Organisers of the annual Media & Learning Conference held this year on 20-21 November in Brussels are happy to announce the names of their first 2 confirmed plenary speakers. The first is Lord David Puttnam, renowned independent producer of award-winning films, Chancellor of the Open University and champion of the creative arts in education. He will be joined by Stephen Howell, Academic Engagement Manager from Microsoft who is a passionate defender of teaching programming to pupils from an early age.

The Media & Learning Association launched a Special Interest Group on Lecture Capture and Video Use in Higher Education. Next week on Thursday 6 March 2014 a first webinar will be organised by the new SIG, the session will explore video based lecture capture systems in higher education from the student perspective and will ask whether there are any real and tangible improvements in terms of student performance or satisfaction rates through the use of Lecture Capture.

MEDEAnet is very glad to announce a new webinar series for the 2014 winter & spring season. The first webinar will be held on 23 January and will bring together some finalists and winners of the MEDEA Awards 2013, this annual competition around good practices on producing and using educational media attracted 342 entries from 37 countries. Presented will be the Award winning entry  "dans les murs de la Casbah...": a visually rich web documentary which offers a new and interactive exploration of the legendary Casbah district of Algiers and finalist "Practice Your Music", an innovative application that helps you practice with your musical instrument in a fun, active and easy way.

With the inclusion of 3 new members, MFG in Germany, Association for Academic E-learning in Poland and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain, the association now counts 18 members in 10 different European Countries. Most members will be represented at the annual AGM which will take place on 13 December during the Media & Learning Conference. During the AGM plans for 2014 will be presented and discussed. During this AGM only members can vote however the meeting is open to anyone attending the conference who would like to join.