Opening plenary session - introduction

The registration went smooth... a cyber-cafe is provided at the conference location, and the whole building is teeming with (freely accessible) wireless internet connetivity. Nice!

European Commissioner Viviane Reding (for the Information Society and Media) opened the conference. Her main question was 'why has ICT never taken off in the educational world?'. Since the previous conference (in 2001), a lot of promises and hopes were not fulfilled... This conference attracts all stakeholders and hopes to provide a interactive forum for sharing ideas and opening new opportunities.

From the foreword:
"Our aim is to make sure that Europe enjoys prosperity, jobs and growth. eLearning can make a significant contribution in this respect, and the conference will play a pivotal role in the development of:
- the use of ICT in education and training
- improved learning processes through the use of ICTs
- continuing research in technology enhanced learning
- Europe's future eLearning policy direction and initiatives.

The conference will consider the perspectives and vision of the future i2010 programme, and how this will stimulate the promotion, development, and deployment of elearning content, products and services and the contribution of these to lifelong learning."