Learntec 2012: How Serious Games are Conquering the Educational Industry

From 31 January to 2 February 2012, the Learntec fair in Karlsruhe is once again bringing together experts, providers and users from the German E-learning and further education industry. On its 20th anniversary, the organisers have decided on five subject packages, a call for papers and more best practices from industry. A new addition is the specially developed Games@Learntec amusement park.
 

The German E-learning industry is growing: according to the 4th MMB E-Learning Industry Ranking 2011, further education providers achieved a five percent increase in turnover in 2010 compared to the previous year. Turnover is largely accounted for by the creation of digital learning content, and the sale or rental of tools.
At this year's Learntec, E-learning and further education providers are presenting their ranges, developments and trends for the 20th time. Since the first event in November 1992, the mixture of specialist trade fair and congress has established itself and demonstrated that the link between education, learning and IT is an important issue and this continues to be the case. In order to draw more attention to this issue, the event achieved a closer connection between trade fair and congress in 2011 thanks to a new direction, and a call for papers was organised for the congress programme for the first time.

Congress: practical relevance in stronger focus
 

This year, as in the past, educational experts, E-learning providers and further education practitioners are invited to participate in the congress programme. In terms of applications, specific practical examples of social media and mobile learning have significantly increased compared to the previous year.
Separated into five parallel streams – didactics, management, technology, specials and workshops – over 100 speakers are dealing with subjects such as media convergence, blended learning, educational evaluation, augmented reality, cloud learning and virtual classrooms.
Leading industry thinkers such as Hannes Schwaderer (Intel GmbH in Germany), Stefanie Waehlert (VZ Netzwerke Ltd.), Oskar Heer (Daimler AG) and Professor Dr. Brendan Tangney have been attracted as keynote speakers.

Specialist trade fair: new amusement park for serious games

Mobile learning, serious games and social media form the centrepiece of the specialist trade fair. The focus is also on the areas of trainers and coaches, age-specific and lifelong learning. In the educational forum, the expert audience can expect specialist presentations and three public keynotes. In the customer forum, the trade fair visitors can get up to speed with best practice reports and success stories told directly by the exhibitors on the subject of successful implementation of E-learning in companies. 200 further education and E-learning providers are presenting their products and services at the event.

The SpinnerSuite provides an opportunity for interaction. In the form of a workshop, visitors are here able to discuss and deliberate new trends in learning with digital media. In the "Trade Fair Interactive War Room", the participants' suggestions for content are collected and then discussed in the "De-Acceleration Room", where these suggestions are also expanded upon.

The visitors to the trade fair also have the opportunity to become interactive in the Games@Learntec amusement park. The label, developed specifically for the Learntec fair, is devoted to the area of serious games or learning through play. A range of activities is on offer in three sub-areas: in the gaming area, you can play and try out serious games. In the users' forum, experts report about their practical experience; and at the LevelUp! “An-Congress”, game developers, designers and young talents present new developments from the serious games industry in short presentations.

MFG Innovation Agency: creative further education in Baden-Württemberg

The MFG Innovation Agency for ICT and Media is a Partner of the Learntec fair and is also represented as an exhibitor in the dm Arena on stand F12. MFG is presenting its further education provision MFG Akademie and MFG @kademie. This programme complements seminars and network meetings on topics such as marketing, E-learning, social media and mobile internet with live online seminars with a virtual classroom. In the case of blended-learning courses, face-to-face and online seminars are combined with one another. On the MFG Akademie collaborative learning platform, the participants can discuss seminar content, upload documents or share lists of links.

MFG is also presenting the results from the SVEA project, financed by the European Commission's "Lifelong Learning" Programme, as well as the INNOTRAIN IT training initiative. As part of SVEA, an online training programme with ten training modules has been developed on the subject of use of Web 2.0 instruments in adult education. Moreover, Web 2.0 guidelines for trainers and seminar leaders, and the MFG Akademie learning platform have been developed.

The INNOTRAIN IT project supports the IT managers of small and medium-sized companies with a training platform unique in Europe designed to optimise IT processes. The online platform complements the free-of-charge face-to-face training sessions, which communicate how to apply IT service management (ITSM) in your own company, as well as how to model business processes and realise IT innovations through change processes. As part of the initiative, which commenced in autumn 2011 and runs until March 2013, ITSM training is being offered to over 1,000 IT managers across Europe.

MFG Innovation Agency is looking forward to the visitors to its stand and therefore warmly invites those interested to attend the specialist trade fair. Simply register in the Learntec ticket shop with the ticket code LT12MFG and print out the entrance voucher / confirmation of registration.