From 4th to 6th of December, the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Distance Education Professional Committee of Universities under the Chinese Association for Educational Technology (CAET) (shortened as the Professional Committee) was convened in Yueyang, Hunan province. Its major events included: the release of the digitization scientific research platform and a display of achievements; a news conference on the book “Example Guiding and Teaching Praxis” and seminars on the development of grass-roots-level RTVUs,
On November 22-24, 2013, the 47th American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo was held in Orlando, Florida, USA. The theme was “New Spaces, New Realities: Learning Any Time, Any Place”, which coincides with The Open University of China's (the OUC's) "MyEChinese" Distance Chinese Teaching Platform (http://myechinese.com). As usual, the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) Annual Conference was held in conjunction with the ACTFL annual convention.
On December 9, the 2013 Council of the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University (CI-MSU) was held simultaneously at the Open University of China (the OUC). The Chinese and American members of the Council and the working staff of CI-MSU exchanged and discussed ideas through both oral and written reports via a live two-way video-conferencing between the two sites.
On 3rd December 2013, a strategic cooperation agreement was officially signed at the activity site for “Hebei: An Act of Kindness for a Harmonious and Prosperous Society” an exhibit at the 2013 International Disabled Persons Day festivities co-sponsored by Hebei RTVU and the Hebei Disabled Persons’ Federation (HDPF). The agreement announced the joint establishment of the Hebei RTVU School for the Disabled which marked the formal initiation of the distance education project for people with disability in Hebei.The 8th Confucius Institute Conference was held in Beijing's China National Convention Centre on Dec. 7 & 8, 2013. With “Reviewing the Past, Looking to the Future” as its theme, the conference adopted a practical method of case study utilizing dissection and analysis, hoping to provide a platform of experience sharing and information exchange for various Confucius Institutes all around the world. The conference also intended to introduce MOOC to the Confucius Institute to further promote Chinese language and Chinese culture. More than 2,000 university presidents and representatives of various Confucius Institutes from 120 countries and regions attended the conference.
Global Mobile Learning Implementations and Trends is edited by two internationally recognized mobile learning experts and the chapter authors are from around the world. They have extensive expertise in mobile learning. The book presents information on implementation of mobile learning around the world and trends in mobile learning. It is a valuable resource for educators and trainers who want to find out about mobile learning around the world and who would like to conduct research on mobile learning.
On November 21-22, the China International Distance Education Conference 2013 took place in Beijing. The conference, whose theme was “Openness, Integration and Innovation – Online Learning Opening the Door to the Age of Lifelong Learning”, focused on the new mode, new strategies and new opportunities for online learning development, and especially discussed new thinking, new methods and new measures of the way that online learning is pushing forward the establishment of a lifelong learning system and the construction of the structures of continuous lifelong learning.
A few days ago, at the invitation of Taiwan’s Fo Guang University, Tianjin Radio and TV University (Tianjin RTVU, aka Tinajin Open University) organized 19 young teachers and students to visit