound architecture and how audio technology can play a special role in evoking emotions or memories. Finally, Jeff Van de Poël from the University of Lausanne (UNIL) in Switzerland will share his ideas about what he defines as the Augmented Teacher and the value of navigating AI as an instrument rather than an oracle. This year’s agenda also includes a special online ‘in conversation’ session with Stephen Downes, renowned digital learning designer and commentator to discuss his ideas on where we are going with AI in higher education.
Our programme includes lots of presentation sessions devoted to this year’s conference themes. We will be hearing about changes and developments taking place in the ways centres for teaching and learning (CTLs) are evolving in talks given by practitioners including Charlotte Rose, from Adelaide University in Australia, Tomi Tolonen from Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland and Corinna Stiefelbauer from WU Wien in Austria. Real-life applications of story-telling and other innovative approaches to educational media production will be presented by several people including Stef Stes from KU Leuven in Belgium, Markus Weber & Christian Hoppe from TU Darmstadt in Germany and Bas Heerink from ROC van Twente in the Netherlands. AI and its impact on the everyday work of all our participants will feature in many presentations including those by Katja Shcherbakova, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Melanie Dejnega, from the University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication in Austria and Nicola Bruno from Dataninja / University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy.
As always, we are planning a significant number of discussions on different topics where everyone is welcome to join in with their ideas and points of view. This year we will be discussing How AI is changing Educational Media Production Workflows in a future-oriented session led by Markus Tischner from Friedrich-Alexander-University in Germany, Julian van der Kraats, from Leiden University in the Netherlands will be leading a discussion on Updating the Fürth Manifesto on the principles of AI in education and Alina Kadlubsky, from the University of Applied Sciences Mittweida in Germany will be leading a discussion on the need to broaden our approach to ethics in a time of rapid technological change. We are also planning a highly strategic discussion on European Sovereignty initiatives with the aim of reducing reliance on US tech giants by promoting EU-hosted cloud services, implementing open-source solutions, and utilizing regional alternatives.
One of the most popular formats we offer at Media & Learning are our workshops where small groups of participants come together to learn practical skills and collaborate on activities. Here are some of the workshops we have lined up for this year; a CTL Alignment Workshop for Digital Teams led by Nynke Kruiderink from Npuls in the Netherlands, The Ten-Minute Experiment: Using Microlearning to Reduce Cognitive Load led by Alice Pistono from JoVE in Italy, Rapid Photorealism: Getting to Grips with 3D Gaussian Splatting led by Nathan Saucier from Leiden University in the Netherlands and Designing AI-Mediated Learning Experiences with COMPASS led by Olysha Magruder & James Diamond from Johns Hopkins University in the US.
The Media & Learning conference would not be the same without our valued exhibitors and sponsors. We are delighted to welcome back Panopto, UbiCast, Kaltura and AudioXL to M&L26. Panopto will be showing the latest features in their AI-powered platform that simplifies video use, Ubicast will be joining us to showcase the newest features and innovations driving their video platform, Kaltura will be showcasing its latest conversational AI innovations for higher education and Audio XL will present the latest audio and video control technology from Harman Professional and Genelec. We are also thrilled to welcome two new sponsors this year, elan e.v. will be joining us to showcase the latest in their open source products for higher education and Wooclap will be sharing how Wooclap turns every class into an interactive learning experience.
Other highlights in this year’s conference include demonstrations of how our community is putting technological advances into practice in their support to academic teaching staff. This will include a demonstration of Accessible XR Tools for Science and Climate Communication by Alejandro Carbonell Alcocer from Rey Juan Carlos University in Spain, a 360° VR tool to explore and understand canine social responses by Judith Hoste from VIVES University of Applied Sciences in Belgium and tools to support real-time coaching of teachers at a distance by Karel Kreijns from the Open Universiteit in the Netherlands. We are also planning networking moments led by MLA’s special interest groups (SIGs) where participants can meet and share their interests in one or more of our SIG topics; Audio/video (AV) in Higher Education; Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education; Extended Reality in Higher Education and Centres for Teaching and Learning.
And of course no Media & Learning Conference is complete without the annual showcase of this year’s MEDEA Awards’ finalists which will be featured on our conference agenda on Wednesday 17 June. The MEDEA Awards Ceremony will follow shortly afterwards where everyone is welcome to not only celebrate the winners in this years’ competition but also to vote for their own personal favourite.
Finally, we are also planning a pre-conference workshop entitled AI practices and policies – exploring the journey thus far which will take place in the Hybrid Collaborative Classroom at KU Leuven from 13:30 to 17:00 on 16 June. Places are limited for this workshop, at the time of posting this article, the workshop is almost fully booked. However, you can still register and there will be a waiting list in operation.
Registration is now open and you can check out the draft programme here. The conference website is also now live. We are looking forward to seeing you in Leuven in June!
